// Latest Posts

Mike Hulme: Scientists speaking with one voice – panacea or pathology? (video)

Our second keynote speaker at Circling the Square 2 was Professor Mike Hulme, Professor of Climate and Culture at King’s College London and author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change.               ps. Mike’s presentation begins at 7min01secs pps. If you are having difficulty viewing the video and/or slides, please ensure Flash …

Climate change consensus ‘needs more work’ (Adam Smith @CirclingTheSquare2)

Researchers’ claims that there is a scientific consensus on the view that humans are causing climate change is not the simple issue that it may seem, according to one leading scholar. Mike Hulme is professor of climate and culture at King’s College London and published the popular book Why We Disagree About Climate Change in 2009. Hulme …

Journalist tells scientists to take control of PR (Adam Smith @CirclingTheSquare2)

Researchers should not allow their colleagues in the university press office to dictate the terms of how their institution engages with the media, according to a former Guardian journalist. Leo Hickman, the newspaper’s former environment reporter, said he is surprised by how often scientists don’t see the final version of a press release about their …

Hans von Storch on ‘science advice’ (from panel 1)

The first panel of Circling the Square 2 was on ‘science advice’. We will post audio from the session over the next few days. However, for now, feel free to take a look at the text from the presentation by Hans von Storch, Director of the Institute for Coastal Research at the HZG Centre for Materials and …

David Nutt: Time for a new Enlightenment in drug and alcohol policy? (video)

Our first keynote speaker at Circling the Square 2 was Professor David Nutt, Director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Imperial College London and previously Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. Enjoy!               ps. David’s presentation begins at 12min30secs pps. If you are having difficulty viewing the …

Royal Society’s silence on drugs law ‘failing science’ (Adam Smith @CirclingTheSquare2)

The national academies should front a campaign calling for the protection of research into psychoactive substances in the face of a proposed law that seeks to curb their use, a leading drugs policy expert warns. David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London, said the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical …

Judith Curry on ‘science, uncertainty and advocacy’ @CirclingTheSquare2

Blog post by Judith Curry, climate scientist at Georgia Tech and President of Climate Forecast Applications Network. ——————– I’m attending an interesting conference in Nottingham:  Circling the square: universities, the media, citizens and politics. I am a panelist on a panel Science, Uncertainty and Advocacy.  The other panelists are Conrad Brunk, Andrew Peters, and Dan Sarewitz.  Below …

Circling the Square 2 just started; plus new video from SGR

Very exciting day here at the University of Nottingham. Our second conference, ‘Circling the Square 2: Universities, the media, citizens and politics‘ has just started. To follow the conference on Twitter, use the hashtag #circlesq To see the programme, visit our conference website. Multimedia from the two days will be posted through this blog, plus video …

Multimedia from ‘Circling the Square 1: research, politics, media and impact’

Below is a collection of multimedia items from a conference held at the University of Nottingham last year. The conference, titled ‘Circling the Square: research, politics, media and impact’, explored the role of knowledge in policy making, bringing together international scholars in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, practitioners at the science-policy interface, the public and the …

Panel 6: New directions: how can we circle the square? (J Blackstock, R Grundmann, P Moriarty, K Roach)

The below video features contributions from Dr Jason Blackstock (Department for Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, UCL), Professor Reiner Grudmann, (STS Research Priority Group, University of Nottingham), Professor Philip Moriarty (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham), and Dr Kate Roach (writer and researcher). The session includes discussion of misconceptions about scientists and …