landscapes of science communication
TRANSCRIPT
The evolving landscape of Science and Science Communication and the shape of things to come
EUSEA General Conference Jerusalem, May 2013
josé mariano gago
INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO Lisbon | Portugal
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As one reviewer of his extraordinary novel "Sostiene Pereira" (in English: "Pereira Maintains") rightly stated: «The novel might be read as a gloss on the dictum that “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”». The burning of the Città della Scienza brings back the old battlefield for freedom into our own life. Science has always been about doubt and truth, therefore about freedom, nothing else. I am afraid that we will have to fight for science and for freedom, as if for life itself. National stereotyping as the oldest precursor of hate and war is emerging everywhere. In many parts of the world, fanaticism is converting universities into battlefields. Some may risk being burned down. Are we doing enough to prevent war? Are we doing all we can to save science curiosity and freedom? 451 F, the supposed temperature of auto-ignition of paper, was rightly used as a banner for freedom. We should be reminded that burning down scientific curiosity is infinitely easier: it just takes the heat of hate, and the temperature of fear. To those friends and colleagues who invented, created and managed La Città della scienza, And to the children and families who made it alive, In friendship and solidarity José Mariano Gago Lisbon, March-April 2013
The Heat of Hate and the Temperature of Fear The criminal destruction a few weeks ago of La Città della scienza, the Science Centre of Naples, was not only a farcical, old fashioned vendetta-style action, but a clear sign of the shape of things to come - if we do not act collectively, bravely and quickly. "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." (K.Marx, Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon, 1852). However, reality seems even worse than predicted: tragedy repeats itself endlessly. And yes, there is a kind of horrible farce in those repetitions. How often have we seen books, paintings, science papers publicly burned? How often were their authors, or readers, or those who simply tried to think freely, burned alive? Many young people of my generation have been deeply moved by Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 or by Truffaut's film, and were democratically educated to abhor censorship. However, are we acting accordingly? Not many of today's readers have been struck by Antonio Tabucchi's recent plea for action. I am quoting Antonio Tabucchi, the Italian and Portuguese famous novelist, a friend I mourn and miss, because of Italy, his country that he loved as much as he despised its rampant fascist modern tendencies.
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Joan Solomon Science of the People: Understanding and using science in everyday contexts (Routledge, 2013) “Until her daughter, Bess, found the manuscript of this book, no one knew it existed. It has now posthumously been published. It is a great book - and a major contribution to the field of science education. How do people understand science? How do they feel about science, how do they relate to it, what do they hope from it and what do they fear about it? Science of the People: Understanding and using science in everyday contexts helps answer these questions as the result of painstaking interviewing by Professor Joan Solomon of all and sundry in a fairly typical small town in England. The result is a unique overview of how a very wide range of adults, united only by local geography, relate to science. Many of the findings run contrary to what is widely believed about how science is learnt and about how people view it.” (review by Michael Reiss)
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To Joan Solomon ( who died in 2009)
Leading Science Education Expert– STS mouvement
Open University UK – King’s College London – Oxford University - University of Plymouth
Lisbon XVI century Portuguese Jewish family – Amsterdam (“A Nação Portuguesa) – London
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Hero of Alexandria (Heron) (c. 60) described a principle of reflection, which stated that a ray of light that goes from point A to point B, suffering any number of reflections on flat mirrors, in the same medium, has a smaller path length than any nearby path. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), in his Book of Optics (1021), expanded the principle to both reflection and refraction, and expressed an early version of the principle of least time. His experiments were based on earlier works on refraction carried out by the Greek scientist Ptolemy. Pierre de Fermat The generalized principle of least time in its modern form was stated by Fermat in a letter dated January 1, 1662, to Cureau de la Chambre. It was met with objections made in May 1662 by Claude Clerselier, an expert in optics and leading spokesman for the Cartesians at that time. Amongst his objections, Clerselier states: ... Fermat's principle can not be the cause, for otherwise we would be attributing knowledge to nature: and here, by nature, we understand only that order and lawfulness in the world, such as it is, which acts without foreknowledge, without choice, but by a necessary determination. The original French, from Mahoney, is as follows: Le principe que vous prenez pour fondement de votre démonstration, à savoir que la nature agit toujours par les voies les plus courtes et les plus simples, n’est qu’un principe moral et non point physique, qui n’est point et qui ne peut être la cause d’aucun effet de la nature. Indeed Fermat's principle does not hold standing alone, we now know it can be derived from earlier principles such as Huygens' principle. Historically, Fermat's principle has served as a guiding principle in the formulation of physical laws with the use of variational calculus (see Principle of least action). Source: WIKIPEDIA Leibnitz first! Goethe (Faust I): “Faust: In the beginning was the Deed” < Im Anfang war die Tat!> (and the Devil appears)
Igreja de são domingos, lisboa
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1506 • A historiografia situa o início da matança
no Convento de São Domingos de Lisboa, no dia 19 de abril de 1506, um domingo, quando os fiéis rezavam pelo fim da seca e da peste que tomavam Portugal, e alguém jurou ter visto no altar o rosto de Cristo iluminado — fenómeno que, para os católicos presentes, só poderia ser interpretado como uma mensagem de misericórdia do Messias -‐ um milagre. Um cristão-‐novo que também par\cipava da missa tentou explicar que esse milagre era apenas o reflexo de uma luz, mas foi calado pela mul\dão, que o espancou até a morte.
