Mock funeral for Science
A dramatic protest by scientists was staged in Westminster, London on Tuesday. At a mock Victorian funeral over 100 scientists, mainly organic chemists, carried a coffin with floral wreaths spelling out “SCIENCE”. The coffin contained a petition against science budget cuts, which they then delivered to the Prime Minister’s residence. Twenty-five scientists also held…
Läs merOklahoma rejects anti-science bill
Many news articles and blog posts (including on the VA blog) are written about the rise of creationism in American schools. It was therefore heart-warming to read the headline “Oklamhama Anti-Science Legislation Fails again”. Two anti-science bills which set out to encourage teachers to present “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of “controversial” topics such as…
Läs merScientists’ video appeal to protesters
Researchers hope that dialogue and communication will prevent the destruction of their experiments. A group of scientists at Rothamstead Research in the UK are conducting a trial in wheat genetically modified to repel insects. An anti-GM group “Take the flour back” calling for a mass action to “decontaminate” the site on May 27th – in…
Läs merScientists and Adventurers: a new kind of partnership
White water rafting your sort of thing? How about hiking, biking, gliding or snow-boarding? Just about any activity that takes you into the great outdoors can also be an opportunity to contribute to science. Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation (ASC) is an American organisation set up in 2010. Its mission is to improve the accessibility…
Läs merPublic engagement at the Zoo: does it work?
Zoos are great; everyone loves them, especially children. They attract thousands of visitors from all social classes, age-groups and walks of life. Does this mean they are a good place for engaging people in research? Yes, according to a new paper published by researchers from Scottish universities of…
Läs merWhat do Americans think? NSF Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 published
The National Science Foundation in the USA has published its 2012 edition of Science and Engineering indicators. Chapter 7 of this enormous publication is about Public attitudes and understanding. At 51 pages long, it is far too much to take in on a Friday afternoon, so here are a few edited highlights…. Americans are…
Läs mer2012: A happy new year for science?
2012 is going to be a turbulent year financially and politically. What does it have in store for science? Here is a small selection of new year science stories…. Nasa is looking forward to an exciting year ahead, despite being its first year without manned space…
Läs merDanish Board of Technology threatened with closure
The Danish Board of Technology (DBT) is an internationally renowned centre for engaging society with science and technology. This week, this pioneering organisation is threatened with closure by the Danish parliament. Founded in 1986 it boasts 25 years of experience and knowledge on engaging the public in technological policy making. It has great expertise…
Läs merCroatian scientists to clash in court
High-profile Croatian scientists have clashed over the efficacy of an anti-oxidant pill dubbed “the elixir of youth” by some in the media. The pill, made by company Regiopharma, was launched in Zagreb in October and was soundly endorsed by life-scientist Miroslav Radman, co-founder and head of the MediLS life science institute in Split. Professor Radman…
Läs merGeoengineering – the latest hot topic
Geoengineering, the use of large-scale engineering techniques to tackle climate change, is a field rapidly gaining momentum. It covers all sorts of methods – space mirrors to deflect sunlight, cloud-seeding, putting iron compounds into the sea or planting genetically modified highly reflective crops or simply painting all roofs white… Much may sound like science fiction…
Läs merA new science festival for London
Brand new for 2011, the London Science Festival took place last week at a number of historic venues around London, including its launch in Shakepeare’s Globe theatre. LSF11’s mission is to “inspire and engage the public in all things scientific, from natural science to science in its most cultural context”. The festival featured a comedy…
Läs mer‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ – the winner is announced!
Well, here it is! The winner of the 2011 ”Dance your PhD” competion: Microstructure-Property relationships in Ti2448 components produced by Selective Laser Melting: A Love Story from Joel Miller on Vimeo. Congratulations go to Joel Miller, a biomedical engineer from University of Western Australia in Perth who has won the grand prize by explaining through dance (and…
Läs merThe media goes neutrino-crazy
It is fair to say that most people have no understanding of the theory of relativity. When scientists at CERN announced that they might have measured neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light, the world of physics was understandably rocked by the news. More surprising is the way it has captured the attention of…
Läs merClimate Change – Politics, Science and Television
There are a few interesting news stories about climate change this week. In the USA, the latest American opinion on climate change poll from Yale University includes for the first between them and other political parties. 53% of ”Tea Partiers” do not believe in global warming, compared to nearly 80% of Democrats. 52% of Tea…
Läs merJust how green are we prepared to be?
