On December 17th , 2020, at 05:30 pm, it will take place a new appointment of the “Incontri del giovedì – Uno sguardo al futuro all’ora dell’aperitivo” (“Thursday meetings – A glance to the future at cocktail-hour”), organized by IEIIT – CNR Institute.

The series of biweekly frequency meetings deals with specific themes connected to IEIIT – CNR institute with transversal vision through application domains and technological areas with a particular attention to their evolutions.

 The new seminar will be held by Dr. Peter M. Wiedemann (University of Wollongong, Australia) on the following subject: “Science communication under siege. What to do for survival“.

The event will focus on science communication under siege, i.e., under circumstances that hinder and restrict the delivery of unbiased scientific evidence to the general public and hamper the reception of scientific insights and their use in every day thinking of the general public.

The talk will start from a short description of these circumstances and present some insights into the most critical barriers to successful science communication:

• The ambiguity of scientific fact
• Politicization science
• The spread of science related skepticism in the public
• Low numeracy
• Biased science perception shaped by conspiracy theories

In the central part of the presentation, difficult cases of science communication will be discussed. They refer to the COVID 19 pandemic, pesticides in beer, vaccination, breast cancer screening, exposure to high voltage power lines, and RF EMF exposure from cell phones and base stations. Next, it will be described how science communicators could handle distrust, skepticism, and science denial.
Finally, it will be pointed out that science communicators should concentrate on science skepticism and devaluation of science. They should also take care of their role as impartial experts in political decision making.

The event will be broacasted through Microsoft Teams

To subscribe and participate, please use this link.