The Royal Institution is running an evening event on Thursday 23rd September, exploring neutrality in scientific reporting by the media.

Guest curator Mark Henderson (Science Editor of The Times) leads an expert panel who will debate the key issue of journalistic neutrality in science. What should journalists do when one side of an argument has more scientific credibility and support than another? And to what extent do they have a responsibility to weigh up competing opinions, to decide whether some are more equal than others?

Find out more and book tickets (£8/£6 or £4 for RI members)

Booking has now opened for the 2010 British Science Festival, taking place in Birmingham from 13- 19 September.

Explore a virtual landscape with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and the BES, or hear experts discuss how ecology and green design will help us tackle the challenges of food, energy and water security in the ‘Landscapes of the Future’ session, in partnership with the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.

Join the team from the Virtual Landscape Theatre from 14 – 17 September to run. walk or fly through a virtual simulation of upland landscapes and explore how development may affect these into the future. Electronic audience voting allows you to express your preference about the possible futures which you’d like to see in 50 years or so. Admission is free.

Our expert panellists will run a public discussion on ‘landscapes of the future’ from 10am – 12pm on 14th September. Join a landscape architect, urban ecologist and specialists in nature’s life support services to discuss how our landscapes can balance the multiple demands on them – from food, fuel, housing, transport, demand for water and climate change – now and to 2030. Can our landscapes help us to tackle this ‘perfect storm’ of competing demands, as discussed at length by the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Prof. Sir John Beddington? Admission £5.00.

Find out more about the programme at this year’s British Science Festival – the largest festival of its kind in Europe.

The European Ecological Federation has today launched the website for its 12th Congress, taking place in Avila, Spain, on 25 – 29 September 2011. The meeting is being organised jointly by the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology (AEET) and Portuguese Ecological Society (SPECO), on behalf of the EEF.

The EEF plan to organise a workshop as part of this meeting, engaging policy-makers from the European Commission. Further details will appear on the EEF website when available.

The European Ecological Federation encourages all ecological societies and colleagues to develop topics for symposia and/or workshops for the 12th EEF Congress: Deadline 12th November.

The Sense About Science Annual Lecture 2010 (Monday 21 June 2010) by Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor in Chief of the BMJ, is now available as a podcast from the Guardian

See pictures from the event and access information about the Sense About Science lectures at the Sense about Science website.

The BES Policy Team last night attended the inagural Royal Society Science Policy Centre debate, taking place this year as part of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary festival of science and the arts, ‘See Further’. Lord Krebs, new Chair of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee; Professor David Nutt, Chair of the newly created ‘Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs’; Prof. Mike Hulme, Head of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA and Prof. Sheila Jasanoff, Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University, joined Royal Society President, Lord Rees, on stage at the Southbank Centre to discuss ‘the experimental society’. The event was organised in partnership with the Science and Democracy Network – set up by Prof. Jasanoff to bring together leading thinkers annually to consider major science policy questions.

Speakers were each given five to ten minutes to cover their key points before the floor was opened for questions. A central theme was the role of scientists in providing scientific advice to policy-makers. Lord Krebs was clear that scientific advisors have the job of assessing risk, whilst policy advisors have the role of managing risk. Prof. Jasanoff felt that scientific advisors are those who are able to tell society when an experiment is over; when we have enough evidence to move forwards and the scientific certainty to act, at least until evidence is reassessed. Prof. Jasanoff was also clear that it wasn’t enough for scientists to say that they were trustworthy just by virtue of their position: creating trust in people was fundamentally interlinked with creating trust in knowledge and needed to be cultivated. Prof. Jasanoff contrasted the position of physicians, seen as trustworthy figures by the public due to their adoption of a unique ethical code, with that of scientists. She stated that being more highly cited is not necessarily a mark of being more trustworthy: an interesting point.

Prof. Nutt, controversially dismissed by the Government as Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in 2009, was clear that politicians should not stray into making psuedoscientific statements to gain favour with the electorate: politicians should stick to politics and scientists to science.

Prof. Hulme highlighted the UEA ‘climategate’ affair as a mechanism facilitating greater openess and transparency in science. With the aid of the internet, the public can offer new challenges to scientific institutions. Prof. Hulme said that it was valid, in an open society, for the public to make demands for greater openness from scientists. Scientists need to consider how they respond to this. Prof. Hulme suggested that ‘climategate’ and ‘glaciergate’ – controversies over data cited by the IPCC -have unsettled the traditional notion of the expert. Who are the experts in society? Prof. Hulme gave an example of a flood-risk assessment project in Pickering. Citizens have been brought in alongside hydrologists and geomorphologists to construct models of flood risk in the town, based on their understanding of how water has flowed through the town in past flooding events. As a consequence of public involvement, there has been greater public buy-in to the model constructed.

