Scientific Knowledge

By Dulce da Rocha Gonçalves Science performers played a significant role in science communication during the nineteenth century: they performed live for different audiences, in a variety of settings, often hauling science and technology experiments and demonstrations throughout the territory. Some scientific performers used the live event of the stage performance as a way to communicate their own

As an historian interested in the public understanding of medicine and health in modern Italy, it was impossible for me to not write about food and its political, social and cultural importance. Italian food is famous all around the world. Almost everyone knows about pasta, pizza and the immense economic and cultural significance of Italian food. However, not many know that Italy’s distinct

Risk communication is today at the core of many studies in science communication, which increasingly needs to deal with the uncertainties related not only to natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis but also to new technologies [1,2]. This literature reflects on how we communicate and how we should communicate risk, how people perceive it and what are the most effective practices to

UNESCO’s Division for Science & Its Popularisation propagated science popularisation as a foundation for modern democracies all around the world By Kristian H. Nielsen After Second World War, expectations for science and science popularisation were high. Scientists such as Julian Huxley and Joseph Needham propounded the view that science and international scientific collaboration would

By Diana Garrisi Rarely discussed but very common, pressure injuries, also known as bedsores, affect millions of people around the world every year. The practice of wound care dates back to ancient times, when mud and clay were used to make plasters. Yet, the sheer number of people suffering from pressure injuries worldwide today shows that much more needs to be done to raise public awareness

By Tim Boon At 21:25 on 11th December 1962 the BBC broadcast The Prizewinners, a television programme about that year’s Nobel laureates in medicine or physiology (Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for DNA) and chemistry (Max Perutz and John Kendrew for the elucidation of protein structures). The programme, broadcast the day after the ceremony, marked a key stage in the

By Bruno Pinto In May 2018, it will be celebrated the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of Expo 98, a world exhibition which took place in Lisbon (Portugal) entitled “Oceans, a heritage for the future”. The initial goal of this initiative was to mark the 500 years of the maritime trip of Vasco da Gama to India and other Portuguese Discoveries, but the theme of the oceans soon became the

Around the 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant, people are once again fascinated by this event and the extraordinary life of the heart transplant pioneer Chris Barnard. By Marina Joubert 3 December 1967 will forever be marked as the day when South African surgeon Chris Barnard astounded the world by becoming the first person to transplant a human heart. The historic surgery

By Cristiano Turbil Italy, since the unification, became a country where cultural and political differences somehow learnt to cohabit. This was achieved, among other initiatives, by popularising science and medicine in order to educate the general public about matters of national interest. This popularisation was carried out by the combined effort of scientists, politicians and editors, and

By Rupert Cole In the early seventies, long before talk of ‘public engagement’ and ‘public dialogue’ was in vogue, the BBC and the Royal Institution (RI) staged a television series, Controversy (1971-5), that gave audiences an opportunity to participate in debates with scientists on issues in ‘science and society’. Image credits: Financial Times A critical success at the time but

By Hsiang-Fu Huang Astronomers and historians often refer to the discovery of Neptune in 1846 as a triumph of Newtonian celestial mechanics. The irregularities of the orbit of Uranus led French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier to correctly predict the location of a hitherto undiscovered planet. By discovering a planet at the tip of a pen, scientists showed feats of intelligence and caught

BY Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, UCL 1985 saw the publication of two significant volumes placing audiences at the centre of knowledge production. It was a great year for PUS. In the UK, where I am based, it is customary to highlight 1985 to students as a landmark for the public understanding of science movement. The reason often brought forward is that in 1985, the Royal Society’s report on