Disseminators of the University of Barcelona go on tour around Catalonia to talk about their research
La UB Divulga has set up a new project to democratize the knowledge created in the University. This project is called Toc-Toc, making reference to the sound of the knock of a door (toc-toc stands for knock knock, in Catalan). The aim of the activity is to make sure that everyone in Catalonia has access to scientific dissemination speeches, by researchers of the University of Barcelona. The different social actors interested in it (city centers, libraries, cultural centers, educational centers, etc.) can apply for one of these sessions in the site of the project , where the experts who take part in the proposal and their speeches are listed. Participation in Toc-Toc is still open so that any researcher who wishes can still register.
According to Marga Becerra, head of La UB Divulga, “all researchers who take part in the project share the thrill of bringing research closer to society. Lots of them are already giving disseminating speeches, but the one different thing in Toc-Toc -and what La UB Divulga aims to do with this initiative- is for this knowledge transfer to be much more democratic: everyone can access it, from an elderly center to a town library and even any cultural center”.
La UB Divulga has set up a new project to democratize the knowledge created in the University. This project is called Toc-Toc, making reference to the sound of the knock of a door (toc-toc stands for knock knock, in Catalan). The aim of the activity is to make sure that everyone in Catalonia has access to scientific dissemination speeches, by researchers of the University of Barcelona. The different social actors interested in it (city centers, libraries, cultural centers, educational centers, etc.) can apply for one of these sessions in the site of the project , where the experts who take part in the proposal and their speeches are listed. Participation in Toc-Toc is still open so that any researcher who wishes can still register.
According to Marga Becerra, head of La UB Divulga, “all researchers who take part in the project share the thrill of bringing research closer to society. Lots of them are already giving disseminating speeches, but the one different thing in Toc-Toc -and what La UB Divulga aims to do with this initiative- is for this knowledge transfer to be much more democratic: everyone can access it, from an elderly center to a town library and even any cultural center”.
Some researchers have already started
More than twelve researchers have registered in the project; they all are from different fields of study. This wide range of fields makes the speech offering to have very diverse topics: from nanoscience to nutrition, astronomy, water cycles, statistics, crystals in daily life, medical caricature or ICT and online society, among others. The initiative has had a successful welcome, from entities as well, and demand of sessions is growing more and more.
Among the researchers who have already started in this project is Jaume Llopis, who gave a speech in Col·legi Lestonnac in Barcelona, entitled “Lʼestadística i la seva relació amb la medicina” (Statistics and its relation with medicine). Llopis showed high school students how studies with statistical techniques are necessary for everyday medical research. He used the term “significant” for statistics and commented on the “statistically significant” results of some published works”.
Narcís Prat, who also participated in a Toc-Toc session, made students calculate the water consumption of their houses per person and day, out of the pay slips. Also, he commented on the details of the pay slips and how to understand each concept. The professor of Ecology talked about other subjects, such as virtual water. The students discovered how much water is needed to make their clothes, or produce food they eat daily. With this speech, attendants discovered the complex process that guarantees daily water supply at home and to what extent this resource is economic enough regarding the process, or compared for instance, to the prices of bottled water.
Sònia Estradé, from the Research Group LENS-MIND-IN2UB, has also joined the initiative, and offered the lecture “Els ulls de la nanociència” in the high school Institut Terradas Illa in Cornellà. She explained how electron microscopy allows seeing at a larger scale from the macroscopic world we are used to, and how, in particular, it helps us to understand the atomic world, as well as several materials. Estradé told the attendants that this is essential to develop new functions in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, with biomedical tools, in computing and telecommunications and renewable energy, among many others.
Future destinations
La UB Divulga is getting more and more requests in this project. On March 24, Begoña Torres will give a scientific dissemination speech at the Library of Llinars del Vallès. Torres is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and with the speech “La veu i el nostre cos” will talk about how the different parts of the body interact to produce voice, speaking and singing. Also, she will separately analyze the structures that interact to produce sound and how small changes in this interaction can make changes in the voice. She will use singing voice as a model, and since she has sang for many years, the disseminator will give examples with her own voice to show the different vocal sound changes.