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• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Commentary

  Knowledge sharing for sustainable development through biodiversity conservation in the Mesoamerican region

  by Topiltzin Contreras-MacBeath

  As recognized by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the human community has reached a point in which it is faced with an array of choices that will determine the quality of our lives and the state of the global environment for present and future generations. One possibility is that at long last we will pave a path toward environmental stewardship and sustainable development. But it is also quite possible that we will travel a less enlightened course, running down the earth's natural capital and severely limiting the choices our descendants will face.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Article

  Genetics and biotechnologies in Italian mass media

  by Silvio Mini

  Several researchers operating in the sociological field have recently theorised that genetics and biotechnologies are at the core of the public perception of science. The present study aims at verifying empirically whether or not this is mirrored in Italian mass media, as well as at analysing the topics most frequently present in Italian newspapers and the economic and editorial reasons behind the results of editorial choices. Besides, it provides statistics about the major Italian newspapers published in the last third of 2002. This period has been chosen because some important news was published in December: it consequently offered the chance to carry out a long-term analysis as well as a study of the most important differences - in content and editorial lay-out - between scientific articles which are published in the appropriate sections inside the newspaper and those which make the front page. Ours are going to be purely quantitative considerations; but, from the point of view of the content, the data are sufficient to identify various narrative currents. These currents could be the object of further research on the frames used to contextualize the news and the reasons (anthropological, socio-cultural and editorial) for the way they are used by editorial staffs.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Commentary

  Knowledge sharing (or a life of knowledge sharing)

  by Faustino Siñeriz

  I have been involved in College education since my days as a student in the Universidad de Buenos Aires. At that time, 1960, I helped to teach the course of Scientific Russian given in the Faculty of Sciences; strange as it might seem, the aim of the course was to allow the students to use scientific books especially in the area of Physics and Mathematics.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Focus

  What type of Science Communication best suits emerging countries?

  by Pietro Greco

  If we wish to attempt an initial analysis of the inquiry on the communication of science in Brazil, India and China that JCOM proposed in its three most recent issues, we should paraphrase Chinese science and science-fiction writer, Yan Wu: even though these three countries are emerging in the fields of economy and science, and are now part of a wide group of communicators, promoting numerous methods to divulge information, they don't yet have a sound theory on the communication of science to the public. This is not an insignificant problem because according to David Dickson, the director of SciDev.Net, democratic dialogue on scientific matters is crucial to modern societies. However, it is difficult to propose the highest possible level of democratic dialogue on science topics without having a sound theory about the communication of science. In addition, the difficulties increase in those countries where developing economies and systems of science are both new and impetuous, as is the case of Brazil, India and China.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Commentary

  Communication for development. An Indian experience

  by Subbiah Arunachalam

  "Knowledge and information are essential for people to respond successfully to the opportunities and challenges of social, economic and technological changes (...). But to be useful, knowledge and information must be effectively communicated to people", says the Food and Agricultural Organization. India is home to a number of ICT-enabled development initiatives, and we will look at one of them to learn how an effective communication strategy is used.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Editorial

  Amphibious Environments in Science Communication

  by Yuri Castelfranchi

  The historian Marshall Berman wrote that living in modern times means "to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation [...] and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know".

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Article

  The rotten, the disembowelled woman, the skinned man. Body images from Eighteenth century Florentine wax modelling

  by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

  Florence's La Specola Museum stirs up strong emotions. Among its collections, the valuable anatomical wax models created between the end of 17th and the beginning of 18th century stand out owing to their marvellous and provocative nature. The aim of this essay is to analyse the communication models epitomised by some of these works by means of historical semiotics, to nourish the widespread, but often underestimated assumption that science and the means used to spread it have always been influenced by intellectual suppositions and constantly interact with contemporary culture.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2005 Category: Commentary

  Scaling up communication of scientific information to rural communities

  by Kong Luen Heong , Monina Escalada

  A wide gap exists between what scientists and rural farmers know. The rapid advancements in digital technology are likely to widen this gap even further. At the farmers' level, this knowledge gap often translates into poor and inefficient management of resources resulting in reduced profits and environmental pollution. Most modern rice cultivars can easily yield more than 5 tons per hectare when well managed, but millions of farmers often get less than 5 tons using the same production inputs.

  Volume 4 • Issue 03 • 2005

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2005 Category: Editorial

  Ratzinger and science (communication)

  by Pietro Greco

  The death of Pope John Paul II, the "Polish pope", in Rome and the subsequent election of Benedict XVI, the "German pope", have been two great events gaining world-wide media coverage and affecting the whole world. This was due to Karol Wojtyla's ability to reach everyone's heart ­ thus once dubbed the "Great Communicator" ­ and to the Vatican's spiritual, cultural, and political influence all over the world. The death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI also concern science and science communication issues.

  Volume 4 • Issue 02 • 2005

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2005 Category: Article

  Youth and Science in Italy: between enthusiasm and indifference

  by Adriana Valente , Maria Carolina Brandi , Loredana Cerbara , Maura Misiti

  The image and perception of science and of scientists is a crucial topic, above all with regards to younger generations, the human capital of the future. For this reason, the National Research Council (CNR), in 2004, asked the IRPPS institute (Istituto di ricerche sulla popolazione e le politiche sociali) to carry out a sample survey of 800 people between the ages of 18 and 29 on the topic. Science and new technology emerged as the topics of most interest, in addition to medicine, history and economics. Scientific content in the mass media is considered to be satisfactory, whereas education in the field of science is considered to be less than satisfactory, above all in relation to the work environment. However, if research in Italy seems weak in the eyes of young people, scientists are not seen the same way but are considered society's second most important profession after that of the entrepreneur. The problem of trust in science is due, above all, to the politics of research, which do not encourage adequate investment in public and private sectors. A factor analysis technique was applied in order to identify models of attitude towards science of various subgroups within the population.

  Volume 4 • Issue 02 • 2005