When thinking of celebrity culture, science may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But science and fame go hand in hand in School of Communication professor Declan Fahy’s new book “The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and into the Limelight.”
In the 1960s, media coverage skyrocketed into a powerful force for depicting scientists, according to Fahy. In his book, Fahy profiles eight scientists who have gained international attention beyond the scientific community for their work, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Brian Greene, and Susan Greenfield.
For his research, Fahy said he deliberately looked for the most prominent people in the scientific field to depict the various facets of celebrity. By reading everything these scientists published, watching all of their broadcasts and analyzing the critical writing of other scholars, Fahy pieced together a portrait of how society views them.
Just like any celebrity on television, his selection of celebrity scientists have their public and private lives merged together, use their image to sell something to the public and symbolize the abstract ideas of what they stand for: science itself.
As a professor and media researcher, Fahy’s interest in the impact of science in popular culture began when he was in college. Those initial studies still influence him as a professional to this day.
“Many of the people I’m writing about were writing in the mid-nineteen nineties when I was an undergrad studying journalism,” Fahy said. “Many of their writings helped me fall in love with science.”
The New Celebrity Scientists works to debunk the myth that science is simply meant to stay in laboratories or for the elite. Science, Fahy said, is a constant part of everyday life, and celebrities exist to help humanize that information.
“We live in a scientific culture,” Fahy said. “We are all affected by science. So as good citizens we need to have a real understanding of how science works.”
Fahy said he hopes that readers of his upcoming book can see the role of the celebrity not as a trivialization of culture, but as a key in helping the masses make sense of the world.
“If you don’t see yourself as scientific, my book will bring you into science in an accessible way,” he said.
In “The New Celebrity Scientists”, Fahy delves into the world of science through both a formal and personal lense, bringing the contemporary figures that are driving scientific discussion into the limelight.
“These scientists were a big part in shaping who I became as a researcher and writer. When you engage with the work of popular science, [it’s important] not just to see it as learning facts, but instead seeing [it as] a whole new way of looking at the world,” Fahy said.
