MATHEMATICAL STORYTELLING AND COVID-19. MADDMATHS: AN ITALIAN CASE STUDY ON THE AWARENESS OF THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICAL MODELS IN COMMUNICATING THE SARS-COV-2 EPIDEMIC

N. Arcozzi1, S. Benvenuti1, A. Cattabriga1, D. Gouthier2 1Università di Bologna (ITALY) 2Scienza Express (ITALY)

In four steps – from Renaissance to the dawn of the 20th century – this issue explores some aspects of the history of book sciences, as research and popularisation instruments also playing a role in economy. Adrian Johns speaks about the origin of science books in the Renaissance. Then, through the papers respectively by Bruce Lewenstein and Paola Govoni, the focus moves to science books in 19th-century America and Italy. They demonstrate that, in both countries, science books were a stimulus to the establishment of a national scientific community. Finally, Francesco De Ceglia exemplifies the role played by agrarian catechisms in the process of spreading farming skills among landowners.

The Internet and digital media are changing science books. They change the way readers approach books and change the way books present their contents. Probably, the Internet and digital media are also changing the contents themselves.

Sperimentare, porsi domande, leggere la natura e cercare parole per descriverla: questo fanno tanto gli scienziati quanto i narratori. Eppure oggi le due pratiche sono nettamente distinte, spesso perfino distanti. Percorrendo il tempo a ritroso si incontrano tuttavia fasi in cui le pratiche della scienza e della narrativa hanno avuto punti di contatto, d’incontro, di fecondazione reciproca: l’alchimia misurava ma nel frattempo raccontava, la mitologia raccontava per spiegare, e spingeva le spiegazioni fino ad arrivare alle cosmogonie, in cui si riconoscono in potenza sia i tratti della scienza moderna sia quelli della narrativa.

In Europe, much effort has been devoted to explore the causes of the decline in number of university matriculations of science students and to identify gender differences in career choice. Yet, the problem extends to the fulfillment of career plans: given their professional expectations and their attitudes when choosing a career, girls are much less likely to pursue scientific careers such as engineering or physics. Evidence of this is provided by the social research carried out within the framework of the GAPP project (Gender Awareness Participation Process). The Gapp project is intended to investigate differences between girls and boys in their perception of science careers and to propose a range of innovative and concrete participatory activities involving scientists, engineers and professionals from the public and private S&T sectors. In this letter, we report a synthesis of the results of the social research conducted as first step of the project: exploring how the perceptions of science professions affect interest, motivation and subject choice at school, at the university and consequently in their career.

EstrattoTINSUAC ha preteso 22 mesi di gestazione prima di vedere la luce. Ľelefante africano, che pure ci mette il suo tempo, ne implega solo 21. Però ľelefante africano non ha la soddisfazione di ringraziare un sacco di gente, come invece abbiamo il piacere di fare noi

The first step of the SEDEC project has been a survey on teachers and pupils perception of science, scientists, and the European dimension of science. Different research actions have been organized for the different targets, and have been held in the six countries involved in the project: Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Romania. This article will present the results of a questionnaire distributed between European teachers. A research on the scientific imagery should have an opposite perspective to the one of a teacher at school; whereas the latter, the keeper of a knowledge, has the usual task of transferring and checking the knowledge in their students, a researcher has to record and describe their interior world relating to science – the information, but especially the images, the expectations, the emotions related to it.

Within just a few months, new releases in the world of publishing have seen two books dealing with science and The Simpsons, one published in the US and the other in Italy: last spring, What's science ever done for us? by Paul Halpern (John Wiley & Sons, New York 2007) and, this autumn, La scienza dei Simpson by Marco Malaspina (Sironi Editore, Milano 2007).

Giò conservava un certo amore per il caffé. In anni passati, ne beveva molti; se li gustava, sorbiva, coccolava, preferibilmente in compagnia. A quattordici anni era riuscito a convincere i suoi a regalargli una macchina per l’espresso. Avevano finto che fosse un acquisto per tutta la famiglia, in realtà era sua a tal punto che, quando sua madre se n’era andata, la macchinetta era rimasta con Gió, senza alcuna discussione. E sua madre era sempre stata una gran bevitrice di caffé, “Il caffé è il carburante di una buona traduzione”, a differenza del padre che lo beveva con troppo zucchero, la bocca stretta e quasi per dovere. Il divorzio dei genitori aveva lacerato tutto, ma non il legame tra Giò e la macchinetta, non i ricordi d’lvrea. Quella mattina si era svegliato con qualcosa per la testa, era certo che non fosse un sogno, ma proprio un ricordo, uno di quelli che ti sovvengono d’un tratto, senza motivo; una sinapsi riposata dalla notte li tira fuori da un qualche meandro del cervello che all’insaputa di tutti li conservava. Era il ricordo di due occhi come carte assorbenti, che facevano loro ogni piccolo dettaglio, Giò non sapeva di chi fossero, ma certamente erano occhi che cambiavano il corso delle cose. A questo pensava mentre armeggiava con la macchinetta, che non era più quella, ma l’altra.

Within just a few months, new releases in the world of publishing have seen two books dealing with science and The Simpsons, one published in the US and the other in Italy: last spring, What's science ever done for us? by Paul Halpern (John Wiley & Sons, New York 2007) and, this autumn, La scienza dei Simpson by Marco Malaspina (Sironi Editore, Milano 2007).

Exploring public attitudes towards science helps investigate the images of science and what the social representations of science are. In this regard, science communication plays a crucial role in its different ways of addressing different publics.

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