Hello and welcome to Backchat. If the Nature podcast is the abstract of a science paper, then Backchat is a feisty banner written all in capital letters. This month we're tackling scientific writing, the march for science and biases in artificial intelligence. I'm Kerry Smith and I'm joined in London by David Adam.

Hello, Kerry. I edit the editorials pages.

And Davide Castelveci.

Hello, I'm a physics and mathematics writer.

And on the line from his home in South London is nature contributor and backchat newbie, Phil Ball.

Hello, Kerry. I'm a science writer, freelance science writer and I used to be an editor at nature.

Wonderful.

Now, coming up in the show, scientists and science fans alike will take to the streets around the world this weekend in the March for Science.

But not everyone in the scientific community has been cheerleading.

Humans are full of biases and so are the artificially intelligent systems we build.

How can we, the builders, avoid biasing our creations?

Plus, it's not just you.

Scientific language in research papers is definitely getting harder to read.

What does this say about the authors and what implications does it have?

Now, first this month, taking place tomorrow, we're recording this on Friday, is the March for Science.

David Adam, for anyone not familiar, what is the March for Science and why has it been organised?

I think it depends who you ask.

Certainly the organisers of the March for Science would like to say that it is a very broad support

for the principles of science, for the scientific method, for the importance of science.

It certainly started out as a Washington DC event and then it sort of snowballed and there's

now over 500, I believe, that are going to take place almost

simultaneously around the world.

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