Question: If you win why would you involve children?

Simone Sturniolo answered on 26 Jun 2013:

Well, the event is about education after all! But there are two main reasons.
First, it’s what I would have liked someone to do for me when I was a child. Science is often seen as something rather mysterious and difficult, but it’s also full of fascinating topics and things that can help us understand better the world day by day. When you are interested in science as a child, though, you often don’t have a chance to learn much about it directly from persons involved with it as a job – you pretty much have to rely on books, magazines or TV. So I’m glad to give this chance to as many children (or even older than that, there are also highschoolers here, right?) as possible!
Secondly, there’s a more general issue. I feel that all around the world the mistrust in science is growing. I think this is the consequence of both the fact that it’s something often left mysterious and poorly understood, and of some problems, like global warming, that people feels like are “science’s fault”. I don’t think anything can be “science’s fault” – but many things can be the fault of people who works with science. Science leads to technology, and technology can be used responsibly or irresponsibly, lead to a better life for people or to a more miserable one. Science has gone a great deal into helping people live longer lives and it would be wrong to blame it for things that no one could predict – and that when were predicted, were often just laughed off as impossible before they actually happened – but at the same time, I think every scientist has a responsibility not only to think about satisfying his own natural curiosity, but also to reflect upon the consequences of his own actions or research, speak with the world around him, and try to make this world a better place, just like everyone else has to do. That’s why I think we should speak about what we know and about what people wants to know as much as we actually do our research: to help people trust science, to understand what people expects for science, and to give a chance to everyone who’s got the knack for it to become a scientist in the future – and possibly a good one who will do the same ;).