Next Tuesday sees the Royal Society of Chemistry’s annual ‘Parliamentary Links Day’, an opportunity for scientists to meet parliamentarians in Westminster. The event this year will provide the chance to mix with new MPs, encouraging them to see the value of science to policy-making. Parliamentary Links Day is part of the RSC’s ‘Links Scheme’, which matches RSC chemists with their MP. The MP is encouraged to contact their ‘Link’ scientist for briefings and information on chemical science or other matters related to the work of the RSC. The day is co-sponsored by the Society of Biology.

The BES will attend Parliamentary Links Day, as in previous years, and we’ll be blogging about the event afterwards. On the day itself (22 June) there’s the opportunity to view presentations and discussions live via a web-feed which you can access here.

12th July 18:00 – 20:30

The British Library is hosting the latest in their Talk Science series on 12th July, in partnership with the Research Information Network and Eureka.

Mark Henderson, Science Editor for The Times, will be in conversation with Dr Evan Harris

The discussion will address current issues in Science Policy, including:

• What role will science play in the new Government?
• How will the scientific perspective be heard and understood across Parliament?
• How could the use of scientific evidence in policy-making be improved?
• With tightening budgets, what are the big issues that UK science faces?
• Should science funding be more elitist?
• Will the long-term impact of science ever be measurable?

The event is free, but booking is essential. To book, please email Science@bl.uk providing the name, affiliation and email address of each person requesting a place.

Natural scientists are taking up their soapboxes on Monday, taking a place at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park and encouraging the public to engage with science. For one afternoon, Speakers’ Corner will become an arena for public (and scientific) learning and debate centred around the International Year of Biodiversity 2010.

See speaker bios, and post your own questions at: www.zsl.org/speakerscorner, or heckle the speakers in person from 12 – 3pm…

Session One: 12noon – 1pm
EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH

Monica Grady – Life on Mars from Life on Earth?
Anjali Goswami – Lucky breaks in the history of life
Chris Jiggins – Where do species come from anyway?
Sandy Knapp – What we don’t know about biodiversity.
Tristram Wyatt – Pheromones – smells at the heart of life

Session Two: 1pm-2pm
EARTH CHALLENGES

Helen Roy – Alien spotting: recording non-native species in Britain and beyond
Rob Ewers – Why deforestation in the tropics should worry us
Stuart Roberts – Bees in crisis – well known fact or widely held belief?
Michelle Taylor – Trawling and corals: impossible sea-bed partners
Stephan Harrison – Global warming and a cold winter
Alun Anderson – Vanishing arctic

Session Three: 2pm-3pm
EARTH SOLUTIONS

Jonathan Baillie – Saving species on the EDGE
Guy Poppy – Food versus Fuel versus Flora and Fauna – a balancing act for managing the land.
Matt Prescott – Lessons from Ban the Bulb
Patricia Brekke – Back from the brink of extinction
EJ Milner-Gulland – Should we all be vegetarians?

This event is organised by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Researchers from Cambridge University will be appearing at the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, which began yesterday and finishes on 6th June. The University has set up a blog, with previews of the researchers’ talks and live updates from the Festival, posted as their talks are delivered. Topics will include the climate change and stem cell research.

Cambridge at the Hay Festival Blog

The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, will next week host a celebration of the diversity of the Welsh natural environment. Beginning on Thursday, 20th May, with an event for policy-makers and invited guests, the event will then continue right through Saturday, the International Day for Biodiversity, with activities and events for the public.

The event will launch a partnership programme between over 20 organisations active in raising awareness about, and conserving, biodiversity in Wales. From charities to museums, wildlife trusts and colleges, partner organisations will be present at the event, aiming to increase awareness of the significance of safeguarding the amazing diversity of life on our planet and encourage others to pledge to ‘Do One Thing’ to help the cause.

Jane Davidson AM, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing at the Welsh Assembly Government, will deliver a speech at the Museum on Thursday, stressing the importance of biodiversity as an essential element for our health and well-being, our economy and ultimately our lives.

The focus of the public events will be on highlighting what people can do on their own doorstep to prevent biodiversity loss, ultimately contributing to the world-wide target (through the Convention on Biological Diversity) to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss across the globe.

The BES and the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management will together display a stand at the event, highlighting to policy-makers our position statement on halting UK biodiversity loss and supplying material to members of the public interested in pursuing a career in ecology. Both organisations are members of the International Year of Biodiversity UK partnership.

Further information about the events and activities on offer is available from the website of the National Museum of Wales