Gove-themed streetart, Brighton. Our energy minister John Hayes seems to enjoy the word “bourgeois”. I don’t blame him, it’s a fun word to say. Back in October, he described the idea of onshore wind farms as “a bourgeois left article of faith based on some academic perspective”, arguing that “We need to understand communities’ genuine … Continue reading »
Filed under engagement …
Oh, Canada. Oh, Rio.
Rio 1992, by Alice Bell aged 11. No idea why I still have this, somehow got filed with my swimming certificates. I have a post on Comment is Free arguing this week’s protests by scientists in Canada are not just a local issue, but of global concern. Modern science is a global enterprise: people from … Continue reading »
Opening up science funding
Keep Science Public – from Science is Vital Rally, Autumn 2010 Adam Smith (no, not that one, or that one, or that one, the science writer one) has a new series of posts for the Guardian on science policy starting today. His first post raises several questions, including who should set the goals for science? … Continue reading »
“Do your pupils have an energy gap?”
The Big Bang Fair, a big science and engineering event for schoolkids was held in Birmingham last month. Led by Engineering UK and supported by various government departments, charities, learned societies and businesses, it’s an annual event that’s been going for a while. They seem to have taken down the list of 2012 sponsors, but … Continue reading »
Finding new stories for climate science
Stained Glass Window at Royal Society. Joe Smith has written a blogpost about climate science in the media based on his contribution to a debate at Imperial I ran last month. Smith suggests climate science is a bad fit for the mass media: too slow moving, too complex, too uncertain. Journalists try to spice things … Continue reading »
For fracks sake
“Who even invented that word fracking anyway? I bet it was an environmentalist.” Anthony Giddens, 17th January 2012 Anthony Giddens doesn’t seem to like the word fracking. At a debate on shale gas at the Policy Network earlier this week he wrapped his mouth around it as if the very sound produced a bad smell right there … Continue reading »
Talking sense about (climate) science
Every year the charity Sense About Science publishes a report debunking things celebrities have said about science. Every year it makes me wince. This year I winced publicly, on Comment is Free. I don’t like comedy based on people being stupid as an approach to education at the best of times (see previous pieces for … Continue reading »
Social scientists and trust in science
I’ll be talking at a Social Science Week event next Monday which asks how social scientists and government might work together to strengthen public trust in scientific evidence? Times Higher Magazine are partnering, and asked me to write a short piece on the topic for this week’s edition. I briefly ask why social scientists would want … Continue reading »
Who speaks for the trees?
Anish Kapoor sculpture in Kensington Gardens earlier this year. I want to use this post to argue for the idea of the communication of science as a sort of public advocacy for natural objects. That probably sounds more complex than it should. In many ways, all I mean is that I think we can think … Continue reading »
Involving kids in research
I have a piece in the last week’s Research Fortnight on the ways young people might contribute to research, as opposed to simply being asked to sit back and listen to ideas being delivered to them; a challenge to think of under-18s as more than what I have previously described as ‘in waiting’ for adult interactions … Continue reading »
