Sometimes in science we fail to communicate effectively. As I try to tell colleagues and friends what I do in the lab, I'm reminded of a germane quote. In the film Cool Hand Luke, Luke refuses to submit to the system in a Florida prison camp. After many raucous encounters with Luke, the outraged prison warden concludes: “What we've got here is failure to communicate.

I talk about science with colleagues, friends and family every day. Science can be regarded as a separate language, replete with its own vocabulary, syntax and usage. When I share this language with colleagues, no translation is needed. But with friends and family, I have to translate to be fully understood.

Take my PhD thesis. When co-workers asked what the title would be, I could say: “High-resolution genome-wide mapping of the yeast transcription machinery”.

Implicit in this is my use of a method of chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by hybridization to microarrays or high-throughput sequencing for “high-resolution genome-wide mapping”.

But when my family asked the same question, I had to say, “I study how your cells control what genes are turned on and off.”

Having found it's not easy to explain my research in either the untranslated or translated version, I've learned a valuable lesson. Regardless of the intended audience, being clear and concise pays off if you want to be understood.