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Uma das duas únicas gravuras sobreviventes ao Terramoto de Lisboa 1755 e ao incêndio da Torre do Tombo: “Von dem Christeliche – Streyt, kürtzlich geschehe – jm. M.CCCCC.vj Jar zu Lissbona – ein haubt stat in Por\gal zwischen en christen und newen chri – sten oder juden, von wegen des gecreutzigisten [sic] got.” (Da Contenda Cristã, que recentemente teve lugar em Lisboa, capital de Portugal, entre cristãos e cristãos-‐novos ou judeus, por causa do Deus Cruxificado
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36 40 33 36 32 26 29 30 42 42 24
37 42
36 32 23 38 31
26
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16 35 14 35
30 31 41
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
MEX (2007) CHL (2008) ZAF (2008)
CHN TUR POL ITA
GRC (2007) HUN NLD CZE
CHE (2008) SVK RUS LUX
EU27 ESP EST
OECD (2007) SVN IRL
DEU GBR BEL
AUS (2008) AUT
CAN (2008) FRA (2008)
PRT USA (2007) KOR (2008)
NOR JPN
SWE NZL (2007)
DNK FIN ISL
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Business enterprises
Higher education
Government
Private non-profit
Unclassified
Researchers by R&D performing sector, 2009 Per thousand employment
OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators Database, June 2011.
Women researchers as a percentage of total researchers
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GERD/GDP, 2000 and 2010
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Freeman Dyson, In Praise of Amateurs, in New York Review of Books, December 5, 2002 “When we look at the wider society outside the domain of science, we see amateurs playing essen9al roles in almost every field of human ac9vity. Amateur musicians create the culture in which professional musicians can flourish. Amateur athletes, amateur actors, and amateur environmentalists improve the quality of life for themselves and others. Amateur writers such as Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys do as much as the professionals Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky to plumb the heights and depths of human experience. In the most important of all human responsibili9es, the raising of children and grandchildren, amateurs do the lion’s share of the work. In almost all the varied walks of life, amateurs have more freedom to experiment and innovate. The frac9on of the popula9on who are amateurs is a good measure of the freedom of a society. Ferris shows us how amateurs are giving a new flavor to modern astronomy. We may hope that amateurs in the coming century, using the new tools that modern technology is placing in their hands, will invade and rejuvenate all of science. “
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Scientists, science educated professionals, technicians as well as amateurs, technology’ users, patients and their families,… as producers of (scientific) knowledge and as new scientific actors
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John ZIMAN (1925-‐2005)
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Math and Science Across Cultures: Activities and Investigations from the Exploratorium
by Maurice Bazin, Modesto Tamez, Exploratorium Teacher Institute (Compililation) Too often, the study of science, math, and technology is limited to the major successes of the Western world. Yet people all over the world have observed and explored nature and developed technologies to help them in their everyday lives. Math and Science Across Cultures, designed to help teachers, parents, and youth-group leaders use hands-on activities to explore the math and science of different cultural traditions, and to make these subjects more relevant and approachable for children of all backgrounds. With instructions in this book, you can: -- Construct a Brazilian carnival instrument and investigate the science of sound. -- Play a peg solitaire game from Madagascar and learn about mathematical patterns. -- Experiment with a traditionally prepared cup of Chinese tea and learn about energy flow. -- Count like an Egyptian, decipher Mayan mathematical symbols, and decode the ancient Inca number system of knotted cords.(less) Paperback, 1109 pages Published February 13th 2003 by New Press, The (first published December 2002)
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Maurice Bazin, S. Anderson, Ciência e (IN)Dependência, I and II Livros Horizonte, Lisbon (1977)
Plato (Meno, …Chomsky’s “Plato’s Problem”, …Theaetetus,…)
… J D Bernal
Frank Oppenheimer …
John Ziman Joan Solomon Paulo Freire
Maurice Bazin …
Freeman Dyson …
Paul Caro (La Roue des Sciences, Albin Michel ed., 1993) …
Science Fiction (HGWells, The Shape of things to Come) …
