This volume brings together a selection of papers originally presented at the PRIN Conference on “The Popularization of Scientific discourse in a Changing world: Lexical and Stylistic Choices Past and Present” in Lecce on 26-27 January 2012 which aimed at investigating the implications of popularization within a broad spectrum of disciplines and from diverse methodological approaches. It includes in-depth studies covering a wide range of genres and fields and addresses both the reader approaching the topic for the first time as indeed the scholar wishing to gain insight into the various sociolinguistic issues at stake.