Issue 3 March 2011

SCIENCE VIEW

Welcome to Science View Newsletter

Dear Friends,
I would like to welcome you in the third issue of our
Newsletter. This issue includes articles mostly
about Science Communication and Science Jour-
nalism as well articles concerning the interaction of
Science and Music.
Our members and cooperators have started send-
ing articles to be included in the newsletters that
we issue. In order to have a common format we
have already publish some practical information on
how we will receive articles. You can follow the link
http://en.scienceview.gr/news/11. report on Science Journalism in Greece. The first draft
We would like to thank you about the visits in our will be ready in the mid March. After that, a survey will
new website. We provide you with information start in order to gather the most accurate information
about events that are taking place in Europe and and map the specific field. You will have more details in
we will try to update them regularly. Your help will the next issue of our Newsletter (April issue).
be very valuable to us so in the next months we Enjoy!
are going to include a feedback mechanism in or-
der to improve the web site and satisfy your needs. Menelaos Sotiriou, Secretary General, Science View
Science View has already started to prepare a

Upcoming Events:
Upcoming Events (find more events at http://en.scienceview.gr/news/8)
1st MuSci Café in Athens (http://www.scienceview.gr/news/10) 4/4/2011

Scientix European Conference 2011 (http://www.scientix.eu/web/guest/conference) 6-8/5/2011

EUSCEA Anniversary Conference 2011 (http://www.euscea.org) 10-12/5/2011

Ecsite Annual Conference 2011 (http://www.ecsite.eu/annual_conference) 26-28/5/2011

International Symposium on Crisis Management 2011, in Athens (http://www.iscm2011.eu/) 9-10/6/2011

EDEN Annual Conference, 2011 (http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=530) 19-22/6/2011

Euroscience Open Forum 2012, Call for scientific proposals (http://www.dublinscience2012.ie/wp-content/
30/6/2011
dcs2010-uploads/2011/01/ESOF2012_Scientific_Call.pdf)

Interesting publications:
• Communicating Astronomy with the Public (http://www.capjournal.org)
• Attractions Management Magazine (http://www.attractionsmanagement.com)
• A Guide to Peer to Peer Mentorship in Science Journalism - World Federation of Science Journalists
(http://www.wfsj.org/resources/page.php?id=36)
 Page 2

Bridging the gap between science and journalism

A successful event was organised in Brussels to celebrate the RELATE Final
Conference. It took place on the 28th of January and met around 80 attendees,
among journalists, science communicators, European media, researchers,
journalists associations, students, EC representatives and policy makers.

RELATE - REsearch LAbs for TEaching Journalists – was a two years pro-
ject, started in February 2009 and run until January 2011, funded by the Euro-
pean Commission, 7th Framework Programme (FP7), Capacities, Science in
Society programme, under the action aiming at supporting training activities of
journalists and authors in the EU Member States and the associated countries
in EC funded research laboratories.

The objective of RELATE is to strength the relation between scientists and

Picture 1: Participants of the RELATE
Final Conference
journalists so as to improve the dissemination of scientific topics to the
general audience. The project insisted around the idea of defining a possible
way to reduce the gap between the two main responsible to release the scien-
tific information, the scientist and the journalist, by creating a more effective
communication exchange.

Run across three training sessions in November 2009, March 2010 and November 2010, this initiative gave the chance to journal-
ism students and young journalists to enter in research laboratories and spend one week alongside scientists.
RELATE involved 78 young journalists from 23 countries, writing in 17 languages, who visited a total of 12 outstanding EU
research centers, with more than 30 different labs in 7 European countries. Journalists discovered about biotechnology,
chemistry, food, global health, microbiology and genetics, photovoltaics, nanotechnology, space and many other research
topics.
The project offered journalists the chance not only to meet and learn from researchers but to collect a unique content from
inside the labs and then to transform it into a written article or a video or radio production, and finally send it out for publi-
cation.
This experience gave journalists the opportunity to launch their career as a scientific journalist but also to researchers the
occasion to practice a communication exercise, ending in a learning curve for everyone.
Finally a number of around 80 among articles, audio and video pieces were prepared. Over 1/4 of participants published
their work in specialist or mainstream media, like The Economist, Cosmos magazine, Robotics magazine, Le scienze or
major news websites in Eastern European Countries, like in Romania and Lithuania and websites of national associations
of science writers, or other online platform like ‘New Science Journalism’.
Among the research centers involved in RELATE there are EPFL - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne -
(Switzerland), ENEA - Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development -
(Italy), TUBITAK – The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey - (Turkey) with Bilknet University in An-
kara and Marmara Research Centre; Von Karman Institute (Belgium), INRA -Institute de la Recherche Agronomique -
(France), ICFO -Institute of Photonic Sciences – and Estación Biológica de Doñana, both in Spain, Max Planck Institute
and European Southern Observatory, both from Germany, Universitá di Bologna and Lens Institute, from Italy, and CEMA-
GREF - L’institut de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement – (France).

