Syngenta ABSW Science Writers’ Awards: Shortlist 2005.
The Royal Society (through the Science in Society programme), Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust funded a study to examine the factors affecting science communication by scientists and will provide evidence to support the development of strategies to encourage scientists and engineers to communicate with stakeholders including the public, policy makers and media.
From BBC News online: Blagging in the blogosphere by Richard Ladle.
Blogs are revolutionising the way millions of people around the world keep in touch with environmental issues, but at what cost? Richard Ladle, in this week’s Green Room, says the growing popularity of web-based journals is making it harder to sort fact from fiction.
Science on Stage 2: science teaching festival Grenoble, France, 2-6 April 2007.
From today’s The Guardian: Draw line under MMR scare, plead top doctors:
A group of Britain’s leading paediatricians and childhood vaccination experts has warned that more children will die unless a line is drawn under the autism and MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine controversy.
In an open letter, 30 scientists, including some of the country’s most eminent child health experts, say that an overwhelming body of evidence shows the vaccine is safe. They add that urgent immunisations are necessary to prevent potentially devastating outbreaks among schoolchildren.
The warning comes as England faces its biggest measles outbreak in 20 years, fuelled by the refusal of some parents to have their children immunised because of now discredited claims linking the MMR jab and autism.
An Italian master’s thesis on the science content of the Simpsons: L’universo in una ciambella: la scienza dei Simpson (Universe in a Doughnut: the Science of the Simpsons).
The Science Museum, London, is annoucing Smart Toy Award 2006, for toys that make you think.
FROM The Wall Street Journal: Science Journals Artfully Try To Boost Their Rankings.
From Seed Magazine: Science Star Search. Dispatch from FameLab 2006 finals.
Once upon a time scientists tinkered away in their labs, emerging infrequently in order to announce a grand discovery. Naturally, the majority of the public could not understand such clever stuff, so the boffins would repack their beards and return to the lab to continue their investigations into science mysteries.
Nowadays scientists are not like this. They want to engage and communicate with the public about their work. What’s more, they’ve seen celebrity chefs, gardeners, nannies and designers on TV and they want a slice of the action.
New Scientist’s favorite science stories related to soccer: The science of World Cup soccer.
From EurekAlert: First nanotechnology journal from a major publisher to offer open access.
Oxford Open Access Workshop: Presentations from the workshop are now available online.
From NYT: Inconsistent Information Policies Jeopardize Research, Panel Says.
The quality and credibility of government research are being jeopardized by inconsistent policies for communicating scientific findings to the public, says an independent group of scientists that advises Congress and the White House.
The Stevens Institute of Technology is compilling the 100 greatest science books published since 1900. The first 30 have already been chosen.
Communicating Science, resources for NASA employees.
JUST OUT, from the Medical Journal of Australia – Media reporting on research presented at scientific meetings: more caution needed.
Art of Science Competition at Princeton University.
ESConet, the European Science Communication Network, is organizing a workshop “to train junior researchers in communication skills, particularly suitable for scientists in European research projects and networks”.
Training for this workshop is free, trainees will only have to pay for their own travel and accommodation.
Deadline for registration is July 15, 2006.
Nature is dicussing Open Peer Review.
After the Guide do Sucessful Communications, the European Commission publishes Communicating Science – a scientist’s survival kit .
From EU Research Information Centre: “A new portal, called ‘IST World’, has been created to stimulate collaboration between researchers, organisations and projects”.
An interview with the stage director of In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, wich has just opened in NY.
FRONTLINE: The age of AIDS, an online documentary.
From the Knight Science Journalism Tracker: News on the 25th Anniversary of AIDS Epidemic
From ScienceBlogs: A rap video of protein synthesis.
From The Royal Society: Scheme to bridge politics and science launches in Brussels
From New Scientist: Bernard Haisch, an astrophysicist, has writen the book “The God Theory”, which is “his attempt to reconcile his scientific knowledge with the idea of a purposeful universe”.
An online survey found that “large majorities of U.S. adults agree that the results of federally funded research on health issues and other topics should be readily available (for free, and online) to doctors and the general public”.
LATOUR, B. and S. WOOLGAR (1979) Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. London: Sage Publications, p.17.
