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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: Commentary

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

  by Ana María Vara

  A physicist. That is what John Ziman was in the beginning. As he tells us in “On being a physicist,” this implies a kind of nationality, that is, a laboriously learned identity that, at the end of the day, becomes natural. Physics was for him a way of seeing and a way of thinking, inextricably embedded in his own being: “a deeply rooted mode of personal existence.”

  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: 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: Commentary

  The third party in the media–research relationship

  by Peter Green

  If Europe is to become a knowledge–based economy1 knowledge must be freely available in Europe. The results of research across Europe can not be left inside laboratories and libraries. It has to available to the citizens, young people and commerce of Europe. And the main source of information for all these groups is the mass media, yet large parts of European research do not allocate sufficient importance to media relations.

  Volume 5 • Issue 03 • 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: Commentary

  Selling science in a soap selling style?

  by Holger Wormer

  It’s hard to be a science journalist these days. Still tired because of the “Long night of Science“ (probably the 6th during this summer) he or she is informed about the next “Children’s University days” and another “girls day” coming soon – alongside the daily zapping through the 50 press releases of the informationsdienst wissenschaft1 (are there really 50 newsworthy things happening every day in the labs of every European country?), not to speak of the dozens of press packages and glossy brochures of the pharmaceutical industry as well as the test kits of new products like a tongue cleaner (of which the phenomenal results are – of course – “scientifically proved”). In 2006 a journalist sometimes would wish that science communicators would communicate a little bit less – giving himself a little bit more time to find his own stories – just by himself.

  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

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2006 Category: Commentary

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

  by Ginger Pinholster , Catherine O’Malley

  An informal, online survey of 1,059 reporters and public information officers, conducted this year by EurekAlert! (www.eurekalert.org), the science-news Web service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), seems to confirm key challenges associated with communicating science in a post-print, increasingly multi-media-focused era. As many newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other regions continue to down-size, reporters still covering science and technology say they increasingly need good-quality images, as well as rapid access to researchers capable of making science more understandable to lay audiences. The EurekAlert! findings, released 16 August during the Euroscience Open Forum 2006 meeting in Munich, Germany, suggest that beyond the predictable reporter concerns of learning about breaking research news before the competition or the public, top concerns for today’s reporters are “finding researchers who can explain science,” and “obtaining photographs or other multimedia to support the story.” Judging the trustworthiness or integrity of scientific findings while avoiding “hype” also emerged as key concerns for 614 reporters who participated in the EurekAlert! survey, along with 445 public information officers.

  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