In this article, the popular science is seen as production of an "esoteric" circle constituted by scientists and journalists and comprehended in terms of intercollective communication of ideas, i. e., by the exchange of information that occurs between the "esoteric" circle and the "exoteric" circle of non specialists. I try to characterize the conditions of production of the popular scientific text using categories of Discourse Analysis and Fleck's epistemology. I also argue the implications of the mediations that occur when the popular scientific text is produced and introduced in science classroom later. Finally, I discuss the possibility that those mediations might constitute obstacles for the formal scientific concepts learning. In order to accomplish it, the relations between the context of production and meaning making of popular scientific text are considered in the reading process.
popular science; discourse analysis; Fleck; science teaching.