As I shuffle my tattered copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference across my desk, I ponder the messages in the light of our community effort to improve public understanding and perception of science. What spark will initiate a shift in our efforts to help us a reach a tipping point of understanding?

In The Tipping Point, Gladwell describes the work of Georgia Sadler. She discovered that she could most effectively promote a free screening program for breast cancer through networking with hair stylists… what an innovative idea! In fact I think this quote would resonate with us all:

Sadler didn’t go to the National Cancer Institute or the California State Department of Health and ask for millions of dollars to run some elaborate, multimedia public awareness campaign. She didn’t go door to door in the neighborhoods of San Diego, signing up women for free mammograms. She didn’t bombard the airwaves with a persistent call for prevention and testing. Instead she took the small budget that she had and thought about how to use it more intelligently. She changed the context of her message. She changed the messenger, and she changed the message itself. She focused her efforts.

The Tipping Point is a very quick and easy read with messages that impact and endure. Upon reading it, your entire viewpoint may shift on how we can achieve success in changing the image and perception of science and in renewing American concern for important matters that affect our economy and planetary health.

Where will we find our unlikely messengers?