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Mindboggling: Preliminaries to a science of the mind by Roy Harris. Do you have a mind? Answers to this question have divided Western thinkers for centuries, and still do. Mindboggling sets out to identify a nucleus of basic issues about the mind, and present the main arguments for and against in each case. Targeted to a lay readership, each chapter discusses a different theory, myth or idea about the mind. Anticipate wails from theorists whose theories have been given short shrift. Mindboggling is available from Amazon (including Kindle), from Bookshops or direct from Publishers.
Science on Television by Bienvenido León.
The book is a clear and systematic guide to the narrative and rhetorical techniques used by science documentary filmmakers. The book is priced at £18.50, but for direct orders we are offering a 20% discount. The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.
Motivating Science is a collection of articles from the first five years of The Pantaneto Forum. We are offering a 20% discount for direct orders. The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.
Editorial
Science centres are becoming more ubiquitous. In “Do Science Centres really engage in dialogue with the public?” Hannah Owen and Erik Stengler examine two such centres at Bristol and Cardiff. They conclude that the centres do not engage in dialogue with the public but rather concentrate on a “family fun day out”. Such an emphasis encourages children to take an interest in science as a possible career and promotes the importance and benefits of science, but does not confront important issues involving science and society.
Science communication is about communicating with other scientists just as much as with the public or other parties. In “Communication and Engagement practices at CERN” Jamie Dorey identifies four categories of engagement which constitutes outreach by scientists at CERN and highlights the disparate ways in which departments within CERN engage with the wider scientific community.
In “Involving undergraduates in Outreach and public engagement through final year projects in science communication” Dan Lloyd describes how teaching science communication to students is put into effect via a final year research project. The course is within the department of Biosciences at the University of Kent, but the underlying principles of the project apply right across the physical and biological sciences.
In “Improving the visibility of academic research: normative expectations and strategic interests under review” Martina Franzen and Arlena Jung consider the coverage of stem cell research and epidemiology in German newspapers with respect to the credibility of science. As they point out “more science in the news often means more bad science in the news”. In their article they draw attention to the tension between scientific knowledge production on the one hand and the credibility of science on the other.
The proceedings of the Science Matters conference, which we reported in Issue 28, October 2007, have been published and are available from the publishers – World Scientific.
Nigel Sanitt Editor
ISSN 1741-1572
Contents
Articles
Do Science Centres really engage in dialogue with the public? Hannah Owen and Erik Stengler
Communication and Engagement practices at CERN, Jamie Dorey