Félix Ares, director of the Science Museum
Félix Ares, director of the Science Museum
Where does the hobby of science come from?
I have always had it. When I was eight I had a radio station. I wasn't able to do such a fret, so my father did it because I was a radio technician. I don't know if I helped him or not, but while he was riding the radio station, I got around.
If I'm not mistaken, at age eight, came the signs of Mars, when there was life there. Then the signs were seen to reflect the atmosphere, but I remember well how I heard the news. He was sitting in the kitchen when he was broadcast on the radio: "The signs of Mars have been received." I found it very interesting.
Another anecdote of boys from 15 to 16 years has also come to mind. The sink in the house was half shaded, but in summer, when the sun was very high, the rays of light were spraying water, but I realized that the light was in the sink, where the jet was finished, because the water was driving the photons. I started doing sessions, opening more taps and pulling water faster, slower, etc. Then I started looking for the causes, until I realized that there were already people who had heard of it, John Tyndall more concretely. It is the principle of the optical fibres, the same that the Murano glass panes used to do their work. Vespa engines also had kilometers with a small light, fiber optic. At 16 I wrote my first article.
Did you publish it?
Yes, in the journal Algo, the only journal of scientific dissemination that has been in Spain for many years. He was also renamed Algo 2000 and disappeared with that name. The truth is that with the appearance of Very Interesting and similar died small magazines, but in the case of Algo the publisher also did not show interest in "Home and fashion". Today it is very difficult to compete. Many journals are closing and the clearest example is the Spanish edition of the journal Science et vie. At 20 I subscribed to this magazine. And the fact is that most of my elders French opened the doors of the world, not English.
He has worked in the media. In this sense, what characteristics are necessary to be a good scientific disseminator?
I will answer you with an anecdote. Once I met a genius, he taught me. He was an absolute genius, but no one understood his explanations. He went out to the blackboard and said: "I don't know who the show is from. This is the formula. This is the first hypothesis. This is the second hypothesis. And this is the conclusion." For him it was normal to conclude with these two hypotheses, the rest of us had to read a lot of pages to understand it and, however, it was difficult to understand it.
Therefore, to be a good scientific disseminator, genius can be bad. You have to be a normal person, who learns things with effort, because those learning difficulties can also be passed on to others.
It is also important to put yourself in the place of readers, listeners or viewers: you have to use a language that matches the client and know their level of knowledge to give concepts based on it. Also, be humble. When they answer “I have not understood,” you have to think that you have done something wrong. You have to change the message or the way you issue it, tell it differently. When this happens 100 times, in the period 101 it becomes better. It is also good to have the status of interpreter, because you have to create reactions, arouse curiosity, have something of the theater actor.
Sources of information will also be relevant.
Yes, but nowadays online, that has no difficulty. There are too many nougat, but I only use them a few.
What are they?
One, because I like how they do it, the American ABC. It provides interesting news, in a pleasant way and if you want to deepen, it also links with other directions. I also use a lot of information from Cordiss, the European Research database. Here you can see what, how much and how you are researching and contacting phone calls.
Are these good relationships essential for outreach?
Of course. I have been 33 years and almost without wanting to have a great network of relationships. I know many people, directors of science museums, members of associations of journalists, all of them, in addition, have very good willingness to collaborate. However, scientists in general have difficulty explaining things because they are very involved in their work. They often think that people can understand anything and it is not. I have been telling researchers for a long time that they have to explain to people what they are doing, and that you have to tell them well, because it depends on whether they have budgets to be able to do their work. So far they have lived in the glass cage, each with their budget, but now they have to share the budget with others. In view of this, they have realized that they have no choice but to divulge a lot and have started, although the motivation -money– is not very altruistic.
Does society need information about science?
I think he has it, but he doesn't know. For example, transgenic foods, yes or no? We cannot trust producers or environmentalists. And how we can have some criteria. Well, for that not or for that yes, we will have to know what is transgenic food. The same is true of nuclear power plants, for some it is good and for others it is not. But if society listens to Westinghouse, which manufactures nuclear power plants, and listens to Greenpeace, it can hardly take over the real problem. Risks, benefits, everyone should be aware of it. However, any progress is a risk. Cloning of human cells, yes or no? People have to have very clear criteria to answer.
