Vv Binoy

Bridging the Communication Gap in Science and Technology

This first-of-a-kind volume provides a snapshot of existing science communication policy and practice in India across different S&T sectors, and offers solutions to building effective communication. It provides an understanding on how to avoid societal clashes in situations when science meets the public in these sectors. The editors and contributors argue that effective S&T communication leads not only to a more informed public but also benefits research itself, and in a changing society like India this is a crucial element related to good governance and policy making. In this volume, experienced masters of the craft provide practical solutions to making S&T communication more effective in a vast democracy like India, which has complex issues related to literacy levels, diverse languages, varying political will, reach, and resources. Through, discussions on cases of creating information modules for the public on the Internet, television and radio, social media, as well as traditional ways of outreach like people’s science movements, holding popular science events, and fairs, the volume provides highly valuable directions on how developing countries with low resources and complex populations can communicate S&T research to the public and bridge communication gaps. This volume will interest researchers from science, social science, mass communication and public relations departments, journalists, as well as practitioners and policy makers from government and non-government institutions involved in S&T policy, practice and communication and people who want to understand the complex S&T landscape of India.

Bridging Educational Institutions for a Citizen Science Project: A Case Study from Malappuram District, Kerala, India

Strategic bridging of various institutions into a functional network and enhancing communication between the nodes is a low-cost and effective approach for gathering grassroots level information and dissemination of scientific knowledge to various actors of a multi-stakeholder society. Such a cross-talking network of institutions, for example, schools, colleges, nongovernmental organisations, youth clubs and interested individuals, is the heart of participatory research programmes, such as citizen science projects. Although citizen science projects have gained popularity since mid-1990s, very few studies have critically analysed the dynamics and efficacy of interinstitutional networks in India. Here we share our experiences of connecting two major compartments of the educational system, school and college, in the Valanchery region of Malappuram District, Kerala, India, via a ‘student network’ for a citizen science programme to monitor the local mammalian diversity.

Sensory cues employed for the acquisition of familiarity-dependent recognition of a shoal of conspecifics by climbing perch (Anabas testudineus Bloch).

In this study we showed that a freshwater fish, the climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) is incapable of using chemical communication but employs visual cues to acquire familiarity and distinguish a familiar group of conspecifics from an unfamiliar one. Moreover, the isolation of olfactory signals from visual cues did not affect the recognition and preference for a familiar shoal in this species.