According to filmmaker/biologist Randy Olson, most scientists don't know how to tell a story.

Olson, who was a tenured professor of marine biology at the University of New Hampshire before earning his graduate degree in film at the University of Southern California, is trying to change that by bringing Hollywood storytelling techniques to the scientific community. At Cornell Sept. 18-21 as part of his "Sizzling Dodos" college tour, Olson was on hand for the screenings of several of his movies -- including "Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy" and "Flock of Dodos" -- and he presented the lecture, "Don't Be SUCH a Scientist: Trying to Slay the Beast of Boredom," at the Cornell-affiliated Museum of the Earth.

In a Communicating Science workshop Sept. 20, Olson led about 30 graduate and postdoctoral students in scientific fields through a series of improvisational games designed to make their thought process less "cerebral." Dividing the participants into six groups, he asked each group to take a press release on an environmental issue, such as nuclear power or earthquake safety, and come up with an idea for a punchy public service announcement (PSA) that conveyed the message of the press release quickly and effectively.

The key to a successful PSA, Olson said, is to "arouse and fulfill." First, get your audience's attention. Then deliver a powerful message. The most effective PSAs, he said, rely on images, rather than words, to get their messages across.

"People remember the image," Olson said. "The acid test for any PSA is: Can you play it for your friends with the volume turned off, and they'll still get the message?"

As each group pitched their ideas to him, one group tried to convey that nuclear power is clean and safe. They suggested showing a radioactive isotope trying -- and failing -- to escape from the core, which would illustrate the many layers of safety in place to prevent such catastrophes.

"We start out with your classic nuclear power cooling tower, and we zoom in through all these layers of really thick concrete, and finally you see these two CGI (computer-generated image) characters that are both glowing green," one group member explained. "And one of them is trying to escape. But he can't because of all the layers."

Olson was intrigued, though he expressed uncertainty about animating a radioactive atom. "It's hard to make unlikeable characters," he warned. "You don't want to make a PSA that people will turn off."

Olson also reminded students that simple messages are more effective than complex ones. He gave the example of a PSA he made with comedian Jack Black, in which Black and other comedians play instruments in hilariously bad fashion as a simple metaphor for the disarray in the oceans.

"The logic is kind of crummy," Olson acknowledged. But the video conveyed that "something's wrong with the oceans, and sometimes that's all you need to get across."

For Olson, drawing people's attention to broader issues often takes precedence over being scientifically exact. Many scientists have criticized the film "The Day After Tomorrow," which addressed the problem of global warming, for being factually inaccurate. But in Olson's view, the film's success at the box office overshadows these details.

"The science was cockamamie," he said, "but at least it got across the message that something's wrong with the climate."

Olson's visit, which also included meeting with student groups at Cornell, Ithaca College and Ithaca and Dryden high schools, was hosted by the 2011 Atkinson Forum in American Studies.

Elisabeth Rosen '12 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.