Science communication: Bridging the gap between theory and practise

The 6th Public Communication of Science and Technology network conference will be held at CERN on 1-3 Febraury 2001. Scientists and communication professionals will analyse the state of the art of science communication and the new perception people have about science in the media from newspapers to the Web. Will communication be able to bridge the gap between Science and Society? What is the impact of science communication on the public? How do novel means of communications change the perception of science for the general public? These and other interesting questions will be addressed at the 6th Public Communication of Science and Technology Meeting, to be held at CERN on 1-3 February 2001. More than 250 people from all over the world are expected to attend the conference which will be an important meeting place for communication professionals covering the social, political, technical and cultural aspects of science and technology communication. Georges Boixader after Gary Larsson. The conference is promoted by the PCST network (see box), a loose international organisation of individuals interested in all aspects of the relationship between science and the public. What is the PCST network? The International Network on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) was born in 1989 after the first International Meeting on Public Scientific Communication that took place at Poitiers, France. The 130 participants from 14 countries decided to meet again to discuss the public's growing need for more information about scientific and technological matters and all the problems and developments concerning science communication. The aim of the network is to multiply opportunities for exchange and co-operation among both researchers and professionals who work in the many diverse but complementary fields of public communication of science and technology. It especially intends to facilitate these interactions on an international basis. In the past PCST conferences achievements have been considerable and now the PCST members intend to evaluate those achievements in order to find a better synergy among the various aspects of the relationship between science and public. The main aim of the conference is 'bridging the gap between theory and practise' with the goal of focusing attention on the impact of science communication on the public. All the themes chosen for the plenary sessions of the programme as well as for the afternoon workshops reflect the need for more cross-fertilization between academia and practise in science communication and the impact of the one upon the another. The sociological and political aspects of science communication will be covered from several different points of view. These include those of André Giordan (Laboratoire de Didactique et Epistémologie des Sciences de l'Université de Genève), who will talk about communication and scientific communities, and David Dickson, ('Nature', UK), who will deal with the impact on public opinion of the scientific press. Great attention will be dedicated to research and practise in science museums: the evaluation of the success of science museums and science centres and their impact on the public will be analized. The discussion will be enriched by the participation of Hans Peter Peters, from the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and Walter Staveloz who will talk about ECSITE, the international network of museums and science centres. Another main theme of the programme is novel means of communicating science to the public, and no venue could be better chosen than CERN, the birthplace of the WWW. Locating one of the PCST conferences on one of the largest scientific laboratory in the world also reflects the need for integrating scientists into the communication process. PCST 2001 will also offer the CERN community of scientists the possibility of exchanging ideas on the public communication of science with experts in the field. Bernard Schiele (University of Québec, Montréal) will talk about the process from science centres to virtual schools and Pierre Fayard (University of Poitiers and a PCST network scientific committee member) will deal with science on line as a new frontier in science communication. All interested CERN members are invited to the plenary sessions (morning only, from 9 to 12.30) in the CERN main auditorium and to the public events described. No registration is required. Access to the afternoon workshop is restricted to the registered and paying participants. For more information and an updated version of the programme please consult the conference website: http://www.cern.ch/PCST2001 Satellite events Thanks to the presence of so many communication professionals some public meetings have been organised. 'What does Science do for Society?' ('Que fait la science pour la société?') is the title of the public debate that will take place on the evening of Friday Feb 2, at 8 pm in the Arditi-Wilsdorf room, 1, avenue du Mail, Geneva. Charles Kleiber, Swiss minister of Science and Research, Mariano Gago, Portuguese minister of Research, Catherine Cesarsky, Director General of ESO (European Southern Observatory), Alain Vaissade, Mayor of Geneva and Robert Cailliau, co-inventor of the WWW will participate in the discussion. The event is supported by the Ville de Genève, Etat de Genève, Euroscience Leman and the Fondation pour Genève. On Saturday afternoon also some public events will take place in the Restaurant 1, Building 501, at the cafetaria, at 2 p.m., Science in the Pub, a special Australian performance mixing science with Australian beer served to the audience and at 3.30 p.m. the Cabaret Pasteur, a French sample of entertainment with a scientific touch.

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