Kristin

The January topic  is “What’s in store for science during 2012?”. I’ve read plenty of articles which threaten collapse to many of our the current structures we take for granted – from climate and ecosystems, to new financial crises and the way we do business, to education and learning and to the way the internet functions.

Here’s some*:

• Why you should care about Twitter vs Google (Geoff Livingstone)
• Generation Flux: The new and chaotic frontier of business [Fast Company]
• Science and Big Data [The Atlantic]
• What Americans keep ignoring about Finland’s school success [The Atlantic]
• On Parenting, Science and Trust [The Mother Geek]
• Iceberg blocks Mawson tourists [ABC]

*Links are a selection only and any unstated notions of collapse are probably my own pessimistic perspective ;)

What’s on your radar? What do expect the big stories on science to be in 2012? What are the major issues, especially for how we continue to communicate science? This very broad topic will allow us all to present the issues that are front of mind for us this year and will serve to inform future topic themes. I’m anticipating you’ll mention at least the following:

• research funding
• science education (science enrolments and the national curriculum)
• filter bubbles and public understanding of science (especially the process of science and testable theories)
• bets on major “breakthroughs” that will be profiled in mainstream media
• open access/open science/science 2.0
• continuation of climate change, vaccination debates
• consciousness, neurobiology, the mind and the way we think

If there’s anything specific you’d like to add in advance, let me know. Otherwise see you at #onsci on Thursday 19th January at 9pm AEDT | 10am GMT | 5am EST

Kristin

In Why Religion is Natural and Science Is Not, Robert N. McCauley, one of the founding fathers of the cognitive science of religion, argues that our minds are better suited to religious belief than to scientific inquiry. Drawing on the latest research and illustrating his argument with commonsense examples, McCauley argues that religion has existed for many thousands of years in every society because the kinds of explanations it provides are precisely the kinds that come naturally to human minds. Science, on the other hand, is a much more recent and rare development because it reaches radical conclusions and requires a kind of abstract thinking that only arises consistently under very specific social conditions. Religion makes intuitive sense to us, while science requires a lot of work.

This description, read in conjunction with Craig Cormick’s talk (that we also explored last month – how values might make us reject science) is worrying – does religion make more sense?

Alternatively, there’s Sam Harris’s TED talk on how science can answer moral problems. Is there a role for science in guiding us to what is just and right?

As Christmas draws close we’ll explore the links between science and religion. How does faith intersect with science? Do atheism and science go hand-in-hand? What role might religion play in science and vice-versa?

And best yet – from supernovas to faster-than-light-travel – we’ll ask you to put forward your scientific theories to explain the stories of Christmas!

#onsci: Thursday 15th December: 9pm AEDT, 10am GMT, 5am EST

Sarah: Imagine you’re on Yorke Peninsula, a scrubby, unrefined corner of South Australia. Dead kangaroos on the roadside. The occasional emu. You drive to the end of a rough, gravelly road. It’s cool but sunny. You park the car at the base of a hill, and wander up a sandy pathway towards what you presume must be the ocean. You reach the top of the path, and the gusts of wind and salt coming off the sea take your breath away. The ocean is bright blues and greens, the wet sand so shiny it makes you squint. You shift your line of sight about 100 metres from the shoreline to see two jagged poles jutting out of the water. Must be a ship! And then you notice a placard in front of you. The text reads:

BLACK GEMS ON THE BEACH

Fill your beachcombing bucket with tokens of another place and time.

Stranded on this pristine white beach are chunks of 3-million year-old coal, castaways from a place thousands of kilometres distant.

With rough seas, the coal is released from the sunken hold of the steamer ‘Willyama’, which ran aground here in 1907 whilst en route from Newcastle, NSW to Port Pirie, SA.

There actually is no such sign*, but I wrote this piece after an inspiring workshop coordinated by Interpretation Australia, run by Susan Cross, last week^. These 50 words were developed over the course of the day, my best effort at capturing the pleasure I experience collecting pieces of coal with my children at Willyama Beach.  Every trip to this special place, we skip along the sand and imagine what it must have been like to be shipwrecked here over 100 years ago. I aimed to make other people want to do that too.

An earlier version was nowhere near as punchy:

COLLECTING COAL ON YORKE PENINSULA

Washed up on this pristine white beach are scattered chunks of coal which formed nearly 2000 kilometres away.

With rough seas, the coal is gradually released from the hold of the ship ‘Willyama’, which sank here in 1907 whilst travelling from Newscastle to Port Pirie.

By working through my piece of text, and based on lots of excellent theory and examples from Susan, I got rid of the passive voice (passive is evil!), introduced elements of the personal experience (use of ‘your’ in the opening sentence) and got the point across that these pieces of coal didn’t really belong on this beach, without giving a history and science lecture.

That’s interpretation! The art of creating powerful, appealing and memorable information which informs and inspires the general public. A new meaning to a term I was already familiar with. You’ll read interpretive signs in museums, art galleries, libraries, cemeteries, all over the place. And actually I think that what we often refer to as ‘science communication’ could also be included under the ‘interpretation’ umbrella. That’s why I’ve just become a member of Interpretation Australia, and I’m really looking forward to my first IA networking event in February 2012.

