Our first Science and Society lecture covered a history of science communication. For many of us, considering the history was surprising; we’ve got so used to scicomm being a cutting-edge interdisciplinary mess that following the trail of people who led us here hasn’t crossed our minds.

While a lot of familiar faces and names appeared on the timeline, such as Darwin, Galileo, and the Royal Institution, a lot of supporting roles were unexpected. Also, the amount of progress made between the 1500s and 1600s was astounding.