Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Sequestration cuts in Europe?

Nobel Prize and awardees and Fields Medalists launch campaing against EU research austerity 

On October 23 a petition has been addressed by Nobel Prize awardees and Fields medalists to the representatives of European governments, the object: the rumors that research funds will be cut on occasion of the next meeting to discuss the European budget.
The sword of Damocles that is threatening the European funds for scientific research is, at a closer look, an extremely dangerous risk for the future of all European citizens, not only scientists. 
The current well-being of most of us Westerners is based on easily identifiable pillars: scientific studies, at first abstract and then applied, that brought us electricity and computers, just to quote a couple of examples. There would not be anything of all that we are used to if some ancestor of ours had not been so curious to think about the why and how of natural phenomena, which sometimes have weird names such as “quantum field theory”.
The example that I personally like to quote most often, given that I am both an Italian and a physicist, is related to CERN and its accelerator LHC, now operating underground in the Geneva area: the acronym designating this experiment stands for Large Hadron Collider, which, in plain language, corresponds to a sort of dodgem whose cars are minuscule particles, which belong to the category of hadrons ... hadrons as in “hadron-therapy”, a technique of modern medicine that is used to cure deep cancers in a unique way. How else could humanity have discovered the existence and behavior of the subatomic world other than walking down the path that has brought to build the LHC in order to discover and study the Higgs Boson?
This link is just one example of a connection between fundamental science and well-being that is obscure to most people. It is then apparent how the issue of an accurate positioning of research in European funding policies represents, in reality, a much wider problem, which requires a unity of intents that goes far beyond academia and laboratories: it concerns all of us together with our kids.
In such a context the voice that reaches the ears of our political representatives should be a single powerful one that collects many more people than just the scientists. The latter should lead these unitary efforts: in fact, in order to have a weight in society, before politics, lobbying is needed.
This goal can only be achieved if the general public is involved in the process and engaged in a two-way conversation; how does one go about conquering support from the public? by speaking its own language, studying its interests, meeting it where it is to be found, which most certainly is not at the entry to the Ivory Tower. 
A marketing strategy is needed; that's right: marketing, as in advertising campaigns; in fact, where else is the success of advertisement if not in its ability to sympathize with the public, to be in its shoes, to touch its emotional cords, one category at a time? 
The time is over, then, to simply rely on press releases in order to reach the public: communication has its own tools, science is the product to be advertised, in a proper way of course. In such a context it is not an heresy to bother mixing scientific content with languages that are either non-scientific or non-verbal even: theatre and dance, for example, or video-games or comics ... 
This list could go on and would cite many efforts that either have been just proposed or are already being implemented. What is still missing, which I personally believe would represent a qualitative leap, is the unity of intents: “united we stand, divided we fall”, as the saying goes. There is a notorious instance that exemplifies what I am advocating for here: the history of Hubble Space Telescope. In 2009 it had been declared doomed by US President George W. Bush and NASA President Sean O'Keefe, in charge at the time: no more maintenance for the telescope, the money that the necessary Shuttle mission would have cost had to be destined to bring astronauts on Mars. The scientific community succeeded in exciting such an emotion in common people that the two lobbied against the official decision, pushing Bush and O'Keefe to change their minds ... incredible! But true and repeatable.
Today's situation, worsened by the economic and financial crisis, represents both a test bench and a turning point: if the lack of awareness and the poor appreciation of science by the public are not confronted vigorously, no petition will ever suffice.

In conclusion, putting forth a petition is very welcome, in that it asks the public to express its support; however in order for the public to be appreciative of science it has to be aware first and this can only be achieved if the public is engaged in a two-way conversation.
My recipe for tackling this problem at its roots is in a paper I titled “Who cares about physics today? A marketing strategy for the survival of fundamental science and the benefit of society”: it is available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0082, I hope you will find it interesting.
 

Umberto Cannella

Si scrive “comunicazione scientifica”, si legge “solide basi per un futuro di prosperita’ economica, sociale e lavorativa”

