The Right Perspective
(September 15th 2008) The mission of the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) is to provide both the European and the international science and business communities with an open platform for debate and communication. It is a very rewarding conference to attend, particularly in the early stage of your scientific career. A personal review of the latest ESOF in Barcelona by Giuliana Deflorio.
As a post-doctoral scientist, attending the latest ESOF was good for many reasons. First of all I was able to expand my view on many topics, not only those linked to mine. Also, I had a chance to interact with people from many backgrounds, not just scientists. This helped me put my work perspective. Being completely focused on one's topic can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Personally, I tend to forget that there are so many other things going on and that I am part of a larger community of people. Having experienced the variety of topics, actors, and situations which are available in the scientific arena, I would like to give you a few of the reasons why I found attending this conference so interesting to persuade you to make the trip to the next ESOF in Turin, Italy, in 2010. I hope that this next meeting will be as great as Barcelona proved to be.
1) ESOF provides you with a good update on the hottest scientific topics
In 2008, these were mainly: a) climate change; b) food crisis, as a reflection of the 4 F's (food, feed, fuel, fibre); and c) genetic engineering of plants.
a) Regarding climate change, many talks addressed the following two questions: how can the impact of climate change be reduced? and how can poor countries afford the costs of climate change policy? It has been clearly shown that there is not a single solution to tackle this issue, but merely so called "wedge solutions", or the combination of several measures to reduce the impact of a changing environment upon our planet. The need for integrated thinking represents a further challenge. It was stressed that tackling climate change cannot be regarded as a postscript to politicians' job descriptions, it has to be the underlying issue regardless of what is on their agenda. It was therefore argued that having more Nobel-Prize-winners-come-politicians would go a long way. Also, there is a strong need to invert the trend of scientific advice only being sought when a problem needs a solution (possibly when it is too late), not beforehand. Sadly enough, the UK is the only country with a panel of scientific advisers reporting to the government. So, scientists, let's step in - if they won't come to us, let's go to the politicians!
b) and c) Today, the conflict between the need for food, fuel, feed and fibre, which has been brought into sharp focus by the worldwide increases in oil prices and global population, is very strong. To increase the amount of biomass available (for any of these four F's), scientists are discussing whether genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can help. The majority of scientists giving talks were in favour of their widespread use. However, there is yet not enough data to show the long-term effects of these crops on our environment. As an alternative to agricultural crops, other sources for biomass could be used: for example algae. So, the question is whether we are prepared to change our attitude - again . The state of the world is the result of centuries of man's influence over nature. Are we going to rethink the way we treat our environment? Are we going to think sustainably? The crisis may be a great opportunity to change.
2) ESOF gets you in touch with the art of science communication
Hearing that scientists need to invest more time in communicating what they do, how they do it and, most importantly, why they do it, was unexpected. Although science is diffused through publication in peer-reviewed journals, novel findings are kept miles away from the public. So, how could science be promoted in society? How could scientists increase curiosity in young people to attract them? The answer given at the conference was, "when you transfer knowledge, keep simple and short". In an era characterised by information overload, simple language is the way to go. A good way to start practising could be, for example, managing simple and short pieces of information on one's personal web page. Also, science could be promoted in a much faster way if scientists participated in TV or radio talks. So, scientists, let's get out of our labs and promote science!
3) ESOF blesses you with inspiration
The talks given by Nobel Prize winners may be regarded as the biggest highlight of ESOF conferences. Scientists dealing with a wide range of topics shared their views on science, as well as their wisdom. These talks have been inspirational in many ways. In general, there was a feeling of closeness between speaker and audience, probably because a common thread was shared. Also, it was great to listen to the lessons each of them learned (for example, "After a lucky shot, you have to concentrate twice as much on the next step so luck does not get lost" and "Look for something non-sexy and non-fashionable at the moment, especially if you do not have much money in your laboratory! Curiosity should drive your science"), and to follow their career paths - it was as if each of them was passing his or her own baton on to the next generation of young researchers. I found it special to listen to older and wiser senior peers offer their mentoring ability to the youngest; it made me feel part of a bigger family.
4) ESOF helps you boost your career
Several sessions were organised to encourage young people to find their career path and take more responsibility for choosing a certain job, rather than just doing it. The many invited speakers shared their past experiences and gave many examples which emphasised some common-sense advice. For instance, knowing oneself (likes and dislikes) is extremely important; everyone's experience is valuable, not just those coming from the scientific world - it will all add up; networking is probably the most effective way of finding a job; doing what one believes in is the way to go (or, being passionate is not a bad thing); knowing what compromises to make in life (such as where to live) will affect the decisions taken in one's career; knowing about other things (e.g. budgeting and other skills) may be a great advantage if one decides to apply for a position outside the academic world or if starting up a company. In conclusion, the 'learning by doing' approach could be a very rewarding way to navigate through a career - whenever you have an opportunity to do so, grab it!
5) ESOF gets you in touch with young researchers and their great ideas
It is very motivating to see young people apply their knowledge to something of use to the general public. This conference was an opportunity to get to know companies which could turn around some of the problems the scientific community is facing right now, i.e. that of open access to scientific journals, or the lack of truly interdisciplinary research. Through all of this, a common view was shared: that visualising (as on a geographical map) interdisciplinary relationships widens the future of science and fosters relations between scientists. Software capable of searching, extracting and organising pieces of information gathered from different sources (library and published papers, the researchers themselves, etc.) can do this by making it available to subscribed users.
The brains behind this tool did not wait for public money to develop their ideas - things move so fast that they couldn't wait for funding. What could possibly be better than meeting with your colleagues and listening to how they turned their ideas into a spin-off company? The profiles of some of these companies (including Research Gate, Mendeley) will be presented over forthcoming issues of
Lab Times so you can be inspired too.
