Educate or communicate? It is a frequent experience. Once you make contact with the public to try and explain what you are doing in your laboratory or to discuss the interactions between scientists and non‐scientists, someone inevitably wags a verbal finger at you saying that “communication is needed, not education”. This assertion has turned into a truism over the years. I do not accept it. What are needed are both: education and communication. Behind the statement that it is inappropriate for scientists to behave as if they are educating the public lie many assumptions and an implicit control of information. It is true that any layperson can become completely conversant in a medical problem that affects his or her life. In this sense, the internet has democratized knowledge to the extent that today it is indeed inappropriate for scientists or physicians to regard themselves as the only custodians and sources of information. But the motivation to unearth this knowledge must be there in the first place—if you do not approach the oracle of Google then you will remain uninformed. Prior to the Internet …