Public engagement is increasingly recognised as an essential activity for scientists. Effective public engagement is a two-way street. One direction encourages dissemination of scientific results and their implications. The other encourages shaping of research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations. There are many challenges in both directions, including (but not limited to) negotiating the trade-offs between detail, accuracy, and accessibility. Nor is public engagement just about results. It is also about how science works, or how it ought to work, and how it is part of wider society. I will share some lessons learned from my own public engagement experience in neuroscience and consciousness research, covering public talks, art-science collaborations, podcasts and media, and more. I hope to provide both practical guidance and wider context that will help scientists become not only better communicators, but – in the process – better scientists too.
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