Making science songs
June 9, 2012
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it’s 2021, I can’t believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs have helped …
Between knotweed and the deep blue sky: Debating the value of science in society
June 8, 2012
This blog was first published as a guest blog on the LSE blog ‘Impact of Social Sciences‘ on 7 June, 2012. Knotweeds and rats Last Friday (1 June, 2012) I was reading the Times Higher over breakfast. My eyes fell on the following sentence in the editorial: “The ubiquity of market ideology is explored in …
GM food, war metaphors and the perils of political entrenchment
June 3, 2012
It’s the Jubilee weekend. It’s raining. So I am looking through some tweets. Some make me think I should cheer myself up by writing a blog about songs used to make science (especially quantum physics!) public, others make me think that I really should write something about war metaphors in the current GM debate. As …
Making science policy public: Exploring the pitfalls of public protest
May 27, 2012
I have recently published two blogs, one on impact and one on hype. Protests against EPSRC funding policies provide an opportunity to reflect on both these and other issues related to making science public. Science for the Future – the protest On 15 May, 2012 members of a campaign group “Science for the Future” delivered …
Carbon and energy/publics and politics
May 20, 2012
This is a follow-up to a guest-blog on climategate, media volume and public concern. As last time, this blog was written by Alan Valdez (The Open University) in collaboration with Brigitte Nerlich (University of Nottingham) and Nelya Koteyko (University of Leicester). It is linked to research on climate change discourses funded by the ESRC and …
Atoms are not people: comparing the natural and social sciences
May 18, 2012
Following a Twitter debate this week on the utility of social sciences cf. natural sciences as a basis for public policy (see the above screenshot for some of the comments), I thought it might be time for a preliminary sketch of the differences between these two (very) broad areas of knowledge. Is social science a …
Making neuroscience public: Neurohype, neuroscepticism and neuroblogging
May 15, 2012
There has been a lot of debate recently about climate scepticism and climate sceptics. To define what climate sceptics are is actually quite difficult, but some may be described as (anthropogenic) climate (change) deniers, some as climate change doubters, some as critical observers of climate science, some as just sitting on the fence. There are …
Science in Government
May 13, 2012
This is a GUEST BLOG by Dr Sujatha Raman, Deputy Director of the Leverhulme Programme: Making Science Public. Why should we care about the role of science in government? A common answer is that policymakers need the best available information for coping with complex, collective problems through technology and/or rules and regulations. We want such …
Exploring the language of impact
May 8, 2012
I recently collected a few indicative phrases around ‘impact’, one of the pillars of the Research Excellence Framework. In one email a colleague asked me “Can we call that impact?” (400 hits on facebook linked to a TV interview linked to a still speculative health improvement measure). A tweet announced: “That’s what I call impact”, …
Communicating climate change on the right (report)
May 3, 2012
This is a guest blog by Warren Pearce who will be starting work on the Making Science Public project in October this year. Warren reports on an event organised by the Policy Exchange: A greener shade of blue? Communicating climate change on the right. The blog was originally published here. ‘A grit in the oyster’ …
MSP bookmarks
- Twitter May 8, 2017
- Social innovations in Europe #RRI November 3, 2015
- Harvey Graff, the undisciplinarian September 20, 2015
- Replacing Pesticides With Genetics August 31, 2015
- Addressing hazardous chemicals in the circular economy August 25, 2015
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