This weekend I read about two technological advances that offer innovative and practical ways to be green – but that present enormous challenges when it comes to convincing the public. A method of using the toxic residue from steel production (Waelz slag) to make house bricks has been developed by Dr Ana Andres of the…
Läs merScientists on screen: improving the image
Any scientists making a TV appearance in the coming weeks should take five minutes to read the latest Australian econnect newsletter, How scientists are portrayed in the popular media. It would appear the stereotypical image of scientists is still alive and well in Australia and this is in large part because of the media’s portrayal….
Läs merItalian seismologists face trial for manslaughter for not predicting earthquake
A huge earthquake hit the town of L’Aquila in Italy on 6th April 2009, killing 309 people. Seismic activity had been noticed in the area in the preceding months but scientists failed to predict the enormous and deadly quake. Because of this, 6 seismologists and one government official now face trial for manslaughter and up…
Läs merIs poker a game of luck or skill?
How much skill is there in a game of poker? And why does it matter? By law Americans are not allowed to gamble over the web. If poker can be shown to be a game of skill then this could have significant implications for the $6 billion US online gambling industry. And a new study published this…
Läs merIs the public behind public consultations?
The latest UK study into public attitudes to science was published earlier this month. PAS 2011 – the fourth in a series – represents the Government’s main mechanism for assessing progress on public engagement with science. One section that caught my attention was about the attitudes of the Brits to public consultations. Public consultations on…
Läs merLearning from History
If you are interested in learning lessons from history, this website is worth a look. History and Policy is an international network of historians with the aim of “bringing (high-quality) history into the policy making arena”. The network, which has been going since 2002, claims history is not given as much prominence in policy making decisions…
Läs merRoyal Wedding Science stories
The media coverage of the Royal Wedding in the UK last week was immense, and although most pages were devoted to society and fashion, with a hint of diplomacy, there was still some science-related coverage if you looked hard enough. Economics As you can imagine, the wedding cost a small fortune, not to mention the…
Läs merEaster Eggsperiments
Happy Easter! Following the VA tradition of holiday-related science stories, here are two for Easter… Scientists at the University of Nottingham have been using some of their high-tech apparatus to test out the physical and chemical properties of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs*. Findings include the very interesting fact that the eggs can withstand 110 Newtons in…
Läs merTo tweet or not to tweet….?
Professors worried about the impact their social “tweets” have on their image and student relationships need worry no longer. A new study has revealed that professors who make social tweets are perceived as more credible than those who stick to purely academic comments. The study, published in the March edition of Learning, Media and Technology is…
Läs merGlobal Scientific trends – a new report
The UK’s Royal Society has just published Knowledge, Nations and Networks, a major new report on the “Global Scientific Landscape”. This is a long report (114 pages) in two sections, setting out the global scientific landscape and the state of international scientific collaboration. Several aspects have grabbed the media’s attention: China ‘to overtake US on science’…
Läs merOnline experiments part of UK National Science and Engineering Week
It’s National Science and Engineering week in the UK. Organised by the British Science Association, this annual event is a UK-wide locally driven extravaganza, involving many local science festivals and events up and down the country. However for those who prefer the comfort of the arm-chair, this year they can take part in on-line experiments…
Läs merReturning human remains: collaboration between researchers and indigenous communities
The skeletal remains of 138 people are to be returned to their native land, the Torres Strait Islands, by the London Natural History Museum (LNHM). The bones were originally taken by explorers and missionaries as curiosities, and for the last 100 years have resided in the LNHM. They skeletons are not alone – the museum…
Läs merScientific advice could have reduced ash cloud chaos
It’s almost a year since the volcanic ash from the Icelandic volcanoes caused mayhem for air travel. Many voices at the time were asking “Why could we not have predicted this?”. This sentiment is echoed in a new report from the UK’s Commons Science and Technology Committee (CSTC), which described the crisis – with remarkable…
Läs merClimate science – has its reputation survived?