La spada di Damocle che pende sui finanziamenti europei alla ricerca e’, a ben guardare, un rischio pericolosissimo per il futuro di tutti i cittadini europei, scienziati e non.
Il presente agio della maggior parte di noi occidentali poggia su dei pilastri ben identificabili: studi scientifici, dapprima astratti e poi applicati, che si sono tradotti in elettricita’ e computer, tanto per fare due esempi. Non ci sarebbe niente di tutto quello a cui siamo abituati se qualche nostro antenato non fosse stato cosi’ curioso da pensare al perche’ e per come di fenomeni naturali con nomi a volte strani come “teoria campistica dei quanti”. L’esempio che, in quanto fisico e in quanto Italiano, mi piace citare piu’ spesso e’ quello del CERN e dell’acceleratore LHC ora in funzione sottoterra dalle parti di Ginevra: l’acronimo di questo esperimento si traduce in Italiano con “Grande Collisore di Adroni”, ovvero una specie di pista per l’auto-scontro, dove le auto sono minuscole particelle subatomiche appartenenti alla categoria degli adroni … adroni come in “adro-terapia”, una tecnica della moderna medicina usata per curare i tumori profondi in maniera insostituibile. In quale altro modo avremmo potuto scoprire l’esistenza e il comportamento del mondo subatomico senza percorrere la strada che ha portato all’LHC per scoprire e studiare e il Bosone di Higgs?
Questo collegamento e’ solo un esempio di una connessione tra scienza e benessere che e’ oscura ai piu’. Si capisce allora come il problema di un accurato posizionamento della ricerca nelle politiche europee di finanziamento sia in realta’ ben piu’ ampio e richieda un’unita’ di intenti che va ben oltre gli ambiti accademici e i laboratori: riguarda tutti noi e i nostri figli. In un tale contesto la voce che dovrebbe giungere alle orecchie dei nostri rappresentanti politici dovrebbe essere unica e raccogliere molte piu’ persone che non i soli scienziati.
Agli scienziati sta, semmai, il ruolo di guida di questi sforzi unitari: per avere un peso sociale prima che politico bisogna fare fronte comune o, all’inglese, fare lobby. Questo obiettivo si puo’ raggiungere solo se si lavora insieme e se si dialoga con il grande pubblico. E come si conquista il grande pubblico? Parlando la sua lingua, studiando i suoi interessi, incontrandolo la’ dove si fa trovare, non aspettandolo alla porta d’ingresso della Torre d’Avorio. Occorre adottare una strategia di marketing, si’: marketing, come nelle pubblicita’. A cosa si deve infatti il successo di una campagna pubblicitaria se non alla sua capacita’ di simpatizzare col pubblico, di immedesimarsi con lui, di toccare le sue personali corde emotive, categoria per categoria?
Basta allora con i soli “dispacci di stampa”! La comunicazione ha i suoi strumenti di funzionamento, la scienza e’ il prodotto da reclamizzare, in maniera appropriata evidentemente. Ecco allora che non e’ un’eresia darsi la pena di miscelare il contenuto scientifico con linguaggi non-scientifici e addirittura neanche verbali: il teatro e la danza per esempio; oppure i videogiochi; o ancora i fumetti. La lista potrebbe continuare e citerebbe numerosi sforzi gia’ proposti o in fase di attuazione. Quello che ancora manca, e che secondo me potrebbe rappresentare il salto di qualita’, e’ l’unita’ d’intenti: l’unione fa la forza, verrebbe da dire.
C’e’ un illustre precedente che sostanzia questo mio punto di vista: la storia del telescopio Hubble. Nel 2009 era stato “condannato a morte” da Bush junior e l’allora presidente della NASA, tale O’Keefe: niente piu’ manutenzione, i soldi per la necessaria missione dello Shuttle dovevano andare ai piani per portare l’uomo su Marte. La comunita’ scientifica riusci’ a suscitare una tale emozione nella gente comune che porto’ entrambi a fare fronte comune (lobby) contro questa decisione, spingendo Bush e O’Keefe a tornare sui loro passi … incredibile! ma vero e ripetibile.
La situazione di oggi, aggravata dalla crisi economica e finanziaria, e’ un banco di prova e un punto di svolta: se non si affronta in maniera vigorosa il problema della scarsa consapevolezza e dell’inadeguato apprezzamento del grande pubblico nei confronti delle scienze non ci sara’ raccolta di firme che tenga.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Ode to the Higgs



The Higgs boson is my name
which to you might sound insane
I came to put order in some mess
as I give every particle its mass
I've been hidin' for billions of years
but now I am in every mouth and ears
My potential looks like a Mexican hat
and on it now you know where I'm at
They made me come out in a cave
and they're really kind of brave
LHC is the machine at CERN
which did so well since on was turned 

It does not end with me getting to fame
Coz we've only started playing the game
You won't wait long for some more fun
Coz in reality it's only just begun
It took 50 years for an idea to test
Now for sure we can't just rest
So much stuff we don't know yet
We could call Hawking and make a bet
Most of the Universe is still obscure
We need imagination of the most pure
Our ignorance amounts to a grand 96%
So we hope for some strange particle event
To shed some light on the dark sector
We rely on some smart physics doctor

If all this doesn't ring you any bell
There's one more thing I'd like to tell
A weird connection called spinoff
that we should really not break off
What we discover due to curiosity
Turns out to benefit all humanity
Get then ready for some insanity
There's something called hadron-therapy
That can cure people's cancers
With best precision and least dangers
This is just one meaningful example
Of a pattern that is quite more ample


We explore Nature to understand
What is the picture the most grand
In trying to know of every piece its place
we get something you can't quite replace
To discover a particle called Higgs Boson
We opened wide a brand new horizon
In conclusion that's the story
Of why I deserve so much glory
So the moral of the story is
Don't forget what my name is


[rhymes conceived by Umberto Cannella]