*the board that is really posted above this beach can be seen here

^Regan Forrest also attended the workshop, and has blogged about it here

Kristin

The Conversation has recently run series of articles on the State of Science a series in which Australia’s leading scientists give a “snapshot of their discipline”. The first article to kick off the series was by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Prof Ian Chubb on “Does Australia Care About Science?”. The series itself is recommended for its coverage of why do people reject science, how it’s imperfect, why communicate, and how to teach it. In reading these articles, I kept coming back to Prof Chubb’s question – do we care?

A recent ANU study found that Australians were more interested in science than sport, so perhaps we do care?

But why should we care? One reason might be found in Ben Goldacre’s TEDGlobal talk on Battling Bad Science. We’ll be showing that talk at this Saturday’s TEDxYouth@Adelaide (Book now if you’re 12-26!) alongside Janine Mackintosh‘s inspring talk on art and biodiversity, and Emily Steel‘s on how to tell science stories from TEDxAdelaide last weekend (will post links as soon available!). All three talks explain why we should care, but for vastly different reasons.

The recent responses from scientists I follow twitter to NHMRC and ARC funding success rates are other reasons why perhaps people should care. Plus Craig Cormick’s recent presentation broadcast on Radio National program Ockham’s Razor discussed the fact that a large number of people believe in psychic powers, UFOs, magic and similar things. Does this mean they don’t (or can’t!) care about science?

I think these ideas make for an interesting #onsci discussion, particularly whether we (as Australians and/or other nationalities) care about science, why or why not, and why should we? I’m hoping this discussion can go beyond “because it’s good for you like muesli” responses and pick up valid, urgent and important reasons to support the argument that we should care. So, some further questions to provoke your thinking:

• Do we care about science?
• Why should we care, what’s at stake?
• How might science engender empathy?

• Venessa Miemis (US), Emergent By Design (emergence, future of money, future of Facebook and social networking, design, insights on human connection)
• Ross Dawson (Aus), Trends in the Living Networks (future of cities, future of sex, networks, insights on human behaviour)
• Cindy Freewen Weller (US), Urbanverse (future of cities, architecture, design)
• Frank Spencer (US), Kedge Forward (corporate future, futures and design)
• Andy Hines (US), Hinesight (corporate futures, strategy, leadership)
• Jennifer Jarratt and John Mahaffie (US), Leading Futurists and Foresight Culture blog (corporate futures, strategy, leadership)
• Maree Conway (Aus), Thinking Futures (corporate futures, strategy, leadership)
• Stephen Tighe (Aus), Chasing Sunrises (corporate futures, future of cities)
• Linda Carroli & JM Armstrong (Aus), Harbinger Consultants (future of cities, place-making)

It’s not over! This Monday 17th October, we’re hosting a free “Science in the Pub” on human enhancement.The panel is being presented by presented by the National Enabling Technologies Strategy (DIISR) as part of the AusBiotech conference. We’ll be discussing enhanced longevity, stem cells, regenerative medicine, bionics, cognitive therapies and more with a panel including:

• Prof. Peter Blamey, Deputy Director, Bionics Institute
• Gavin Artz, CEO of the Australian Network for Art & Technology
• Dr Rob Sparrow, Visiting Fellow, Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney

It will be held at The Gallery on Waymouth from 6-8pm. You can RSVP through Evenbrite at http://humanenhancement.eventbrite.com/

• Fee Plumley on mapping global digital culture (LIVE from NYC!)
• Chloe Langford (Format)
• Dr Will Grant on why these types of ideas are hard to find
• Simon Divecha about ideas that need time more than funds
• Gerry Cawson from Minter Ellison on thee legal grey areas of what we are doing

So please come along to AC Arts on Light Square at 5pm and find out more about XTK Projects. We’ve still got about $1500 to allocate – you might just come up with a suitable idea!

Our pastings from doing the InsideOut Project in Adelaide today! We’ll have a panel and walking tour at 2:30pm this Saturday 9th October at AC Arts.

Alison: Write Here Write Now provides an opportunity to both new and established writers in South Australia. The competition did not have an entry fee, so anyone could enter; this sadly means there are no cash prizes. But selected writers will have their monologues performed. Monologues provide a chance for writers to dip their toe into writing for theatre. I know I would find the prospect of writing a whole play daunting.

Write Here Write Now had the support of four fantastic judges, Tracey Korsten and David Jobling from South Australia; were joined by Rebecca Vaughan and Guy Masterson from the UK, both Rebecca and Guy annually bring shows to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival.

As with many Adelaide projects we had no budget for advertising and promotion so relied on word of mouth, social networks. We were grateful for small amount of press coverage we received to promote the competition. We had no idea if we would actually get any entries. We were delighted when we did receive entries, especially as Acorn Productions is so new to the Adelaide theatre ‘scene’.

The judges agreed there were 7 monologues worthy of performance. The cast of Chelsea Diprose, Haydn McComas, Jonathan Johnston and Faye Dawson Wise will be bringing the words to life under the direction of myself and Tamara Bennetts.

There has been much discussion about the lack of performance venues in Adelaide but there is also a lack of cheap, warm and clean rehearsal spaces. So Acorn Productions is delighted that Bridge8 have been generous enough to support Write Here Write Now by donating the use of their boardroom for rehearsals. We are delighted to have a lovely bunch of scientists who are always looking to the future supporting the future of theatre in South Australia.

Book here for Write Here, Write Now - Higher Ground, 9-15 Light Square, Adelaide from Thursday 27 October to Sunday 29 October.