Scientific knowledge, whose development in recent decades has seen considerable progress, is increasingly asserting itself not only as an indispensable vehicle for educational and professional preparation, but also as an important part of the global education of citizens.
From this perspective, scientific dissemination interests him as an element that enhances his capacity for conscious civic intervention, for example, in development and environmental policies.
The little attention still given to the dissemination of science, by many societies today, has well-known cultural, social and political reasons.
The thought that says “the power of the sorcerer is based on the ignorance of his tribal people is paradigmatic”. The female condition, in certain societies, with prohibition of access to education and, therefore, to knowledge, aims at submitting women to the dictates of these societies.
To publicize whether in a book, in a newspaper or magazine article, on a blog or on a Facebook page is, like a teacher, writing or speaking in a correct and clear language, accessible to the common citizen, without loss of scientific rigor and, whenever possible, pleasant to read or listen to.
In compliance with a civic duty of everyone who had the privilege of studying at a higher level and reached high levels of knowledge, to disclose is to address the citizen, in general, enabling him to acquire knowledge that they had no opportunity to acquire, to deepen their knowledge. possess and remember those that time has erased or distorted.
In compliance with this civic duty, the scientific disseminator also seeks to approach school teachers, providing them with up-to-date scientific information, in close connection with an indispensable cultural component to those who have the noble mission of imparting knowledge and, at the same time, , form citizens.
As a rule, the publisher is a generalist. To put it amusingly, the generalist is someone who knows little about a lot, unlike the specialist, who knows almost everything about almost nothing.
The disseminator can be a specialized scientist, in this or that portion of knowledge, endowed with a generalist vocation. He knows how to communicate with his peers and does so in his own language, with little or no access to ordinary people. But he knows how to change the discourse when he addresses the vulgar (in the sense of the people), that is, when he divulges.
Communication in science is a broader action than dissemination. It is essential. Science is not communication, but it doesn't exist without it. Like the most rudimentary knowledge of our primitive ancestors, science is also inseparable from communication.
Understood as a set of knowledge about larger or smaller portions of the universal whole, obtained through observation, experimentation and/or mental elaboration, science is a building of the collective, whose foundations are lost in the confines of humanity's time.
Built stone upon stone, its guiding thread has always been and will be communication. Without communication, scientific knowledge does not advance. He dies with whoever creates him. Communicate or commune, from the Latin, communicate, means sharing with others. Communicates through written, spoken or sign language. They communicate with each other, and even with us, many of the animals we know.
Communication between humans mainly uses voice and writing, often supported by physiognomic and bodily expression, as happens, for example, with the teacher in the classroom.
The scholars in the academies and the researchers in congresses and other scientific meetings communicate among peers, at the highest level of scholarship. Teachers and students communicate with each other. They communicate, through books or the media, and at the most diverse levels, the few promoters who are willing to do so.
Almost everything that surrounds us and that we constantly use, or with which we interact daily, resulted from the achievements of science and technology. Food, medicine, transport and communications, the most varied equipment in industry, health, culture or leisure, are largely rooted in these achievements of human genius.
Scientific knowledge and related technologies are some of the pillars on which human societies, social progress and human well-being rest.
The parallel between scientific production and the advancement of communication techniques is, especially nowadays, spectacular evidence. From the handwritten text sent by sea and sailing, or by land, in the bag of a messenger on horseback, to the express mail, or the old-fashioned telex and fax, to the very current e-mail and the inexhaustible Internet, the generalization and constant improvement and progressive media of people and ideas, it has made the immense and unreachable edifice of science grow exponentially.
The snapshot of communication, which characterizes our days, is also a factor to be taken into account in guarding against the many risks that the advancement of science also entails.
Let's remember gunpowder, dynamite, nuclear weaponry, chemical and biological warfare, and let's not forget cloning, transgenics, nanotechnology, robotics and everything else that's already there, and even guesswork.
Author AM Galopim de Carvalho
Science in the Regional Press – Ciência Viva
Comments