Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 3–7, 2014; Denver, Colorado
Session L38: Invited Session: History of the Communication of Science to the Public |
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Sponsoring Units: FHP FOEP Chair: Brian Schwartz, City University of New York Room: 709/711 |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 8:00AM - 8:36AM |
L38.00001: The Establishment of Science Communication for the Public at the Royal Institution Invited Speaker: Frank Burnet The Royal Institution was founded in 1799, the same year Napoleon came to power by coup d’état in France. Britain had good reason to fear invasion by their old enemy and was at the time very dependent on food imports. The initiative to create the RI was led by Joseph Banks, the then President of the Royal Society of London and Benjamin Thompson, an American who fled to England after picking the losing side in the War of Independence, and became amongst many other things the Bavarian Army Minister and a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. The mission of the RI was to be: ``Diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements, and for teaching by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments, the application of science to the common purposes of life.'' Much of its early activity was directed towards promoting innovation in the field of agriculture and the majority of its founding ``Proprietors'' were wealthy landowners. The teaching part of the Mission was led for over fifty years by two of the greatest scientists of their time Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday. Both of whom played a key role in adding ``blue sky'' as well as applied research to the RIs activities. This presentation will seek to combine an historical account of the RI with reflection on the perspective this provides on current initiatives at the science, innovation and society interfaces. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 8:36AM - 9:12AM |
L38.00002: Displaying Science: The Exhibits Revolution in Science and Natural History Museums, 1900-1990 Invited Speaker: Karen Rader Once defined primarily by their collections, by the end of the twentieth century, American natural history and science museums had become institutions defined largely by their displays. This talk will use life science and physics exhibits to illustrate how and why this transformation occurred. Efforts to modernize displays shaped and were themselves shaped by new institutional roles and identities for museums in twentieth-century science education and in American culture. Drawing on a forthcoming co-authored book (``Life on Display,'' U. Chicago, 2014) this talk will reveal the controversies that accompanied exhibition building, chronicling how and why curators, designers, and educators worked with and against one another to build displays intended to communicate new ideas about topics like evolution, animal behavior, and radiation to the American public. It explains that scientists were extraordinarily invested in the success of museums' displays and saw display as an integral element of their own public outreach work and research agendas. In turn, rapidly professionalizing exhibit designers were periodic participants in the research process, supplementing and sometimes prompting research projects through the displays they built. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:12AM - 9:48AM |
L38.00003: The Role of Living History in the Communication of Science to the Public Invited Speaker: Susan Marie Frontczak |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 9:48AM - 10:24AM |
L38.00004: The Historical Role of the New York Times in the Communication of Science to the Public Invited Speaker: Dennis Overbye |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 10:24AM - 11:00AM |
L38.00005: The Future of the New Media in the Communication of Science Invited Speaker: Joseph Hanson New media, that which is based around social networks, ubiquitous consumer technology, and today's near-universal access to information, has transformed the way that science is communicated to the scientist and non-scientist alike. We may be in the midst of mankind's greatest shift in information consumption and distribution since the invention of the printing press. Or maybe not. The problem with predicting the future is that it's very hard, and unless you're Isaac Asimov, it's very easy to be wrong. When one predicts the future regarding the internet, that risk becomes almost a certainty. Still, we can apply lessons learned from the near and distant history of science communication to put today's new media evolution into perspective, and to give us clues as to where social media, digital journalism, open access, and online education will lead science communication in years to come. Most importantly, it remains to be seen whether this new media evolution will translate into a shift in how science is viewed by citizens and their policymakers. [Preview Abstract] |
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