There is no doubt public confidence in climate research has taken a battering over the last 18 months. High profile disagreements, mistakes, email releases and the failure of the IPCC to reach agreement have given rise to a great deal of negative media reports. But is the impact of the all the negative publicity wearing…
Läs merThe Science of Hugs and Kisses
A couple of stories to show that even St Valentine’s Day can be a topic for research… The Science of Hugs…. Psychology Researchers at Dundee University have discovered that most hugs last about three seconds. Three seconds appears to be a universal time frame that many human actions take, such as waving good-bye, a musical…
Läs merThe End of the World in 2012? Award lecture at the UK’s Royal Society
The Royal Society Michael Faraday award is the UK’s most prestigious science communication award. Tomorrow, the 2010 winner Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, will give her prize-lecture entitled “The end of the world in 2012? Science communication and scare stories”. The lecture starts at 17:30 UK time and can be watched live online via the Royal…
Läs merLatest BioARt exhibition opens in Dublin
Science and Art have become closer than ever in a new exhibition VISCERAL, which opened in Dublin on Friday. This is BioArt – combining art and biotechnology and sounds both amazing and a little disturbing. The exhibition is curated by Oron Catts and Dr Ionat Zurr of SymbioticA (University of Western Australia) and features works…
Läs merPublic attitudes to science in the UK – the blog
The department for Business and Innovation Skills, BIS, in the UK, has initiated a study of public attitudes to Science and Technology. Now, this is nothing new in itself. It’s the fourth time BIS make such a survey of the British public. But this time, they decided to open up the process by blogging about the…
Läs merWould you rather trust a cow or a chemist?
Tomorrow the Official International Launch ceremony of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) takes place in Paris. The first of four main aims for the IYC is to “Increase the appreciation of Chemistry in meeting world needs”. And what an excellent idea. My PhD is in chemistry and I know from personal experience that chemists…
Läs merPope appoints new scientific advisor
Browsing through the science news yesterday I read that the Pope has appointed a protestant, Swiss microbiologist Werner Arber, as his new Chief Scientific advisor. The story made the headlines (I imagine) as the Pope has appointed a Protestant, but it was news to me at least that such a position existed. But I have now…
Läs merGenetically modified animals? The debate picks up…
Could 2011 be a pivotal year for engaging the public in the great GM debate? The public have always had strong opinions on GM, and until very recently these views have been very negative. GM crops were essentially bad. There were no benefits apart from financial ones and the risks to human health and the…
Läs merThe Science behind Christmas
Last week I blogged about the astronomical advent calendars, but other scientists are also using Christmas to capture the imagination. The Communicate Science blog is running a series of Christmas Science Facts, one published each day until the 25th December. You may be interested to know that Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day. Myrrh,…
Läs merAstronomical Advent Calendars
For those of us tiring a little of consumerism at Christmas, can I recommend The Hubble Advent Calendar featured on the Big Picture, part of the Boston Globe website. Every day until Christmas, a new Hubble image will be featured until Christmas. Also, Emily Lakdawalla has an advent calendar featuring objects from the solar system…
Läs merNASA hasn’t found aliens, but…..
After finishing my last blog, as if on cue, I read NASA was about to announce Something Big about the hunt for alien life. NASA was holding a press conference. Rumours were circulating – have they at last found little green men? Well, no. They have discovered a bacteria that deviates from the “rules of…
Läs merScientists should be looking for aliens
The UK’s Royal Society celebrated its 350th anniversary a few days ago on November 30th. The anniversary year has been celebrated in spectacular fashion over the last 12 months, with hundreds of lectures, exhibitions, discussions and outings over the whole of the UK. The celebrations came to a finale on Tuesday with the publication of…
Läs merFirst GM mosquito trial takes world by surprise
GM mosquitoes have been flying around the Caribbean island of Grand Cayman for over a year. This has been the first ever trial of GM mosquitoes in the fight against Dengue fever. There have been some very positive results, say scientists from the company Oxitec, a spin out from Oxford University. Great to have good results in…
Läs merChocolate researchers choose their words with care
American researchers have sequenced the Cacao tree genome. According to the Mars researcher Dr Howard Yana-Shapiro, this will “save the chocolate industry”. Dr Shapiro chooses his words very carefully. Nowhere in this BBC report and interview will you find the terms “genetically modified” or even “genetically engineered”. Scientists will engineer higher yielding trees, and characteristics will be…
Läs merScience Rocks!
