LSP MEDIATORS BRIDGING THE SCIENCE-TO-PUBLIC ENCOUNTER

Birthe Mousten29-05-2011

BRIDGING SPECIALISED COMPETENCES: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES EXPLORED

Eesti Maaülikool, 2-3 June 2011

29-05-2011

Why are LSP mediators needed to bridge the science-to-

public encounter

How can LSP mediators bridge the science-to-

public encounter

29-05-2011

Why are LSP mediators needed to bridge the science-to-

public encounter

How can LSP mediators bridge the science-to-

public encounter

Challenges facing

mediators today

Mediation of science over

time

Concepts of science and mediation

29-05-2011

LSP MEDIATORS BRIDGING THE SCIENCE-TO-PUBLIC ENCOUNTER 29-05-2011

29-05-2011

No unified concept of science emerged from a series of interviews with scientists, research managers, research council officials and environmentalists.

Instead, a series of ‘scientific understanding of science’ seems to coexist within groups engaged in scientific research

(Wynne , B. 1999: 5). In Scanlon, E., Whitelegg, E. and Yates, S. (1999). “Communicating Science—Contexts and Channels.” Reader 2. London, UK and New York, USA: Routledge.

PRECONDITIONS:Intellectual contents

PushingResearch methods (established/new) theResearch results (repeated/new)

bordersOwnership and control

Picture showing section of stellar clock and calendar. Inscription on the inner side of a coffin from Asyit, approx. 2100 before Christ.

Complex to understand, but it works?

29-05-2011

1) funding and decision-making

2) people’s ideas and wishes

Precondition for democratic society

Mediation

1) No clear definition2) No clear scope

1) Partial and conflicting views2) Institutional interests

Balance in society?

29-05-2011

Why not just leave science to scientists and politicians and let the rest of us lead our innocent and simple lives?

Scientists report BSE poses only small risk to humans.The Lancet suggests that humans would need to consume large quantities of BSE-infected material before….

•In 1957, Windscale plant in the UK. - In Cumbria, the hill farmers -> whole-body

radioactivity scan -> “no thank you” -> but requesting water supplies analysed-> request not met.

Useless knowledge offered Useful knowledge denied.

(Wynne 1999: 10; Scanlon 1999: 4-13; Wikipedia: windscale fire)•In the 1980s, the asbestos ban. -> First scientific report showing danger early 20th century -> the 1980s complete ban against asbestos. (Hoffman: 1918; Murray 1907: 127 + plenty more over the next 60 years)

•The Mad Cows’ disease in the 1990s – > …….

•Utilization of earth resources all over the world and their impact on the surroundings.

THE LEEDS MECHANIC’S INSTITUTE

The Leeds Mechanic’s Institute, which was one institute, built in the course of the 18 hundreds, to educate the public, so they would become qualified citizens in the industrial age.

•(Irwin 1999; Perutz 1991; Babbage 1830; www.bbc.co.uk/leeds...)

29-05-2011

“Within a short time Broderick completed the third of his renowned buildings. The formidable Mechanics' Institute was built for the educational needs of Leeds' workforce.”(http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2007/06/01/how_we_built_britain_cuthbert_broderick_feature.shtml)

The public’s participation?Different opinions:Scientists feel the public will get in their way(Irwin 1999: 15-16).

Official concerns that the public is not educated enough to make an opinion on scientific matters(Irwin 1999; Perutz 1991; Babbage 1830)

Official initiatives to convey information to the public, example:

29-05-2011Areas of Mediation for Professional Language:

• LSP: Language for specific purposes• ESP: English for specific purposes• EST: English for science and technology• SSK: Sociology of scientific knowledge• IMRD• Applied Linguistics• Localisation• Register analysis• Popular science• Scientific discourse• Rhetoric of science• Science communication• Technical communication

And you can continue the list….

29-05-2011

Mediation – definitions and opinions:

The complexity of translation does not lie only in the process of translating the message, but in the situation in which, in late modernity, translators as mediators can find themselves .(Cronin 2003:63).

..more attention has been devoted to the importance of the translator’s signature, the active presence of the translator in the translation product and process, but translation studies itself has yet to emerge from relative disciplinary obscurity. (Cronin 2003: 64)

Mediators and translators:

Mediation: There is a translator between the two sides, mediating between them. (Stecconi 2004 as quoted by Pym 2010: 77).

1) Intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language

2) Interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language.

3) Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems.

29-05-2011

1) Intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language

2) Interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language.

29-05-2011

Essentials for mediation of science

29-05-2011

Mediators being more than translators:

• Have a bi-cultural vision

And

The mediator must:

• Be a critical reader(Katan: 2004: 20-21)

29-05-2011

Mediators being more than translators:

“Write your own theory.”

“Here, then, is my piece of advice. When theorizing translation, when developing your own translation theory, first identify a problem – a situation of doubt requiring action, or a question in need of an answer.

Then go in search of ideas that can help you work on that problem. There is no need to start in any one paradigm, and certainly no need to belong to one.” (Pym 2010: 166)

Saussure, 1857-1913

29-05-2011

“Associations between word forms and concepts are social conventions of a speech community.”

He also said that:

“these conventions are deposited in the individual speakers of the community”.

And he makes the logical inference that:

“the sum of word form—the associations of all speakers of a language can be regarded as the complete lexicon of that language”.

According to Saussure,

29-05-2011

1) systematizing the science lexicon in a local language

2) systematizing the science lexicon in English

3) Bridging the two lexicons. Although these fields are not new, the request for this work has risen.

