Scientific communication: a bridge between science and society

To know, and to understand, is essential for appreciating and evaluating the impact that research has on the development of society. Scientific communication and any dissemination related with scientific advances is an exciting but demanding task both for communicators and the recipients of the message, as well as for the channels that are used.

Researchers and companies need to find the right style and language to bring their activities closer to a society that at the same time has the duty to participate in debates about science and technology, as guide and end-user of the results. To achieve this, however, they must keep their curiosity alive, or even recover it.

Journalists and communicators are the bridge that link both groups and contribute to narrowing the gap between science and society. Their function, which is critical, should be dominated by the knowledge of the subject matter and in particular by the responsibility inherent in their job of disseminating the information, to be friendly and truthful and far-removed from sensationalism.

Technological advances and a greater presence of scientific news in the media are combining to boost interest in scientific communication, and we are witnessing the creation of new meeting points and communication spaces. In the Basque Country we find examples near at hand; this newsletter itself is one of the most recent examples.

In October, for example, the sixth issue of the science magazine CIC Network was published. This is a six-monthly publication of the Cooperative Research Centres (CIC) and it is celebrating its third anniversary, bringing science closer to Basque society through interviews and articles about scientific matters, and features such as Entorno CIC, a window on the most important scientific news happening in the Basque Country.

In November, Science, Technology, Quality and Excellence Week is to be held. Among the featured activities is the 1st Scientific Communication Seminar, the brainchild of the Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation, which in recognition of the part played by the media is aimed at professionals directly or indirectly related with scientific and technological communication: media professionals, communications and marketing directors from private companies –companies, technology parks, etc.- or public ones –communications departments in public institutions, the health system, etc.-.

CIC bioGUNE and the BBVA Foundation have for the fourth year running organised a forum of thematic conferences (neurosciences, Darwin, ageing, nutrition and health); Ikerbasque organises the science forum Zientzia Foroa about various scientific facets and publishes a bulletin related to the research of scientists recently attracted to the Basque Country; the Eduardo Anitua Foundation is celebrating its 1st International Symposium on Translational Regenerative Medicine; Vita Aidelos organises the Biotecnologate! contest, and initiatives such as Eureka Café, a place to speak about science in a fun, clear and simple way, have begun to spring up. In October Eureka Café was all about viruses.

These and other events and conferences are mentioned in the Newsletter and the BioBasque website when they are about Biosciences, and therefore reflect a mere part of the all the communication activities in the Basque Country.

If only it were not necessary to remind people of the importance of information for growth in an educated, free society. Pirandello said that “man is always ready to deny things he does not understand” and unfortunately there is no lack of examples for this affirmation. It is the responsibility of all of us to make those examples disappear.