Detective Novel (the consultant detective as the popular scientist) “Do you see any clue?-You have furnished me with seven, but, of course, I must test them before I can
pronounce upon their value. - You suspect some one? -I suspect myself." What! - Of coming to conclusions too rapidly.“ (Sherlock Holmes in The Naval Treaty)
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Science for Peace SESAME | Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications
in the Middle East Major Capital Funding Agreed for SESAME At a meeting in Amman on 8 March 2012, representatives of four SESAME
Members (Iran, Israel, Jordan and Turkey) agreed to make voluntary contributions of US$5 million each towards the construction of SESAME over the four years 2012-15 .
The current Members of SESAME are Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, and Turkey.
Current Observers are France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Portugal, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
http://www.sesame.org.jo/sesame/
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CIÊNCIA VIVA – A Na\onal Agency for Scien\fic and Technological Culture A non-‐profit associa7on of research ins7tu7ons www.cienciaviva.pt
A network of 20 Science Centres. School experimental science projects (iniDated by science teachers), mostly in partnership with other ins\tu\ons (research labs and universi\es, associa\ons, etc) PracDcal research opportuniDes for high school students in research laboratories. Na\onal science events promo\ng a generous dialogue at a large scale among scien\sts, engineers and the general public (Astronomy in Summer, Geological field trips, Biolabs in the beach, Science in the Lighthouses, …) Science Cafés, namely in Parliament, enhancing dialogue about informed policy making and engaging MPs, scien\sts and industry.
Founded in Portugal in 1996, Ciência Viva developed into a na9onal movement for scien9fic and technological culture.
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An rapidly evolving landscape for Science and Technology The future of science and technology development policies seems to rely increasingly on the building up of extended social and political constituencies for science. The recent explosion of the number of students enrolled in higher education, as well as of the number of researchers, private and public funding and research output worldwide, should be changing our vision of the future of science and technology policies. Science communication, in the sense of the appropriation of the values, results and controversies of science by society, should be expected to play a new role as decision-making processes increasingly rely upon scientific expertise and trust. In the future, science related to public risks is expected to be high on the scientific agendas and will require active participation from diversified social actors. This may trigger similar changes in many other areas of science.
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A rapidly evolving landscape for Science Communication as an opportunity for the collective involvement of scientists and non-scientists, for social engagement in art and philosophy, and for society to express new degrees of freedom
Its shaping factors, actors, and ideas, seem to revolve increasingly around history, concepts, values, society, cosmos, risks, war and peace, suffering,
life and death, about science policies and public policy
and about social and economic development Communication: institutional|individual|collective|fuzzy, driven by choice|necessity|opportunity Socialization to science | Science awareness | Scientific culture (but also learning, performing)
Exploiting internet based science consulting and discussion rooms Formal and informal education | distant learning MOOCS |communication vs project work | doing and
communicating experimental science | technical skills | Learning how to do, how to speak of, how to integrate |Coping to understand, to make sense of
(facts, ideas, actions) Democracy and decision-making | Freedom and choice | Risk assessment and mitigation
The tension between (communicating) fundamental science and (celebrating) industrial science-based development
Ethical values, morals, politics: How renewed mythologies of nature, finitude, and the sin of knowledge coexist with the persistent opacity of war
and science »»» How prepared and committed are we, scientists, science teachers and science communicators, to (modestly) act
for peace?
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Thank You !
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