Science and its Publics

Alice R. Bell holds degrees in History of Science and Sociology of Education, and is currently a research student in the Science Communication Group, Imperial College London, where she also lectures on science and the media. She has worked widely in science communication, chiefly with young audiences. She is in the final stages of a PhD entitled Science as Pantomime: Explorations in Contemporary Children's Non-fiction Books, which focuses on the Horrible Science series. In addition to her interest in child/science relationships, she has published on anachronism and time travel in contemporary culture, branding in children's literature, and the analysis of social boundaries.Sarah R. Davies has degrees in Biochemistry and Science Communication, and a PhD examining "the public" of scientists' talk and public engagement events. She has worked in exhibition development at London's Science Museum and has taught science undergraduates about science communication at Imperial College London. Her publications include theoretical and empirical analyses of informal public dialogue events and descriptions of the complexity of scientists' talk about science, the public, and communication. Based at Durham University's Institute of Hazard and Risk Research, she is currently working on a project looking at lay ethics of nanotechnology. Her research interests include public engagement, informal science dialogue processes, and the use of the ethnography of speaking as a means of closely analysing discourse.Felicity Mellor is a Lecturer in Science Communication at Imperial College London. She holds a PhD in theoretical physics and now works on the critical analysis of public science, especially popularisations of the physical sciences. Her most recent research has looked at the promotion of asteroids as threatening objects and the narrative continuity between this and the militarisation of space. Her research has been published in the journals Social Studies of Science and Public Understanding of Science.