At the Euroscience Open Forum in Dublin, VA (Public & Science) organised a well-attended session on the theme of communication between scientists and the public. The conclusions drawn from the session included the need for clear incentives and for scientists to feel that engagement is important in order to be willing to engage with the…

Is it safe to eat genetically modified food? Does genetically modified food taste differently from ordinary food? Does wild and genetically modified salmon differ in appearance? These were a few questions discussed at a dialogue event on 7 December, organised by VA and Uppsala University. The public met with three GMO (genetically modified organisms) researchers who…

How do I prevent my kids and myself from developing asthma? Is it something genetic? How can researchers and patients work together in order to find better treatments? These were a few questions discussed at a dialogue event on 19th October, organised by VA, the Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association. The public…

Could people be made smarter by injecting stem cells into their brains? Should humans be cloned? These were a few of the questions discussed when school students met with researchers at a dialogue event in Stockholm arranged by VA and Karolinska Institutet (KI, an medical university) on 12th October. Ola Hermanson and Johan Holmberg, two…

Businesses need new knowledge in order to innovate, develop and become successful. But how should these new ideas be obtained and by whom? These were the key questions discussed at an interactive seminar, organised by the Swedish association VA (Public & Science) on July 5 as part of 2010 EuroScience Open Forum in Turin, Italy….

Asthma is prevented neither by having lots of cats or by strangling them all! This was one of the conclusions from an evening of discussion about asthma at Karolinska Institute in Solna. First a film was shown about current asthma research. Among other things, it described how children who live in the countryside and are…

Short summary Far too rarely do politicians talk directly to researchers. What prevents them? And how can the dialogue be improved? These questions were vigorously discussed by distinguished members of both professions at an interactive seminar during ESOF2008. International research indicates that there are few meetings and too little communication between politicians and scientists. An open society needs more dialogue to ensure…

Report by Sarah Bunn and Martin Griffiths Seminar at ESOF 18-22 July 2008 Barcelona. Organised by Vetenskap & Allmänhet (Public & Science), Sweden in co-operation with Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, UK. The aim of the session was to create an open forum for dialogue. Session I focused on why a dialogue between politics and the…

Summary of a session at the PCST conference in Malmö, 25 June 2008 In many countries there is concern about declining interest in science and in studying science. But what is it that affects young people’s attitudes? What can be done at a societal level to stimulate interest in science and research? These were questions discussed at…

Erika Ingvald, freelance science journalist Murmuring ripples through the packed auditorium of Studio 2, Radiohuset in Stockholm. It is November, and the theme for the fourth VA-day is science and media. Suddenly the lights go down and there is silence. The spotlight focuses on a man who comes in and places himself at the keyboard of…

Report from a Stockholm workshop The boundary effect is a condition of altered friction and turbulence which occurs in the region where the atmosphere meets the ground. The workshop “Boundary Effect: What happens in the meeting between scientists and journalists” held in Stockholm on Nov 9 2005, explored whether there might be an analogous set of rules that…

Experience a volcano, investigate your own  brain and endure pain on a bed of nails. These were some of the events that attracted nearly 3000 curious young people to Science Event ”Utbrott pa Lava”. Friday the 23rd September had been declared “Researchers’ Night” by the European Commission. Throughout Europe, activities to show the public the excitement and fun…

Report from “Living with Learning – VA Day, 2004” Camilla Modéer, Secretary General of VA (Public & Science), welcomed everyone, thanked President Eskil Franck of the Stockholm Institute of Education for letting the VA Day take place on his campus and then turned the podium over to him. According to Dr. Franck, teacher training, which…