Thursday, 23 July 2015

The relationships (sometimes) dangerous between Science and Politics told in one course

The 2015 edition of “Science, Technology and Society” will deal with the relation between scientists and power: Preview August 6, at MUSE

Versione stampabile

The University of Trento, in the anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima caused by the atomic bomb, dropped on the city August 6 70 years ago, offers a course of meetings to investigate the relationship between science and politics.

We will talk about the Lysenko case and of science in a totalitarian context as the one in the Soviet Union, about the Italian scientists during the First World War, about science in tv and cinema, and about research financing during the Lincoln time and in our present time.

The meetings will be held  in October at the Department of Sociology and Social Research.

A preview will be presented on Thursday, August 6 at 6 pm at MUSE, with worlds and music, by the title “The devil does not play with dice: us, science, and the bomb, seventy years after Hiroshima”.
A narration by Massimiano Bucchi with the piano player Arturo Stàlteri, who will play passages from Blondie, Franco Battiato, Brian Eno, OMD, Arturo Stàlteri, Sting, Ultravox.

The seminar course is part of the interdisciplinary project of the University of Trento STSTN - Science Technology and Society, organised by Massimiano Bucchi, professor of Sociology of Science and Communication, Science and Technology.

«In the ninth course - explains Massimo Bucchi - we have decided to analyse the relationship between science and politics because it is a relevant and controversial subject, on which we need to achieve a greater awareness, as citizens, as scientists and as political policy-makers».
Bucchi goes on: «The 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb is a historic event, but also an event that marked the political role of science, the power and responsibility of science. In that case of Physics; today it could be of Biology. In this recurrence I will narrate how the bomb came to be built between discussions and opposing opinions as the controversial Nobel award to Einstein; but I will also tell how, in the next decades, the relationship between science and politics has changed. Hiroshima has been a point of no return, that has proved the fragility of the planet and of mankind, beyond the role science can have in the political and military sphere. It will be interesting to analyse also what happened during World War One and during the Cold War.  In this course, beside the use of music during the preview, we will use the tv and cinema language to understand how the relation between science and politics has changed, from “Si alza il vento” to the last American telefilm of the “Manhattan” serie. Finally, at a time where we often discuss about the shortage of financing in research, about the strategic choices and the independence of researchers, we will ponder about “how Lincoln (in the midst of the Civil War) created the National Academy of Sciences, a foundation aimed at financing research, and why we do not have it, still”».

The program schedule:

Preview. Thursday, August 6, at 6 pm, MUSE - “The devil does not play with dice: us, science, and the bomb, seventy years after Hiroshima” - Massimiano Bucchi, narration. Arturo Stàlteri, piano. Music from Blondie, Franco Battiato, Brian Eno, OMD, Arturo Stàlteri, Sting, Ultravox. sf

Tuesday, October 6, at 5 pm, Kessler Room, Department of Sociology and Social research - Science in the USSR: the case of Lysenko and science during the Cold War - Francesco Cassata, historian, University of Genova. Intervenes Alessandro Mongili, sociologist, University di Padua.

Tuesday, October 20, at 5 pm, Kessler Room, Department of Sociology and Social research - Science in the trenches. Italian scientists during World War One - Angelo Guerraggio, mathematician, University of Insubria and Bocconi University. Gustavo Corni, historian, and Paolo Foradori, political scientist, from the University of Trento will joint in.

Tuesday, November 10, at 5 pm, Kessler Room, Department of Sociology and Social research - From Caproni to Heisenberg. Science and politics on the small and big screen - Alberto Brodesco, sociologist, University of Trento. Valter Moretti will join in, physicist, University of Trento.

Tuesday, November 24, at 5 pm, Kessler Room, Department of Sociology and Social research - Science, politics and financing: How Lincoln (in the midst of the Civil War) created the National Academy of Sciences, and why we do not have it still - Giuseppe Remuzzi, Mario Negri Institute.