Two stories about science and rock music made me smile this week. Ozzy Osbourne, the 62 year old former lead singer of Black Sabbath, has had his full genome sequenced. If life was fair, Ozzy would be dead. Mr Osbourne has survived 40 years of every possible sort of substance abuse, not to mention quad…
Läs merScientist power limits budget cuts
Two weeks ago I blogged about the Science is Vital campaign, which aimed at persuading the UK government not to slash the science budget. It worked! The UK science budget has been spared the deep cuts facing most other departments and instead has had its budget frozen in cash terms, which represents a cut of “just”…
Läs merRetraction Watch
Here is an interesting blog to check out on a Friday afternoon. Two scientific editors in the USA (where else!) are writing a blog called Retraction Watch which reports on scientific papers which have been withdrawn from publication. One that caught my eye was a paper on microbial reproduction retracted when the author had copied…
Läs merSupport science, not football!
Outraged UK scientists are taking to the streets tomorrow in a rally in London to protest about reduction in science funding. The campaign, Science is Vital, is supported by many prominent scientists and Nobel Prize winners. Government immigration policy is also the target of their anger. In planned moves to drastically reduce non-EU immigration the…
Läs merScientists and farmers work together to save bumblebees
Farmers and scientists have successfully managed to boost the populations of 5 of the rarest bee species in the UK. Environmental scientists have worked with farmers in Kent to recreate a bee-friendly environment. This has been done by planting the right nectar-rich flowers in field borders and rotational grazing systems to create “bee corridors” where…
Läs merThe public tends not to trust privately funded research
Europeans tend not to trust scientists who depend on money from industry. This finding from the Science and Technology Eurobarometer 2010 is something politicians as well as researchers may want to consider. Many European countries (for example Britain, Italy and Spain) are reducing research funding in the wake of the economic crisis. And many are…
Läs merFrom Maps to Apps: 175 years of the British Geographical Survey
In 1835 the first geographical survey of the UK began. 175 years later, the British Geographical Survey (BGS) is showing it is moving with the times by launching the iGeology App which allows you to see at a glance the geology beneath your feet (but only if you are in the UK I’m afraid). The…
Läs merHumans less complex than chocolate biscuit
US researchers have competed sequencing the DNA of Theobroma cacao from which we get all our chocolate. Funded by Mars Inc. (of Mars Bar fame), this research is set to lead to improvements in chocolate farming technology and help six million small farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries. There are now over 180…
Läs merCitizen Solvers: The White House offers cash prizes for solutions to the nation’s problems
In his Strategy for Innovation (published a year ago), President Obama called for government agencies to “increase and harness innovation by using policy tools such as prizes and challenges”. This plan became a reality this month as the US government’s crowd-sourcing site www.challenge.gov was launched. The site features over 50 challenges published by various government…
Läs merScience Seeking Attention: Headlines from the British Science Festival
Every section of UK society is shouting about why they should escape government cut-backs. Scientists are no exception. And whoever is in charge of PR for the British Science Festival taking place this week has done a spectacular job of grabbing the headlines. Lady Susan Greenfield, eminent neuroscience and former director the Royal Institution, gave…
Läs merResearch and robots on the farm
If – like me this morning – you awake early and tune into UK radio station Radio 4, you can learn what is going on in “Farming Today”. Normally I only half listen to stories of wheat prices, tractor tyres and yoghurt making but this morning the world of farming was talking science. First it…
Läs merUK to cut science budget
The UK business secretary Vince Cable has announced there will be cuts to the UK science budget expected to be up to 25%. Mr Cable has told academics they need to do “more for less”, and to be less reliant on government funding. He said there is no “justification for taxpayers’ money being used to…
Läs merNASA’s mental health research helping trapped miners
The 33 Chilean miners trapped 700m underground in the San Jose copper and gold mine have been trapped for over a month. The rescue operation is difficult and it is likely the men will be underground until Christmas. As well as the obvious technical challenges there is another more human one – how can people…
Läs merScience, antibiotics and international relations
The fear that “superbugs” resistant to antibiotics will develop is not a new one. This week, the medical journal “The Lancet” published a paper reporting an antibiotic resistant strain of a bacteria, New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1 (NDM-1), which poses a “potentially major global health problem”. This is clearly a worrying and serious development, and many…
Läs merVA-type dialogues at Speakers’ Corner
As VA knows there is no better way of having dialogue with the public than to talk with them directly. And some scientists from London Zoo were doing just this last week in impressive fashion. Fifteen brave scientists from the Zoological Society of London went to Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park with a mission…
Läs merDarth Vader just needed some psychotherapy
French researchers are doing their bit to make discussing mental health problems acceptable. Psychiatrist Eric Bui and his colleagues at Toulouse University Hospital have written a letter in the journal Psychiatry Research entitled “Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder?” For those of you not familiar with the Star Wars saga, Anakin Skywalker starts…
Läs merRocket Science: might it escape the cuts?
