SCIENCE and scientists get a bad press more often than they receive a good one.

Perhaps that is because many of us prefer to live with our worries and fears rather than accept the quite astonishing benefits that science has contributed to contemporary civilisation.

There is also a natural nervousness about anything new or unknown. How many inventions seen to be dangerous in their own time are now accepted as an everyday fact of life?

What all this means is that it increasingly important for scientists to do their utmost to explain to the public at large what they do and why they do it.

This is particularly relevant to York, as one of the nation's six science cities, because the development of science and technology-based businesses can only progress effectively within a supportive and understanding broader community.

We have long been particularly well provided for in this respect in York. Our own Science City, with partners, recently organised its ninth Festival Of Science And Technology as part of National Science Week.

There also are many other opportunities for public attendance at special lectures, such as the university's Open Course series; the Merchant Adventurers' Science Lecture; the lecture series of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society; and Caf Scientifique; to cite but a few.

However, the oldest and best-known UK organisation for the promotion of science to lay audiences is the British Association For The Advancement Of Science (BAAS) now known more simply as just "The BA". Founded here, in York, 175 years ago, it is now headed up by Sir Roland Jackson, its chief executive.

York's own Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) started in 1822 and has been more or less continuously involved since then in fostering public interest and study in all branches of the natural sciences, archaeology and history.

It was not long after the YPS itself was founded that it helped to create the BAAS, which had its first meeting in York in September 1881 and has organised annual meetings, with few breaks, ever since. Six of these subsequent meetings have been in York, including in 1981, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the formation of the BAAS.

The BA now exists to advance the understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. Next year, a year after the body's 175th anniversary, it will once again be returning to York for its annual Festival Of Science, one of the UK's biggest science festivals.

Steered by Professor Sir Ron Cooke, chairman of the York Advisory Board for the 2007 BA Festival Of Science And Technology, it will attract about 400 of the best scientists and science communicators from home and abroad. They will reveal the latest developments in research to general audiences during the week beginnning Monday, September 10, next year.

This annual meeting is of great importance to technology based businesses. Modern science is complex and needs to be interpreted to non-scientists. Wherever we look, be it global warming, junk foods, fossil fuels, new energy sources, stem cell research or personal security, the issues are never, ever, black and white.

We need scientists who can explain what they are doing to lay audiences and we also need the public at large to be helped to make a greater commitment to trying to understand key scientific issues.

This places emphasis and responsibility on the media, and it is in this respect that the BA's Festival Of Science is so important, because large numbers of science journalists attend the whole meeting and help relay its messages to general audiences.

An economy such as York's, which is increasingly dependent on knowledge-based businesses, needs also to have a well-educated, well-informed, and supportive community around it.

The BA Festival Of Science And Technology next year will be a great help in that endeavour. Watch this space for more information as the event approaches.