The landscape of European science communication

European science communication project QUEST surveyed and reviewed different aspects of European science communication, including science journalism, teaching and training in science communication, social media activity, and science in museums. This article draws together themes that collectively emerge from this research to present an overview of key issues in science communication across Europe. We discuss four central dynamics — fragmentation within research and practice; a landscape in transition; the importance of format and context; and the dominance of critical and dialogic approaches as best practice — and illustrate these with empirical material from across our datasets. In closing we reflect upon the implications of this summary of European science communication.

The Three Hundred Project: quest of clusters of galaxies morphology and dynamical state through Zernike polynomials

The knowledge of the dynamical state of galaxy clusters allows to alleviate systematics when observational data from these objects are applied in cosmological studies. Evidence of correlation between the state and the morphology of the clusters is well studied. The morphology can be inferred by images of the surface brightness in the X-ray band and of the thermal component of the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (tSZ) effect in the millimetre range. For this purpose, we apply, for the first time, the Zernike polynomial decomposition, a common analytic approach mostly used in adaptive optics to recover aberrated radiation wavefronts at the telescopes pupil plane. With this novel way we expect to correctly infer the morphology of clusters and so possibly, their dynamical state. To verify the reliability of this new approach we use more than 300 synthetic clusters selected in THE THREE HUNDRED project at different redshifts ranging from 0 up to 1.03. Mock maps of the tSZ, quantified with the Compton parameter, y-maps, are modelled with Zernike polynomials inside R500, the cluster reference radius. We verify that it is possible to discriminate the morphology of each cluster by estimating the contribution of the different polynomials to the fit of the map. The results of this new method are correlated with those of a previous analysis made on the same catalogue, using two parameters that combine either morphological or dynamical-state probes. We underline that instrumental angular resolution of the maps has an impact mainly when we extend this approach to high-redshift clusters.

Haunting Lessons

This paper examines horror through works by three artists taking the sites and remains of extreme violence as their subject matters: Australian actress Kym Vercoe’s performance piece, “Seven Kilometres Northeast,”(2010) Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić’s film based on the same piece, “For Those Who Can Tell No Tales” (2013) and Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafić’s ongoing project, “Quest for Identity,” begun in 2011, a series of photographs of the material remains found in mass graves around Srebrenica, several of which are displayed in the Srebrenica Memorial Room in the former Dutchbat headquarters in Potočari. Vercoe’s and Žbanić’s works focus on Višegrad and specifically upon the Vilina Vlas spa, which was used as a rape camp during the Bosnian war. Spaces such as these where acts of violence occurred carry more than traces; they are replete with the environments of past events that linger and animate them. They are what Avery Gordon describes as haunted sites of social life that are not easily perceivable but make their presence felt. Through examining these artistic works, I argue that they reveal how the seemingly inanimate may become an animated site of horror yet are also engaged creative attempts to transform psychic and spatial abjection motivated by a productive haunting of “something-to-be-done”.

Students’ annotated drawings as a mediating artefact in science teachers’ professional development

This paper presents a case study of a teacher examining her 4th graders’ conceptual understanding of factors causing day and night, seasons, and the phases of the Moon both pre- and post-teaching, as a part of participating in the continuous professional development (CPD) project QUEST. The study is framed in reference to the extant research in the two fields of CPD and students’ alternative conceptions in science. The findings pertain to both the 4th graders’ conceptual understanding and the teacher’s meaning-making when examining the students’ annotated drawings and discussing them with colleagues. The teaching in general seems to be efficient concerning challenging students’ alternative conceptions; however not in relation to the phases of the Moon. The teacher re-designed her teaching and emphasized the insight gained from looking into a structured analysis. Nonetheless, she questioned whether teachers would find time for such analyses. While there are promising indications that this teacher will continue using pre- and post-assessment based on the insights gained, the collaborative analysis seemed rather superficial. The spreading to colleagues is discussed referring to this inquiry as supporting individual but probably not collaborative agency.

Measurements of organic gases during aerosol formation events in the boreal forest atmosphere during QUEST

Biogenic VOCs are important in the growth and possibly also in the early stages of formation of atmospheric aerosol particles. In this work, we present 10 min-time resolution measurements of organic trace gases at Hyytiälä, Finland during March 2002. The measurements were part of the project QUEST (Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer) and took place during a two-week period when nucleation events occurred with various intensities nearly every day. Using a ground-based Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) instrument, the following trace gases were detected: acetone, TMA, DMA, mass 68amu (candidate=isoprene), monoterpenes, methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MaCR) and monoterpene oxidation products (MTOP). For all of them except for the amines, we present daily variations during different classes of nucleation events, and non-event days. BVOC oxidation products (MVK, MaCR and MTOP) show a higher ratio to the CS on event days compared to non-event days, indicating that their abundance relative to the surface of aerosol available is higher on nucleation days. Moreover, BVOC oxidation products are found to show significant correlations with the condensational sink (CS) on nucleation event days, which indicates that they are representative of less volatile organic compounds that contribute to the growth of the nucleated particles and generally secondary organic aerosol formation. Behaviors of BVOC on event and non event days are compared to the behavior of CO.