Germany and Britain are heading for deep and severe cuts in public spending. The politicians have given sombre speeches about the “tough times” that lie ahead. However there have been indications in both countries that “Space research” will escape. Speaking at the Berlin Air Show this week, Professor Jan Woerner, chairman of the German Aerospace…
Läs merBP and Crowd-Sourcing
The tragedy of the leaking oil well in Gulf of Mexico continues. BP is hoping its latest capping scheme will succeed. But in the meantime all we can do is watch, wait and hope. Right? Well, no. Why not come up with a solution? BP is dedicating some of its resources to heading a team…
Läs merFrankenbugs: Science in the Headlines
It is not often that science is the headline news item but the creation of the first synthetic organism has dominated the worldwide news these past weeks. These synthetic bacterium, created by American biologists Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith, have already been dubbed “Frankenbugs” and have been greeted with some not unpredictable outrage from certain corners….
Läs merA very clever new UK Science Minister. Will it be enough?
The new UK science minister is known as David “Two Brains” Willets by the UK media. This nick-name is primarily because he is supposed to have an enormous intellect (and perhaps a little to do with his large forehead…). In many ways this appointment is good for science. Mr Willets is a senior and well…
Läs merThe CSI effect – this time on the US legal system
You have probably heard of the so-called “CSI effect”. Forensic science made popular by TV programmes featuring brave and handsome gun-toting forensic scientists catching the criminals armed with a swab and microscope….? No bad thing of course and no one really believes it’s true. Do they? Well, yes they do. And it is having some…
Läs merVote for the Science Party
Tomorrow there will be a general election in the UK. Science, perhaps not surprisingly, is not making the headlines in these turbulent economic times. But nevertheless, in many ways there is much to be optimistic about. This election is the first time all the parties have included science funding in their manifesto. There have been…
Läs merScience and the Flight Ban: how did we do?
The flight ban is lifted, regulations have been reviewed. The question is, how did science come out of this crisis? I am afraid to say, not very well. At least not in Public Relations terms. Watching a popular satirical comedy show on TV (Have I got News for You) the other night I was distraught to…
Läs merGlobal Challenges, Global differences…?
The InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP), essentially a network of science academies around the world, met in January at the Royal Society in London to discuss how best to work with governments to tackle global problems. No small task, I am sure you agree, New Scientists magazine also took advantage of all these scientific…
Läs merCommunication classes from Hollywood
I have just been reading about a rather dramatic method of helping scientists communicate. Alan Alda, the Hollywood actor best known for his roles in MASH and the West Wing is giving scientists improvisation lessons. At the Centre for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, New York., Mr Alda has been helping graduate science students…
Läs merApollo 13: 40 years on
This weekend will mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission. Anniversaries are always good opportunities for attracting attention and so hopefully we will all be discussing the wonders of space exploration over coffee this weekend. One natural question over the years has been, “But what if it hadn’t worked?” The long-standing theory that…
Läs merScience of Spring at the White House
Every year there is an Easter Egg roll at the White House. Last year I blogged about the president introducing a science stand at this event, and I wondered whether it had made a reappearance this year. I am pleased to say it did. For the second year running, the AAAS came with a science…
Läs merFour leaf clovers
Here is a good example of how to make science interesting using everyday themes. On Wednesday (St Patrick’s Day) I saw a link on the White House website no less to the following online article about how genetic mutations lead to some clovers having four, or possibly more, leaves. http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100317/sc_livescience/whydosomeclovershavefourleaves I look at the White…
Läs merNEWS FROM BRUSSELS: GM potatoes can be grown in EU.
