Scientists are challenging the idea that uncertainty in research is a reason for people to worry about the reliability of findings.
Researchers use uncertainty to express how confident they are in results, or to describe the boundaries of what is known and unknown, but in everyday language uncertainty is heard as ‘unreliable’.
In a new guide, Making Sense of Uncertainty, Sense About Science worked with researchers in climate science, disease modelling, epidemiology, weather forecasting, and natural hazard prediction to explain why we should be relieved when scientists describe the uncertainties in their work. We asked them to tell us why it is that the uncertainty in these areas doesn’t worry them, and to share these insights to help people engage more constructively with debates about uncertainty.
