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• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Commentary

  Real science is excellent science – how to interpret post-academic science, Mode 2 and the ERC

  by Helga Nowotny

  When thinking about this contribution, an homage to John Ziman, one question occurred to me repeatedly: what would John have made of the European Research Council? Here is a newly established institution with the sole objective to fund ‘frontier research’ at EU level, based exclusively on scientific excellence and subject to pan-European competition of the best researchers. Would he have interpreted it as a vindication of academic science as a culture, a deliberate turning away from ‘post-academic science’ or even of overcoming it? Or, would he have seen it as the establishment of a small niche, to be recognized (and praised) for its respect for the norms of academic science, whose wider impact still has to be seen?

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Article

  Apriti Cielo: the public’s astronomical imagery as a key to evaluate a museum project

  by Stefano Giovanardi

  An effective communication of astronomy cannot take place without considering the view the general public has on the universe. Through a number of narrative interviews with non-experts, a research was carried out on personal cosmologies, to outline the public’s heterogeneous astronomical imagery. The result is a bundle of conceptions, perceptions and attitudes which are useful to interpret the difficulties the public experiences when facing the contents of astrophysics, and to establish an ongoing dialogue.

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Commentary

  John Ziman

  by Pietro Greco

  What pushed His Excellency Enrico Fermi, acclaimed Academician of Italy entitled to a state car and driver, to leave Italy all of a sudden in December 1938 in order to reach New York, after a short stop in Stockholm for the ceremony that celebrated him as a Nobel laureate for physics, and to accept a job as a simple physics lecturer at the Columbia University?

  An eloquent and persuasive Mr. Smee

  by Erio Tosatti

  An insider’s view on science and society. Re-reading John Ziman

  by Ana María Vara

  Real science is excellent science – how to interpret post-academic science, Mode 2 and the ERC

  by Helga Nowotny

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Commentary

  An eloquent and persuasive Mr. Smee

  by Erio Tosatti

  John Ziman with his old-fashioned ways, was a real British gentleman of the colonies. Born and raised in New Zealand, Ziman belonged to that large group of men and women that went back to their fathers’ land in the last century from the Commonwealth countries. In many cases, they were individuals with an outstanding intellect and, therefore, a real tresure trove for Great Britain, which drew from those remote places not only gems, tea, perfumes and raw materials, but also enlightened minds and reliable personalities.

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Editorial

  Systematically sceptical

  by Pietro Greco

  One can no longer rely on the presumption that scientists comply with the Mertonian value of disinterest and assume that they always tell the truth when spreading the results of their research projects. This can be rightly considered as the gist of the four-page report submitted to the board of the American journal Science by the committee chaired by the chemist John Brauman, from the Stanford University, and comprising three members from the Senior Editorial Board of the same journal, two eminent biologists specialised in stem cell research and a top editor from the other major general press medium of the Republic of Science, the British journal Nature.

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Dec 21, 2006 Category: Article

  Challenges of an exhibit on nanoscience and nanotechnology

  by Sandra Murriello , Djana Contier , Marcelo Knobel

  This article presents some of the challenges faced in developing an interactive exhibit on nanoscience and nanotechnology in Brazil. Presenting a scientific-technological area which is still in formation and which is little known by the population leads to a (re)consideration of the role of museums and science centers in the conformation and consolidation of scientific practice itself. Museographically, the exhibit deals with the challenge of making matter visible in an expression which is distant from the human perception. Some reflections are presented here on the option of musealization chosen which come from a broader evaluation of the exhibit.

  Volume 5 • Issue 04 • 2006

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2006 Category: Article

  Through which medium should science information professionals communicate with the public: television or the internet?

  by Cees M. Koolstra , Mark J.W. Bos , Ivar E. Vermeulen

  Science information professionals need to make choices through which media they want to communicate with the public. In reaching large audiences outside the domain of formal diffusion of knowledge, the choice may be between the old medium television and the new medium Internet. It seems that general scientific research is focused more and more on the Internet as a favorite means for information exchange and that the old mass medium television plays only a minor role. But when we look at (1) how the public spends their leisure time on television and the Internet, (2) how effective these media are in transferring information, and (3) how much these media are trusted as reliable sources of information, the old medium television should still be regarded as the number one medium to be used for science communication, although there are some limitations for its use.

  Volume 5 • Issue 03 • 2006

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2006 Category: Article

  The germs of terror – Bioterrorism and science communication after September 11

  by Maria Chiara Montani

  The attacks of September 11 2001 and in particular, the sending of letters containing anthrax spores the following October had a profound effect on society, and at the same time on science and its communicative mechanisms. Through a quanto-qualitative analysis of articles taken from four publications: two daily newspapers, the Corriere della Sera from Italy and the New York Times from the United States and two science magazines, Science and Nature, we have shown how the aforementioned events provoked the emergence of media attention regarding bioterrorism. A closer reading of the articles shows that today, science – including that found in science magazines – is closely related to politics, economics and the debate over the freedom to practice communicate. The very mechanisms of communication between scientists were changed as a result of this debate, as can be seen from the signing of the Denver Declaration in February 2003, which brought about the preventative self-censorship of publication of biomedical research findings.

  Volume 5 • Issue 03 • 2006

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2006 Category: Editorial

  The world, out there

  by Pietro Greco

  The Royal Society published in late June a report entitled «Science Communication. Survey of factors affecting science communication by scientists and engineers». It is an in-depth survey on the communication addressed to non-specialist audiences that was carried out interviewing a wide and representative sample of UK scientists and engineers.

  Volume 5 • Issue 03 • 2006

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2006 Category: Commentary

  The role of institutional science communication

  by Mauro Scanu

  In last times scientific PR activities are increased by number and quality. Especially in United States and, more recently, in Europe all the most important research institutions and universities have been equipped with communication officers able to circulate their own information through mass media. This is undoubtedly a positive news for science. In spite of this, it’s necessary to think about which effects can be created by marketing activity on scientific communication. In this commentary we asked some scientific professionals to tackle these problems from different points of view.

  EurekAlert! survey confirms challenges for science communicators in the post-print era

  by Ginger Pinholster and Catherine O’Malley

  The third party in the media–research relationship

  by Peter Green

  Selling science in a soap selling style?

  by Holger Wormer

  Let’s work together

  by Neil Calder

  Volume 5 • Issue 03 • 2006