DR FIONA DOOHAN, School of Biology and Environmental Science, UCD
The significance of Science Week is that it has changed a lot with the times. If you compare what was on offer 20 years ago with what is on offer now, there’s much more diversity.
When it started I was leaving UCD as a degree student and it seemed much more centred on the urban regions. That’s no longer the case, which is a major shift. It’s very much on the radar of my colleagues, and SFI has made great efforts in encouraging participation from researchers within science to engage with the public.
There are a lot more scientists now who can explain what they do in everyday language. That’s a sea change in the past two decades: the communication of science is much better. There’s a fine line in normalising a subject and bringing it into people’s everyday lives while still keeping it exciting.
Science Week has also moved away from the “boffin” side of things and much more towards what kids understand in their day-to-day life. I think that’s one of its biggest accomplishments. I have a nine-year-old son and he would go to events that integrate computing and other everyday things that he’s interested in. So rather than trying to sell science from the top down, it works from the bottom up.
