Science with a Smile?

In its "Scientist at Work" series, the New York Times turns its attention to Dr. Randy Olson, who traded an academic career in science for one in filmmaking. Olson, who blogs about the oceans at Shifting Baselines, has recently completed a documentary called "Flock of Dodos," which examines the evolution/intelligent design debate and the challenge it presents to scientists. As Cornelia Dean writes in the Times, when Olson, an evolutionary biologist who, needless to say, thinks ID is a crock, "watches the advocates of intelligent design at work, he sees pleasant people who speak plainly, convincingly and with humor. When scientists he knows talk about evolution, they can be dour, pompous and disagreeable, even with one another. His film challenges them to get off their collective high horse and make their case to ordinary people with — if they can muster it — a smile."

What do you think? Should scientists be active, civic-minded ambassadors for their own ideas? Or should they stay holed-up in their ivory towers and let the rest of us try to suss out where the truth lies based on whatever we can glean from the news media? What do they risk (or gain) by weighing in on public debate?