Recordings of some of the speeches at the dissensus conference are available.

Lisbet Schønau, Chairman of Danish Science Journalists Association welcomes the 100 participants.

Katherine Richardson, Vice Dean of Science, Copenhagen University spoke about Lessons learned from Galathea 3 – A global research expedition

Katherine Richardson's synthesis was

• Living up to the new University Law is easier said than done!
• In worrying so much about political control of research topics and results, we may be missing other important threats that may for example have implications for research infrastructure and public perceptions of research.
• Scientific journalism vs scientific communication?
• Scientific community needs to develop more a professional approach to cooperation

Download: Katherine's presentation in ppt-format.

Brian Trench, Dublin City University: Looking at science behind the scenes.

In science journalism as in other forms of journalism it is good advice to “Follow the money”. The ways in which money is allocated to scientific research provides the context for such research, but also influence the conduct and content of research. The European Commission’s research programme for example, defines priority areas, forms of collaboration between researchers an relations with business.
The prevailing policy discource of the knowledge economy frames the purposes of scientific research.

Journalists need to recognise how this policy process, and the resulting research funding mechanisms, govern the lives and work of very many scientists. Researchers may have doubts about aspects of these policies but they suppress these to “follow the money”

Scientists could use storytelling techniques to reveal how science really works.

Maja Horst, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, CBS: Learning from objections: The Stem Cell Network II - Landscapes of expectations.

Download: Maja Horst's presentation in ppt-format.

Brain gym
Conferences is often: sitting for at hole day - this conference also had a small excercise after lunch, to sharpen the listeners attention. Every participant got a rupper ball formed like a brain and made som excercises. See short video og brain gym

Niels Høiby, Rigshospitalet: Science versus political correctness - 374 years after the Galileo trial!

Niels Høiby gave examples of political correctness through history – from the vatican's persecution of Galileo Galilei in the seventeenth century to the fate of third reich scientists who didn't adopt the nazi's racial theories to today's almost automatic dismissal of research in gender / race and intelligence.

Høiby ended with an example from today: A physician's critique of the hospital system was stopped for political reasons, due to an upcoming election, his critique of the hospital management was unwanted.

Høiby's conclusion was that the current system to unveil scientific fraud in many cases are similar to the inquisition – it embodies both judiciary and executive power and that science journalists should play an active role in supporting whistle blowers.

Download: Niels Høiby's presentation in ppt-format.

Paul Costello, Stanford University School of Medicine: When political ideology declares war on science – stem cell research in Bush's USA

Lone Frank, science journalist, pH.D. in neurobiology, author of the book Klonede tigre (cloned tigers)
Lone Frank told us about her experiences in Asia – she has visited the laboratories of Hwang Woo-Suk in South Korea and written enthusiastically about his successes. In 2006, Hwang's claim to be the first scientist to successfully create human stem cells by cloning was revealed as fraud.

Lone Frank explained how the image of Hwang as a national hero and role model to youth in South Korea made it impossible to see through the hoaxes, and advised science journalists to seek their sources in alternative media – e.g. individual scientists' blogs, web fora etc.

Christian Kock, University of Copenhagen: Not insights, but invoices
Christian Kock is a professor in rhetorics and as such he is worried about the implications of the use of the word science. In English, science refers to the natural sciences as opposed to social sciences and the arts.

The ministerial use of the word (ministry of science, technology and innovation) excludes a whole array of research in e.g. philosophy, law, economics and sociology. these areas are important for our understanding of society. Christian Kock fears that the ministerial negligence of these areas rubs off on science journalism.

Tammy Boyce, Cardiff University: Bias and balance in the MMR/autism story
Question: Is balancing a story the right way to report a scientific subject? Its easy to tell the balanced story, but its clearly influencing the audience.

• Journalist have a role in how Science is communicated and in maintaining stories that might be a hoax. 
• What if 1 % af scientists says something else than the rest? Should the story be told and how? 
• Journalist often balance stories. But balancing influence how the audience perceive the story. Journalist rarely balance scientist with scientist, but balance scientist with politicians.
• In the case of MMR vaccine underbalance the story mend focus on the anti-MMR stories.
• Rarely interview with pro-parents. More Anti-sources were asked.
• Journalists make the story political.
• Vaccine rate fell 8 % when the story hit the press.

Download: Tammy Boyce's presentation in ppt-format.

Robin Engelhardt, PhD: Heroic politics and the framing of public opinion
Robin's speech set out with the concept of anger as described in Homer's Illiad.

Reactionary and / or religious groups need to see the world as a »hostile environment« and are filled with a sense of revenge, comparable to the feelings that took over Achilles.

Framing, i.e. the tools of interpretation that resonate with existing cultural or psychological values are often applied to the debate about e.g. muslim culture, intelligent design and stem cells or global warming.

We as scientists and science communicators should learn ways of escaping these frames and establish common playing grounds, on which only rules we all aggree upon apply.

Download: Robin Engelhardt's presentation in ppt-format.

Robin's speech is available from his website.