What "outreach" in science is

Outreach is a buzz term in academic science right now. Scientists have to publish. And they have to teach. Then there is service (e.g. committees and such). Outreach is now part of the service element. It doesn't need to be hard or sophisticated. Not only that, outreach can be general (to the public) and specific (to your peers). As an example of what I'm talking about Michael Eisen's blog is more aimed toward a broad audience, though on occasion he delves specifically into the science which is the bread and butter of his research. Haldane's Sieve is more tightly focused on researchers working at the intersection of evolution, genomics, and population genetics. But even it expands further out toward biologists who take an interest in specific evolutionary or genomic questions in their own research (e.g., I have known several molecular biologists who had no idea who wasbehindHaldane's Sieve, but had ...