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Image provided courtesy of Bob Lefkowitz and Randy Hall
Given the fact that I’ve been incorrectly portrayed in the media as both a sperm expert and gray hair guru, you might think that I would just stop talking to journalists. In truth, though, I think it’s very important for scientists to convey to the public the relevance of their research findings, because so much research is funded by taxpayer dollars. The public needs to know how their tax dollars are being spent, so it’s crucial for scientists to take the time to engage and explain. At the same time, it’s very important for scientists to avoid overhyping their work or Dr. Lefkowitz, hard at work overpromising potential benefits to the public. This is especially critical because there are politicians who are anti-science and seek to use any blatant overpromising as a cudgel to bash science and scientists. Thus, given the natural inclination of journalists to hype their articles, scientists actually need to undersell their research as much as possible when talking to the media, pointing out all the caveats, even though such efforts at understatement can often feel counterintuitive. Scientists who follow this advice will have smoother interactions with the media and hopefully avoid the fate of having their research distorted on news websites, social media, and television game shows.
References: 1. Parmentier M, Libert F, Schurmans S, Schiffmann S, Lefort A, Eggerickx D, Ledent C, Mollereau C, Gérard C, Perret J, Grootegoed A, Vassart G (1992) Expression of members of the putative olfactory receptor gene family in mammalian germ cells. Nature 355:453-5. 2. Hara MR, Kovacs JJ, Whalen EJ, Rajagopal S, Strachan RT, Grant W, Towers AJ, Williams B, Lam CM, Xiao K, Shenoy SK, Gregory SG, Ahn S, Duckett DR, Lefkowitz RJ (2011) A stress response pathway regulates DNA damage through 2-adrenoreceptors and -arrestin-1. Nature 477:349-53.
Robert J. Lefkowitz is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist (Chemistry, 2012) who is best known for showing how adrenaline works via stimulation of specific receptors. He was trained at Columbia, the National Institutes of Health, and Harvard before joining the faculty at Duke University in 1973. In addition to being a researcher, Dr. Lefkowitz is a cardiologist as well as a cardiac patient. He has been honored by ASPET repeatedly; most recently, he was named in the 2019 inaugural class of ASPET Fellows. Dr. Lefkowitz has been an ASPET member since 1977 and is a member of the Divisions for Molecular Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
The Pharmacologist • December 2020
Randy Hall was a post-doctoral trainee of Dr. Lefkowitz in the 1990’s and is now a professor in the Emory University School of Medicine. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and received major awards for his research. He is also a prize-winning educator with strong interests in science writing and public outreach about science and medicine. Dr. Hall has been an ASPET member since 2001 is currently serving as a councilor on the ASPET Council. He is a member of the Divisions for Molecular Pharmacology, Drug Discovery and Development, and Neuropharmacology.