The European Commission yesterday approved a genetically modified potato to be grown in the EU. This is only the second GM product that has been allowed to be grown commercially here. The first, Monsanto’s MON 810 maize, was cleared back in 1998. The potato is approved for industrial use only. It has been designed by…
Läs merMisunderstood pet research causes outcry!
Cat owners are more likely to have a degree than dog owners, according to new research by the Department of Clinical Veterinary Science at Bristol University, UK. Some headline writers have translated this as “Cat owners more intelligent than dog owners”. As a goldfish owner myself, I will not take sides. But widely reported in…
Läs mer350 years of the Royal Society
The Royal Society celebrates its 350th anniversary this year. And it is inviting the whole of society – not just its elite scientists – to celebrate too. Here are just a few ways the RS is celebrating with the wider community…. Local heroes No need to chase all the way down to London to hear a…
Läs mer12 years on, MMR scare story is quietly declared to be false.
Back in 1998, the media was dominated by the “news” that the MMR vaccine can cause bowel disease and autism. The result was panic and a steep drop in the number of vaccinations and a dramatic rise in the incidence of measles. The story has resurfaced numerous times over the years with each new “development”…
Läs merIs it time we had another man on the moon?
It is forty years since the first moon landing, and over here in the UK, we are being treated to a whole host of programmes, articles and interviews about that great event forty years ago. And one debate that is heating up this week is whether we should be sending more people into space. British…
Läs merHonesty Lab
I have just taken part in an on-line experiment into honesty. Or rather dishonesty. The British Science Association (www.britishscienceassociation.org) is running Honesty Lab – an international study to explore public concepts of honesty. Perhaps things are different in Sweden, but here in the UK determining “dishonesty” is an essential part of criminal law. In cases…
Läs merAngels and Demons: the new film starring CERN
Angels and Demons, the film of the book of Dan Brown´s sequel to the Da Vinci code, will soon be at a cinema near all of us. And CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, is playing a starring role. Angels and Demons is a detective story about a secret society that wants to destroy…
Läs merThe biggest public engagement programme ever?
Did you know that 2009 is International Year of Astronomy? If not, you are missing out on possibly the biggest public engagement event the universe has ever seen! Astronomers – professional and amateur- in 140 countries are marking 400 years since Galileo first viewed the universe through a telescope in spectacular fashion. 102 of these countries have…
Läs merWrinkle cream works! The science story that has the UK talking…
It´s not often I find that almost all my friends and family are interested in the finer points of scientific research , but the recent story that an Anti-Wrinkle cream really does work has got everyone talking. Scientists at Manchester University carried out tests on an anti-wrinkle cream manufactured by Boots (a big high street chemists…
Läs merBoom in Science journalism in Germany
A recent report from The Technical University in Dortmund shows that there has been a huge boom in science reporting in the mass media in Germany. And interestingly the reporting has not been limited to the Science sections. An analysis of three nationwide German newspapers has shown an increase of a whopping 48% between 2003-4…
Läs merBio-engineering and the London Marathon
With the London marathon taking place this weekend, this Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph ran a full-page article entitled “What makes the perfect marathon runner?” I read the science-related articles press with interest, as they generally feature subjects which (they hope) appeal to the wider public. In this quite extensive article, the journalist Sanjida O´Connell manages…
Läs merMore power and influence for scientists?
Two stories of science at the centre of attention for a change.
Läs merUK science event hightlights
Hello from the VA UK office! I thought I would use the VA blog to give an international perspective on how science and research engages with the wider community. I am Esther Crooks and I will post regular updates on news, views and activities in the UK and beyond. We are currently in the middle of National…
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