Deployment of a ground-based CIMS apparatus for the detection of organic gases in the boreal forest during the QUEST campaign

Measurements of atmospheric volatile organic compounds were performed in the Finnish Boreal forest atmosphere during spring 2003, as part of the project QUEST (Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer), using a ground-based Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) instrument. Based on the study of their hydrate distribution, methanol, acetonitrile, acetaldehyde, dimethyl amine (DMA), ethanol/formic acid, acetone, trimethyl amine (TMA), propanol/acetic acid, isoprene, methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and metacrolein (MaCR), monoterpenes and monoterpene oxidation product (MTOP) are proposed as candidates for masses 32, 41, 44, 45, 46, 58, 59, 60, 68, 70, 136, and 168amu, respectively. It would be, to our knowledge, the first time DMA, TMA and MTOP are measured with this method. Most compounds show a clear diurnal variation with a maximum in the early night, corresponding to the onset of the noctural inversion and in agreement with independant measurements of CO. Biogenic compounds are highly correlated with each other and the ratio monoterpene/oxidation product shows a typical daily pattern of nightime maxima. However, because isoprene mixing ratios are also maximum during the early night, it is likely that it suffers of the interference from another unidentified biogenic compound. Hence mass 68amu is identified as isoprene+compound X.

Measurements of organic gases during aerosol formation events in the boreal forest atmosphere during QUEST

Biogenic VOCs are important in the growth and possibly also in the formation of atmospheric aerosol particles. In this work, we present 10 min-time resolution measurements of organic trace gases at Hyytiälä, Finland during March 2002. The measurements were part of the project QUEST (Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer) and took place during a two-week period when nucleation events occurred with various intensities nearly every day. Using a ground-based Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) instrument, the following trace gases were detected: acetone, TMA, DMA, mass 68 amu (candidate=isoprene), monoterpenes, Methyl Vinyl Ketone (MVK) and Methacrolein (MaCR), cis-3-hexenyl acetate and MonoTerpene Oxidation Products (MTOP). For all of them except for the amines, we present daily variations during different classes of event days, and non-event days. Isoprene, monoterpenes, MVK+MaCR, cis-3-hexenyl acetate and MTOP are found to show significant correlations with the condensational sink (CS), which indicates that a fraction of these compounds are participating to the growth of the nucleated particles and generally secondary organic aerosol formation. Moreover, the terpene oxidation products (TOP) (MVK, MaCR and MTOP) show a higher ratio to the CS on event days compared to non-event days, indicating that their abundance relative to the surface of aerosol available is higher on nucleation days.

Deployment of a ground-based CIMS apparatus for the detection of organic gases in the boreal forest during the QUEST campaign

Measurements of atmospheric volatile organic compounds were performed in the Finnish Boreal forest atmosphere during spring 2003, as part of the project QUEST (Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer), using a ground-based Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) instrument. Based on the study of their hydrate distribution, Methanol, Acetonitrile, Acetaldehyde, Dimethyl Amine (DMA), Ethanol/Formic Acid, Acetone, Trimethyl Amine TMA, Propanol/Acetic Acid, Methyl Vinyl Ketone (MVK) and Metacrolein (MaCR), Monoterpenes, Cis-3-hexenyl Acetate and Monoterpene Oxidation Products (MTOP) are proposed as candidates for masses 33, 41, 44, 45, 46, 58, 59, 60, 70, 136, 142 and 168 amu, respectively. It would be, to our knowledge, the first time DMA, TMA, MTOP and Cis-3-hexenyl Acetate are measured with this method. A compound with mass 68 amu, which could be Isoprene has also been identified. Most compounds show a clear diurnal variation with higher concentrations at night, starting at the onset of the nocturnal inversion and in agreement with independent measurements of CO. Biogenic compounds are highly correlated with each other and the ratio monoterpene/oxidation product shows a typical daily pattern of nighttime maxima. Cis-3-hexenyl Acetate has a diurnal variation similar to the ones of Isoprene and Monoterpenes, and especially close to the diurnal variation of their oxidation products.