Vicenza – Italy, 11th february 2005, Camera di Commercio di Vicenza, Corso Fogazzaro 37 (Salone Marzotto). From embryo to GMOs, from radioactive waste to the ozone hole: more and more times, these days, we find ourselves in the condition of arguing and deciding on science and technology issues. Such issues ask not only researchers, but…
Vicenza – Italy, 11th february 2005, Camera di Commercio di Vicenza, Corso Fogazzaro 37 (Salone Marzotto). From embryo to GMOs, from radioactive waste to the ozone hole: more and more times, these days, we find ourselves in the condition of arguing and deciding on science and technology issues. Such issues ask not only researchers, but…
Observa is carrying on the First Italian Forum on-line on “Science and Society”, a new discussion space on science and technology issues and their relationship with society. This Forum offers to all participants the opportunity to raise issues and proposals in order to improve the dialogue between science and citizens, or simply to express their…
The choice of a place to store garbage or to build up a thermo-electric station, traffic limitation’s measures to reduce pollution, experiments and trading on GMOs, the use in medicine and research of embryo’s staminal cells: the public agenda and the one of political decisions, even at local level, get full of complex questions related…
Observa, in partnership with the National Committee for Biosafety and Biotechnologies, is conducting the fourth survey on Biotechnologies and public opinion in Italy. The 2003 edition revealed that Italians grew more skeptical attitude towards GM food – two italians out of three considering it dangerous, while they continued to express a remarkable positive attitude with…
In the last twenty years scientific research and technological innovations have been abruptly accelerating, at the same time of important political and social changes (as the end of the bipolar balance and the increasing globalisation of economy): this contributed to the complexity of the relation between three of the most important agents of our society…
The european Project Paradys, which was focused on public participation and policy making in the field of agricultural biotechnologies in seven European countries, has been completed PARADYS project is a study on citizen participation in the regulation of plant biotechnology in Europe, namely in the licesing procedure for geneticaly modified plant (GMOs). The research consortium…
Within the framework of the first European Science & Society Forum 2005, promoted by the European Commission to highlight the most meaningful events in which citizens are involved in themes as science and technology, Observa proposed to launch the first Italian Forum on “Science and Society” as a preliminary project by which Italy will contribute…
Even authoritative sources consider European citizens, and especially Italian ones, to be sceptical about biotechnologies mainly because of lack of information; victims of “scientific illiteracy”, they would be bearers of prejudiced aversion, fomented by mass medias, to science. Is this really true? Federico Neresini, Giuseppe Pellegrini and I have been periodically surveying Italian public understanding…