Scientific Knowledge

Prof. Wang Guoyan's science communication team of Soochow University researched cartoons on Chinese genetical modification (GM). They found that topics on GM in China peaked from 2013 to 2016 when controversies on GM food fueled the spread of political conspiracy theories. GM cartoons in China reflect strong political views and contain scary information. The findings and opinions presented in

By Sofía VillaInstagram, Twitter, Youtube, and now Tiktok are becoming strong platforms for communicating science. Nevertheless, the most visible science influencers are Northamerican publishing content in English.To explore new perspectives for science in social media, we talked with Astromaiky, a Colombian astrophysicist who started a career as a science influencer. Throughout his profiles on

BY Zheng Yang, PhD Scientists are always considered the only ‘legitimate’ communicators in the online science communication process, especially in the Chinese context where science and scientists enjoy very lofty social status with their discourse authority.However, the digital media environment and the public - who are good at taking advantages of such an environment - are changing this

BY Alexander Gerber Just like other research fields coming of age, science communication may ask itself which patterns have characterised its development over the past decades, which topics and methodologies were particularly often used, and what this can tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of the research field. An in-depth empirical analysis has explored exactly these questions. The

By Esa VäliverronenProblems with academic freedom and scientists’ freedom of expression have been increasingly debated in the academia recently. Restrictions to the freedom of inquiry and the public expression of researchers have become more prominent all over the world, and researchers have not remained silent anymore. According to the recent report Free to think by Scholars at Risk, published

Outreach exhibitions are an effective tool for communicating science or research information to rural communities in Malawi This story is based on my encounter with Mrs Buleya during an outreach exhibition. BY Rodrick Emmanuel Sabakunsi“Beep” - I ignore it. Then a second one: “Beep”. I peep through the window, and there stands Kestern, the exhibition officer. He beckons me, saying: “Boss, we are

Second Wave of Pandemic Overwhelms Trust in Institutions and Scientific Experts in ItalyMassimiano Bucchi, Eliana Fattorini, Barbara SaracinoThe start of the pandemic crisis at the end of the winter had revealed, in Italy as in other countries, the weakness of stereotypes that describe the general public as an easy prey of unreliable information sources and content. According to data from the

BY by Lisa McDonald, Chantal Barriault, and Thomas MerrittIn a pilot study conducted in the spring of 2018, a mixed-methods online survey was used to ask science popularizers how gender harassment influences the way they communicate science to the public. Popularizers reported that gender harassment caused the science popularization field to increasingly strive for gender inclusivity in the

By Mark Bos PhD & Niels Couvreur In recent days, weeks and months, there has been ample attention to how Europeans respond to the COVID-19 crisis. See for example recent publications from Italy and Germany. This blog post provides an overview of the public perceptions of Dutch citizens on how the COVID-19 crisis is communicated and managed. The research was performed late April and the instrument

By Niels G. Mede Populists around the globe accuse political elites of ignoring the will of ‘the common people’. Oftentimes, however, they also bash academic elites – scientists, experts, and other epistemic authorities – for producing knowledge that is allegedly out of touch and useless, does not suit practical needs, and may contradict what ‘ordinary folks’ think. Such views have been echoed by

Scared, Supportive and Confident in Science (but a little confused by expert communication) Trends and changes in the perception of the pandemic: the new data from the Science in Society Monitorby Massimiano Bucchi and Barbara SaracinoOne month after the first survey by the Science in Society Monitor, the percentage of those undermining the Covid-19 threat decreases down to 4%. The more and more

One fifth still underplays the threat, in particular young people and those who use social media for information on the pandemic BY Massimiano Bucchi and Barbara Saracino More than one Italian citizen over five still underplays the Covid-19 threat. This is one of the key results emerging from the recent survey conducted by Observa Science in Society Monitor. The monitor analyses in the first

The World Health Organization, ministries, doctors, the media: it’s hardly surprising that all these actors produce and communicate data on the coronavirus (COVID-19). But that hackers and biohackers take up the subject is far more astonishing. Biohackers from BioCurious, a community laboratory created in 2010 near San Francisco, are monitoring the epidemic closely and organized the Wuhan

Preserving the umbilical cord blood (UCB) of a newborn child in a private biobank for possible future family uses is criticized by bioethical and biomedical literature as challenging the moral economy of donating cord blood to public banks for being used in transplantations. Donation to public banks is described as embedded in the social relations of reciprocity, solidarity, and obligation to

Brian Trench delivered a guest lecture entitled "Images in the social conversation of science on occasion of the official inauguration of the Master in Communication of Science, in Trento on October 2nd, 2019. In his talk, Trench addressed the issue of how images related to science are created by lay people, and how they are externalized and shared in society. The way science is represented

Science is under attack in some quarters. Vaccine and climate change skeptics, for example, argue that scientists misrepresent the threat posed by particular technologies. Others question whether science does more harm than good, altogether. One of the most common beliefs about anti-science attitudes is that they reflect ignorance or inexperience with science. The assumption is that increasing

By Tobias Füchslin Citizen science projects invite people to become “citizen scientists” and contribute to scientific research. This contribution can range from classifying galaxies online and collecting plant specimens out-side all the way to initiating and running community-based research projects together with scientists. Citizen science not only enables researchers to realise large-scale

By Raquel Bertoldo & Claire Mays Across the globe, the past four years are the warmest on record; June and July 2019 are the hottest in recorded history. The climate crisis is a given; that it is anthropogenic is equally clear. Scientists agree on this, and the 2013 study quantifying the consensus in the scientific literature at 97% (its lead author says the consensus continues to grow) has

By Massimiano Bucchi A studio in Tuscany, late afternoon. Dad enters the room. Hi son. I just dropped by to say hello, but I can see you’re working. What are you up to? Well you know, I have been the editor of a journal, ‘Public Understanding of Science’. It’s been 3 years – I’ve told you quite a few times now. ‘Public Understanding of Science’? Good for you. There’s so much need for public

By Stefanie Walter Scientists use Twitter to talk to other scientists, but communication beyond the scientific community is also important. How scientists talk to these groups differs systematically and suggests a strategic language use. Academic Twitter is popular among scholars. Scientists use Twitter to talk about their work, their success and the challenges they are facing. They share