Society needs science, but it still does not. Since we got up to bed we have a very close relationship with technology, because we have a lot of things that our ancestors did not have, electricity, tap water.
On the other hand, the resources are not abundant, since there are more and more researchers to eat on the same cake, and we have to decide who is going to give the part of the cake and to decide that we have to know.
And is it not hard for people to receive science?
From my personal experience I will tell you that when science counts well it is very fun.
Are we doing this task well?
Getting better and better. In some journals and in some newspapers pages dedicated specifically to science have already been removed, and that's good, scientific news is treated the same as the rest of the news. Before they were in the ghetto and now they are with others, it is very important, outside of the additional sciences is also finished.
He has been looking at science for 30 years, at breakneck speed. From the perspective of the person who has been looking, where does science take us?
Where does it take us? Potentially to paradise or hell. Where do you have to take us? Paradise is clear. Who should lead science? Scientists, politicians, of course, no; pedestrians have to drive, but for that we have to know how to drive. I think XX. 20th century has been terrible from the point of view of scientific achievements, I would summarize it in one sentence: In 1900, the life expectancy of German women was average 37 years, currently exceeding 80. That XX. It is a consequence of 20th century science.
Yes, but Australian aborigines die at age 40.
Because they have no resources created by science. Is it unbalanced? Yes, science has created bad things, like the atomic bomb. It can be used for good or bad. Society must know that any progress can pose a risk and that the motto of science must be taken by citizens.
Where does the idea of making a Science Museum come from?
In the early 1990s a group of friends, mostly made up of university professors, began working on the impulse of the science museum. This group prepared a draft, proposed to the City Council, the Council, belonged to the Zientzia XXI group. Kutxa, for his part, decided in 1996 that it was time for a new social work. During the analysis of the different alternatives the preliminary project of the Zientzia XXI group was known. After talking to them, Kutxa decided to create a Science Museum based on the preliminary project of Zientzia XXI.
And how did you get the direction of the Science Museum?
Two and a half years ago they offered me and I told them yes. Along with my work I have done radio programs in the form of a hobby: 180 For 8-9 years on SER radio, for 4 years I did outreach sessions on Onda Cero at the national level, I am currently on Radio Popular, Radio Vitoria. In addition to radio programs, I have published articles of all kinds in all kinds of publications. I am a member of the Spanish Association of Scientific Journalists, I have participated in numerous seminars, I do not know, I counted them once and I believe that I will have published about 500 articles. As for the responsibility with the Science Museum, it is a great challenge for me, because what I did as a hobby has now become a daily work, for me it is ideal, terrible. I have to do what I like and get paid.
Why has construction been greatly delayed?
The delay has been over a year, yes, especially with construction problems, as the rest is ready. We had a lack of staff, because in the construction there has been a huge boom.
What does the museum bring to the Basque Country, Gipuzkoa, Donostia?
Well, as there is no more, it gives the Basque Country the opportunity to be a science museum, in an informal and playful way, to educate in science. And Gipuzkoa, who we are going to have concrete things from here, will allow him to make the reality of here better known. We have to try to get things from the companies in Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country to see what companies and universities are doing, and especially those in Gipuzkoa. For San Sebastian, finally, it can be an opportunity to strengthen tourism. San Sebastian, with San Telmo, the Aquarium, the Kursaal and the Science Museum, can offer an attractive tourist offer that complements the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Will it bring something to science?
Scientific dissemination mainly affects science from an exclusively educational point of view. We do not want to be a passive museum, we want to put what people want to know, to collect the opinion of the people, for this we have an agreement with the UPV/EHU, with the Department of Didactics, to find gaps, collect the opinion of the people and how to make what is done more attractive. From this point of view we will conduct a pedagogical research along with disclosure.
Continue with the slogan "Forbidden not to touch".
Yes, we know it's copy, but it's nice. It was taken out by the Exploratorium of San Francisco and the rest of the museums of the world we have copied it in some way, logically adapted.
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