Word is out.

Have you ever seen Dr. David Inouye trap a hummingbird? You can. Just find the Rocky Mountain PBS online video “Gothic’s Outdoor Science Lab.” Thanks to programs like this, anyone can tune in and watch science happen. Media coverage of RMBL research puts science news in front of non-scientists. And the more non-scientists see how science affects their lives, the more they’re motivated to support it. Or even advocate for it.

For this reason, getting the word out to the public is critically important. Happily, this past year was a good one for RMBL’s media exposure. In the list of the 2024 media coverage that follows, RMBL is publicized by the Associated Press, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, and MSNBC, among other mainstream outlets.

Such exposure matters because the world needs to know the climate change information that RMBL uniquely delivers. It takes decades to see how plants, animals, and weather patterns are changing over time. This is what RMBL offers — observations of environmental changes and their effects over many decades. Dr. Inouye has been studying the timing of the spring emergence of flowers, hummingbirds, bees, and more for over half a century.

Findings in studies like this are automatically shared with the science community. But the public needs to know, too. Dr. Inouye believes that scientists have the responsibility to make sure that their results get published widely. He actively seeks opportunities to broaden the impact of RMBL research.

When he heard about the Colorado Experience program produced by Rocky Mountain PBS, he wrote to one of the editors asking if they were interested in a story about biology. The result is the PBS documentary that premiered online this fall. When the film crew came to RMBL, they ended up filming other scientists and their work, including Dr. Blumstein’s marmot project and Dr. Caitlin Wells’ study of ground squirrels.

Dr. Inouye stays engaged with media. He’s published articles in Natural History magazine and regularly writes for The Crested Butte News, Crested Butte Magazine, and Gunnison Country Times. Another scientist who leads by example is Dr. Howard Whiteman, who’s written for local newspapers.

Even the National Science Foundation is pushing researchers for more media engagement. Grant proposals now require scientists to include how their findings will have a broader reach beyond just the scientific literature.

Dr. Inouye hopes that RMBL scientists will take the opportunity to find a larger audience. “Some people don’t realize all the potential benefits that can come from spreading the word about what they’re doing,” he says.

And RMBL’s an easy sell. Part of what attracted National Geographic to feature RMBL in 2023 was the photogenic nature of the science subjects, not to mention the magnificent setting.

RMBL may be one of science’s best kept secrets, but that is changing. Shine a light on RMBL research, and you enlighten society itself.

David Inouye is a Principal Investigator at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he taught courses in conservation biology, ecology, and the interplay between science and the media. He does research each summer at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, where the National Science Foundation funds his long-term work on the phenology, pollination, and demography of wildflowers. The data he has collected there since 1973 are providing insight into the effects of global and regional climate change, particularly on the phenology and abundance of flowering. David is on the Steering Committee of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Endangered Species Coalition, and governing boards of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, the Endangered Species Coalition, and Hummingbird Conservation Networks.