Ms. Hinano Spreafico D. F., MINERVA Consulting & Communication Sprl. (hinano@minervacommunication.eu)

The 1st McuSci Cafe in Athens, 4 April 2011

Science View and MusicHeaven trying to give another dimension to both the scientific issues
and to musical pursuits. The idea of MuSci Cafe (Music and Science Café), is based on the
searching for the combination and interaction that can have these two concepts through the
years.
Participants may be the general public without specialized knowledge, who will have the
opportunity to explore the latest developments in modern and contemporary issues such as
science in relation to the music and their interaction. Simultaneously, scientists and experts in
those fields become partakers of the concerns and expectations of society.
The 1st McuSci Cafe will be hosted by IANOS on April 4, 2011 at 18:00. In an ideal place,
for the scope of the event, in the city center of Athens, 24 Stadiou str.
In this 1st Cafe the main speakers (that will give the hints in order to start the discussion) will be:
Kostas Moschos, Director of the Institute for Research on Music and Acoustics (IEMA), Professor of Music Technology at the
Athens Conservatory, Professor Nicholas Ouzounoglou, National Technical University, School of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering, Department of Information Transmission Systems and Material Technology, Assistant Professor Christina Anag-
nostopoulou, Music Department, University of Athens, Division of Sound, music education and Byzantine Musicology and Peter
Stergiopoulos, Professor of Flute & Music / Sp. Fellow Department of Research & Development at Ellinogermaniki Agogi.

For more information you can visit http://www.scienceview.gr/news/10, where you can also register for the event.
Music and Science Page 3

Music and Science, the creation of the MuSci Cafes

How does the brain transform sound waves striking our eardrums into sound we
hear in our heads? What are the roots of music? Which is its history through the
centuries? Who are its pioneers, researchers, or other disciplines that are correlated
to?
After all, music, is it a science? Or is it just art?
First of all, music is a science since it is exact, specific, and demands precise acous-
tics, frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony that help us
understand what is going on in the heart of the instrument even if this instrument is
the human voice. And then again, the science of music leads us to distinguish be-
tween the harmonies fundamentals, to recognize the tones and to give us the

chance to understand timbres.

But music is mathematics as well, when it is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions.
Or is it a foreign language that uses symbols to represent ideas and emotions? What about the semantics in music
that makes it a universal language that goes beyond cultures and time? Speaking about culture, could music be the
reflexion of our environment as this one is translated into notes?
But in order to play music, the human body needs to be trained since playing music requires coordination of fin-
gers, hands, feet, arms, lips, and an entire system of muscles to support physically and literally the instrument.
Apart from that music creation and rehearsal demands discipline that is an inner force and control over body and
mind.
Music is all these things, but most of all music is art, allowing humans to get their insights far beyond techniques
and musical norms. It is an art that creates emotions, emotions are science, and man is made of emotions.
All the above issues and more are going to be examined during the MuSci Cafes that Science View starts in the
beginning of April and will be implemented as a periodic event.

Menelaos Sotiriou, Secretary General, Science View

The interdisciplinary scientific approach of music

If we try just to mention only a few fields in which music is relevant to, we should make a really long list. Nowa-
days, both humanistic and positive sciences admit having at least some common points with music. Not only
acoustics, but also aesthetics, anthropology, archeology, art history and theory, biology, cognitive sciences, com-
position, computing, and cultural studies share principles common with music. How about economics, education,
engineering, ethnology, gender studies, history, linguistics, literary studies, mathematics, medicine, neurosci-
ences, philosophy, physiology, psychology, religious studies, sociology, sport, and so forth.
But in what way all these disciplines are correlated to music?
In what way the modern researcher in music technology uses scientific data related to harmony, frequencies,
intensities, and volume changes or even the physiology of the eardrum in order to best develop a new devise?
However, for many decades, the conflict between humanities and sciences has affected research and scientific
development. The “two cultures” egocentrically tended up to recently to assume their own knowledge, attitudes,
assumptions, methods, and standards as superior.
For the benefit of the scientific research and progress such behaviors tend to give access to approaches that con-
tribute to understanding of music in all its manifestations, definitions and contexts. Additionally such approaches
promote interdisciplinary synergy among humanities and sciences as well as academic quality and application of
research findings in every field.

Katerina Chotzoglou, Member of Science View (info@scienceview.gr)

SCIENCE VIEW

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