I used to be really excited to explain my research to people who asked when I first started graduate school. After awhile I got sick of seeing their interest wane after all of 10 seconds. Nowadays when I am asked what my research is I usually just give a couple of words as an answer (usually some buzzword such as "DNA" or "cancer" or "cancer genes").

The problem is this. How are scientists supposed to explain cutting edge research to the public when the public doesn't even have an understanding of the basics. How is an RNA enzyme specialist supposed to explain their work to a public that doesn't even understand what DNA does. It's very easy to say, "scientists need to learn to communicate better," but the actual task of doing that is the hard part. It's like trying to explain calculus to someone who doesn't understand addition rules, or explaining shakespeare to someone who can't read. Until we find a better way to educate the public at the primary levels about the basics there will be no way to bridge that gap.