Conference Proceedings

Science in These Times — Opening Plenary Session

Climate change, nanotechnology, global health, anti-terrorism — without an understanding of science and technology, there can be no real understanding of the majority of critical issues facing the United States and the world today. The goal of this session is to underscore the importance of supporting and understanding science and technology today, and to explore practical and effective strategies for improving communication among and between scientists, policy makers, business and industry leaders, educators, and the general public.

Keynote address
• Al Gore (45th Vice President of the U.S.)
• Shirley Ann Jackson (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Panel
• Lester Crystal (MacNeil/Lehrer Productions), moderator
• Rita Colwell (University of Maryland)
• Julie Louise Gerberding (Centers for Disease Control)
• Alan Leshner (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
• James Mongan (Partners HealthCare)

Science, Pseudoscience, and Belief

Scientists, science educators and journalists may understand the difference between science, pseudoscience, and belief — but does the general public? The debate over evolution versus “intelligent design” offers a highly visible example of where the differences matter; but an ability to distinguish science from non-science is just as important to discussions of global climate change, genome research, and individual health. At the same time, personal beliefs may be extremely important to individuals and, whether or not they are incompatible with scientific evidence, need to be considered. This session will explore strategies for constructive public engagement and the development of appropriate tools for evaluating and utilizing the range of information presented broadly as "science."

Panel
• Phillip Sadler (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), moderator
• Connie Bertka (American Association for the Advancement of Science) slides
• Lawrence Krauss (Case Western University)
• Eugenie Scott (National Center for Science Education) slides
• Gerald Wheeler (National Science Teachers Association) slides

Innovative Projects: Public Engagement — Part 1 (continuing sessions part 1 & 2)

Get involved! Team members from not-yet-completed science communications projects — designed for a range of audiences and settings, from broadcast and the web to museums and community centers — will present their work, along with preliminary plans for reaching and involving the public. Session attendees will be asked to react to these plans and, together, brainstorm alternative strategies to enhance the effectiveness, reach, and longevity of each project. The purpose of this session is to model a creative process that considers a range of strategies for engaging the public and to offer tips that attendees may find useful in developing their own work.

Panel
• Emlyn Koster (Liberty Science Center), moderator
• Julie Benyo (WGBH-TV) slides
• Roger Bernier (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) slides
• Erica Brandon (Creative Discovery Museum) slides
• Chris Condayan (American Society for Microbiology) slides
• Wayne LaBar (Liberty Science Center) slides
• Dolly Ledin (University of Wisconsin) slides
• Bill Lichtenstein (Lichtenstein Creative Media) slides
• Marsha Lakes Matyas (The American Physiological Society)

Science in the Media

This is a challenging look at science where most Americans encounter it — through specialized educational programming, and also in films, mainstream news, and popular books. What responsibility do media producers have to provide accurate and substantive information about science and current research? How can they do so effectively while continuing to engage large, mainstream audiences? Is there more that the public and private media could or should do to bolster science and technology content, and might there be commercial as well as civic rewards for doing so?

Panel
• Jeffrey Brown (The NewsHour), moderator
• Deborah Blum (University of Wisconsin)
• Timothy Ferris (University of California, Berkeley)
• Larry Klein (NOVA, WGBH)
• Jennifer Lawson (WHUT-TV)

Innovative Projects: Public Engagement — Part 2

Continued session
Panel:
• Emlyn Koster (Liberty Science Center), moderator
• Carol Lynn Alpert (Museum of Science, Boston)
• Paula Fraser (Bellevue Public Schools) slides
• Laura Lynn Gonzalez (Regenerative Medicine Partnership in Education) slides
• Heather Gross (University of Alberta) slides
• Arun Bansil (Northeastern University) slides
• Pascal Marmier (Consulate of Switzerland) slides
• Dee Rawsthorne (Norwich BioScience Institutes) slides
• Julia Schulhof (ScienCentral, Inc.) slides

The Public's Role in the Scientific Enterprise

Too often, science communication is top-down and one-way, with the science community sharing selected details of current work and some small fraction of the public paying attention. Clearly, a more effective strategy is needed, one that motivates more people to seek scientific knowledge because they’ve come to understand its relevance to their lives. But how to accomplish this? One proposal is to make the public a more active partner in the scientific enterprise. This session considers what might be achieved if public engagement in science were to increase substantially, and explores best practices and possible strategies for achieving this.

Panel
• Graham Farmelo (Science Museum, London), moderator
• Edna Einseidel (University of Calgary) slides
• Heather Mayfield (Science Museum, London) slides
• Gerrit Rauws (King Baudouin Foundation) slides
• Doug Sarno (Perspectives Group) slides
• Emmanuelle Schuler (Science Café) slides
• Stef Steyaert (Flemish Foundation of Science & Technology Assessment) slides

Innovation — New media and platforms

New digital media have opened up many exciting new interfaces as well as many new means of communications. This session looks at state-of-the-art examples of how these new interfaces and communication methods are being used to bring the public closer to science, including blogs and other Internet facilities, cell phone technology, digital television and radio, and video games. We will also look to the future, to speculate on what might be the most productive ways of using these exciting technologies.

Panel
• Rob Semper (Exploratorium), moderator
• Lauren Aquirre (NOVA, WGBH)
• Matt Nisbet (American University) slides
• David Rabkin (Museum of Science, Boston) slides
• Mike Zyda (Gamepipe Labs)

Science, art and the humanities

The arts can shed light on the sciences and make them accessible to new audiences. Many of the most effective art-science initiatives emerge from constructive collaborations between practicing artists and scientists, though some emerge from gifted individuals with a unique ability to work in different fields of human endeavor. In this session, four distinguished practitioners at the interface between the sciences and the arts present their perspective on what can be achieved in interdisciplinary endeavors in four branches of art –– literary prose, poetry, drama and contemporary visual art.

Panel
• Graham Farmelo (Science Museum, London), moderator
• Lavinia Greenlaw (University of London) slides
• Catherine Hughes (Independent museum theater expert) slides
• Alan Lightman (MIT)
• Clare Matterson (Welcome Trust) slides

Visions of the Future — Science in the coming decade

The fields of science and technology are constantly changing, and even insiders struggle to remain current. But what about the general public? To a large extent, interested audiences rely on communications professionals to keep them informed, and producers strive to meet this need while also working to attract new audiences with exciting, up-to-the-minute content. This session brings together leading researchers in some of the most exciting scientific fields and takes a look at cutting edge research and what the future may hold in store.

Panel
• John Durant (MIT Museum), moderator
• Bruce Cohen (Shervert Frasier Research Institute) slides
• Andrew Dobson (Princeton University) slides
• Mauro Ferrari (University of Texas)
• Raju Kucherlapati (Harvard/Partners Center for Genetics) slides
• David Charbonneau (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) slides

Science + Society — A closing perspective

The conference is just a beginning! Conference speaker Rita Colwell concludes with a summary of lessons learned and strategies yet to be tried, and helps to plant seeds for action and activism in the months to come.

Summary speaker: Rita Colwell (University of Maryland) slides