Once upon a time it was fair to say that most people knew little of science. After all, scientists spent years learning their job so it’s clearly tough-going and, by and large, the rest of the world could get by knowing nothing of superconductivity or the origins of the universe. But increasingly our daily lives have come to be dominated by science, and part of that revolution has been the ever-expanding reach of television and the Internet as sources of information. It’s as though, unwittingly, we’ve all signed up to the Open University. And, it should be said, when it comes to science this has all been helped by a growing awareness among those in the trade that they have an obligation to let the world know how they while away their days.