No more than a few thousand people understand string theory. I couldn’t find an exact number, but there are very few.
Now, say you want to communicate about your string theory research.
You will almost always have to make a translation for your audience. Even for people with a PhD in physics, you will need to clarify some concepts.
String theory is an extreme example. But with other topics, the mechanism is similar.
That’s why we like to use the term ‘non-expert’ in our training courses. We ask our participants to make a storyline for a non-expert audience, for instance.
Why use the term ‘non-expert’, instead of, for instance, ‘lay person’? I can best explain this by distinguishing three types of audiences:
- People with your knowledge level (peers)
- People with quite some background knowledge, like a researcher from an adjacent field
- People with little background knowledge, like a high school student, or your grandpa
‘Non-expert’ refers to category 2 and 3, ‘lay person’ only applies to category 3. So, the term ‘non-expert’ subtly reminds you that even for people with some background knowledge, you still need to translate quite a lot. They are often more similar to people in category 3 than you think.
Regards,
Arnaud