One of my publications is:
Taber, K. S. (2007) Documentaries can only mean one thing, Physics Education, 42 (1), pp.6-7
This was the Reflections on Teaching and Learning Physics column for the issue.
Taster:
When teaching we try to stress the status of the ideas we present. Some scientific principles and theories are well grounded in evidence, but others – like the big bang or causes of major extinctions – are only feasible explanations based on current understanding.
Yet, with some exceptions, TV tends to gloss over this central feature of science…
This notion of certainty in TV science undermines the efforts of teachers to help students appreciate the nature of science and the excitement of fields where so much is still to be learned (often those most likely to feature in documentaries). The approach is summed up by the phrase 'this can only mean'. This is a favourite expression of science documentary makers…but is seldom close to being justified by any single scientific observation or measurement. Even when the scientists themselves are suitably tentative in their language, the script may present their ideas as being definitive…
The full article is available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9120/42/1/F01
