Stuffed fox in Oxford Museum of Natural History. I don’t know how it died. My January column for Popular Science UK is now online. This one’s on the public debate about animals in research. I was interested in some debate surrounding some slightly dodgy reporting of a poll on animal testing. Except, considering the paucity of the … Continue reading »
Filed under publics …
Review: Maximum Republic
Some of the monarchy-themed street art in London this sumer. A couple of years back, the Royal Institution made their director redundant. There were various reasons why they did this, but part of me enjoyed the basic idea that they didn’t need a director. I wondered if other scientific institutions might follow. I mean, do universities really … Continue reading »
Engagement with climate science
I was a speaker at yesterday’s Royal Meteorological Society’s meeting on Communicating Climate Science. I was asked to talk about models of science communication in the light of their new report on climate science , the public and the media, in particular the shift from top-down to more discursive approaches. I also took the opportunity to question the applicability … Continue reading »
Scientific literacy
A visitor’s view on energy policy spins around a giant wheel shaped piece of art at the front of the London Science Museum. I was on Radio 4 last night talking about why I don’t think calls for scientific literacy are the way to solve problems of science in society. It’s fifteen minutes long. You can listen … Continue reading »
Making “nullius” public
The latest edition of Index on Censorship’s magazine is devoted to questions of science. To launch it, they held a debate at Imperial College: Data Debate: Is transparency bad for science? (video embedded at bottom of this post). I think it’s fair to say the event didn’t say much new (these things rarely do) but it was certainly … Continue reading »
Britain, a nation of climate sceptics? Really?
Street art – or rather tree art – in Toronto. The latest British Social Attitudes survey was released earlier this week. Cue much swapping of claims to know what the public really thinks, and how well this does or does not match government policy. The Prime Minister issued a short statement suggesting the results showed a … Continue reading »
Pondering PUS
The Public Understanding of Science journal, volume 1. The main journal in my field, Public Understanding of Science, is twenty next year. I recently had to look up an old paper in the first edition, and it was slightly depressing to see how little has changed. Still, the fact that I find much of it still … Continue reading »
Fair’s fair
What questions would the public choose to invest scientific time and resources in, if given the chance to shape research policy? This is an old and largely unanswered question. Indeed, it is one that many members of the scientific community go out of their way to avoid testing. Ben Goldacre touched on it a couple … Continue reading »
Social scientists and public accountability
This was originally published on social science space. I’m happy to admit it is a piece of rhetoric, designed to make a point. If you are interested in debating this more, I’m on the panel for a Guardian Higher Education livechat on research communication later today (or use the comments below, as ever). Every now … Continue reading »
Science and craft
Mendel’s pea, by some of last year’s science communication MSc students There seems to be more and more events happening which I can only describe as science-craft. I thought I’d write about it, and did a post for the Guardian Science blog. There are overlaps here with sci-art projects, just as there are overlaps (sometimes … Continue reading »
