On 22 March, at the Technopolis Museum in Brussels, seven of Europe’s
leading research organisations* launch a joint outreach programme for the
run-up to European Science Week in November this year. Their aim is to
show Europeans how today’s society couldn’t be without fundamental
research.
Could you imagine life without mobile phones, cars, CD players, TV,
refrigerators, computers, the internet, antibiotics, vitamins,
anaesthetics, vaccination, heating, nylon stockings, glue, bar codes,
metal detectors, contact lenses, modems, laser printers, digital cameras,
gameboys, play stations…? Technology is everywhere and used by everyone in
today’s society, but how many Europeans suspect that without studies on
the structure of the atom, lasers would not exist, and neither would CD
players? Most do not know that almost anything they use couldn’t be
without years of fundamental research.
To fill this knowledge gap, the leading research organisations* in Europe,
with the support of the research directorate of the European Commission,
have joined forces to tell Europeans how technology couldn’t be without
science, and how science can no longer progress without technology. The
project is called… Sci-Tech – Couldn’t be without it!
Sci-Tech – Couldn’t be without it! invites Europeans to vote online in a
survey to identify the top ten technologies they can’t live without. A
dynamic and entertaining website will show them where these top
technologies really come from and reveal their intimate links with
research. Teaching kits will be developed to explain to students how their
favourite gadgets actually work, and how a career in science can
contribute to inventions that future generations couldn’t be without. The
results of the survey will be presented as a series of quiz shows live on
the internet during European Science Week, from 4 to 11 November.
Sci-Tech – Couldn’t be without it! will be launched on Friday 22 March at
18:30 at the Technopolis Science Museum in Brussels, coinciding with the
official inauguration of CERN’s travelling exhibition “E=mc2 – When energy
becomes matter”. The exhibition will stay at Technopolis until 21 July.
CERN Director General, Luciano Maiani, and European Commissioner for
Research, Philippe Busquin, will open the event with speeches underlining
the importance of pooling effort in science education and outreach in
Europe. A tour of the exhibition and a demonstration of the Couldn’t be
without it! website will follow, and the event will be brought to a close
with a “Science in the Pub” discussion on the subject of modern physics
and philosophy, complete with musical intermezzo and buffet.
Access the Couldn’t be without it! online voting and web resources at:
www.cern.ch/sci-tech
Confirm your presence at the Technopolis event before Monday 18 March by
fax to:
+32(0)15.34.20.10.
To reach Technopolis take exit 10 (Mechelen-Zuid) on motorway E19
(Brussels-Antwerp).
For more information on the exhibition, contact Véronique de Man:
veronique@technopolis.be or tel. +32(0)15.34. 20.20.
For more information on Couldn’t be without it! contact the executive
coordinator: monica.de.pasquale@cern.ch or tel. +41(0)22.767.35.86.
For further information, please contact :
Helen Wilson, ESA/ESTEC
Tel.:+31(0)71.565.5518