• Terminology work and broader overviews • Lexicographical databases and dictionaries • Knowledge management at different levels and

in different languages• Audience adaptation • Medium adaptation • Genre shifts• Etc.

The Rosetta Stone

29-05-2011

Early science articles: Latin as a lingua franca

- Early and up till the 17th century – then fading out.Why was Latin given up as a lingua

franca?

-> Did people communicate well enough to write in Latin?-> Was it read by too few people?-> Was it written by too few people?

-> How much knowledge did not get published as a result of insufficient knowledge of the then lingua franca?

Was knowledge not really disseminated satisfactorily enough or broadly enough in these early days?

29-05-2011

Late 20th century science articles: English as a lingua franca

- Growing importance – then……..

Why has English been accepted as the new lingua franca?

-> Do people communicate well enough to write in English?-> Is it read by too few people?-> Is it written by too few people?

-> How much knowledge does not get published as a result of insufficient knowledge of the lingua franca today?

Is knowledge not really disseminated satisfactorily or broadly enough today?

Sir,

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of year 1666 (at which time I applied my self to the grinding of the optick glasses of other figures than Spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated Phaenomena of Colours. And in order thereto having darkened my chamber, and made a small hole in my window-shuts, to let in a convenient quantity of the Suns light, I placed my Prisme at his entrance, that it might be thereby refracted to the opposite wall. It was at first a very pleasing divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced thereby; but after a while applying my self to consider them more circumspectly, I became surprised to see them in an oblong form; which, according to the received laws of Refraction, I expected should have been circular. (Newton 1672:3076-3076). Newton, I. 1672. New Theory about Light and Colours. Philosophical Transactions No. 80, 3075-3087.

29-05-2011

..during the 18th century, we find the persistency of narrative and epistolary conventions, the continued presence of the explicitly personal and social in the communication of science, and a continued tolerance for emotional expression

(Gross et al. 2002: 69).

29-05-2011

The change was the result of a move away from stringent science experience to a broader, artisan-dominated view of the world

..a decisive switch from dry and bloodless scholastic erudition toward a mixed scientific/technological literature based upon the experience of the artisan, the practitioner, the traveler

(Cohen 1994:323)

29-05-2011

Darwin, C. (1995). The Origin of Species. Gramercy.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

Darwin: The Origin of Species, 1859

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

WHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent-species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food.

29-05-2011

Background

Hypothesis

Other hypothesis

29-05-2011

The Origin of Species was translated by Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-1885) from the fifth edition of 1869.

Jacobsen was a skilled botanist and an author of fiction. In 1872 he was at the beginning of his literary.

Later he became famous as one of the pioneers of the literary period 'the modern breakthrough'.

Novelists as translators of science texts

Ordinary people’s access to science literature and science results?

Why would Darwin be translated?

On Darwin’s translation into Danish Who, what, why

Contents:

Charles Darwin (life, work, results)Storkereden, af Sophus Bauditz (a short story)The Republic and the Republicans in France, by J.C.M. (political article)Mixed information with mixed contents

Source: Magazine with mixed scientific and humanistic contents, published every Sunday, ed. June 1871.

29-05-2011

29-05-2011

Illustrations of technical gadgets, inventions and their function.

A police novel.

A report on whaling.

Illustreret Tidende, December, 1862

29-05-2011

29-05-2011

Polycation-based nanoparticle delivery for improved RNA interference therapeutics. Howard KA, Kjems, J. University of Aarhus, Interdisciplinary Science Center and Department of Molecular biology, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark, kenh@inano.dk

Small-interfering RNA, siRNA-mediated silencing of genes implicated in disease by the process of RNA interference offers a novel genetic medicine approach. Polymeric nanoparticles (or polyplexes) formed by self-assembly of polycations with siRNA can be used for site-specific delivery, cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking as a strategy to improve the therapeutic potential of siRNA. This review describes the application of polyplexes for in vivo delivery of synthetic siRNA with focus given to systemic and mucosal routes and in vivo requirements. Issues including use of stimuli-responsive systems for intracellular trafficking of siRNA are discussed as part of necessary future directives towards the development of RNA-based clinical therapeutics.

29-05-2011

29-05-2011

Very complex register

Very complex noun phrases

Weak verbs Scientific passive Objective language Deagentivisation Etc.

Science text features:

29-05-2011

Medicine designed at nanoscale gives completely new opportunities for targeted treatment of illnesses in people, such as cancer and arthritis.

And it can be used for making new natural-like spareparts for human beings.

29-05-2011

Medicine-boxes made of dna.

Researchers at…. have succeeded in making a box in nanosize……

The building blocks are dna molecules.

Etc.

PRECONDITIONS:Intellectual contents

PushingResearch methods (established/new) theResearch results (repeated/new)

bordersOwnership and control

29-05-2011

1) funding and decision-making

2) people’s ideas and wishes

Precondition for democratic society

Mediation

1) No clear definition2) No clear scope

1) Partial and conflicting views2) Institutional interests

Balance in society?

Diogenes and the other dog philosophers: the cynicists.

Living sparsely, lazily, freshly and brazenly as free dogs:

Barking at people.

Asking questions, etc.

29-05-2011

Aitäh!

Thank you!

29-05-2011

HTTP://WWW.POPSCI.COM/

WWW.HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM/

INDSÆT OGSÅ EN MOBILTELEFONTEKST MED SKANNER.

29-05-2011

Public understanding is demandingPublic access is limitedPublic trust is requestedScience is characterized by secrecyScience is biased

Citizens learning the procedures, not the science

Is science detached from everyday life?

29-05-2011