    | More NewsThe Compassionate Elite - An ExperimentOctober 17, 2006Type/Items(s): Opening & Closing, Special Focus, Scientific Sessions Phase one of a new experiment with human "guinea-pigs" was launched in the Swiss alpine resort of Crans-Montana in September 2006 (14-16th). Some of you who will read this are among the 270 participants at the first biennial World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium who volunteered to take part in the experiment. Others among you may have heard of the World Knowledge Dialogue from a colleague or friend. Perhaps you received an invitation to attend, but felt your career advancement plan could not afford the "luxury" of taking time off from other professional commitments? You may feel skeptical about the value of such an initiative, or you may quite simply not have grasped what it's all about, but you are curious enough to have come seeking information. (You are unlikely to be reading this if you are the biomedical researcher invitee who responded "Social scientists should be drowned at birth".) So what is it all about, this World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium, and what is so unique about it? More... Ideas... Ideas... Ideas... What have we learned from the first WKD Conference?September 18, 2006Type/Items(s): Special Focus  Now is the time to transform words of good intentions into action. Image: V. Krebs, ICVolunteers. Three days of frank exchanges between the world's top academics and practitioners in the natural and social sciences closed with a call from Dame Julia Higgins to do everything possible to bridge the gap between the two disciplines "for the sake of humanity". More... Why Dialogue? Feedback and Discussions from the WKD WorkshopsChairpersons present the results of the workshopsSeptember 18, 2006Type/Items(s): Workshops, Opening & Closing, Discussions & short presentations  Delegates at the World Knowledge Dialogue will continue to spread its message and open channels of communication. Image: V.Krebs, ICVolunteers The Chairpersons of the 3 workshops held on Saturday morning commented on the results of each discussion. It was apparent that many more questions have come out of this symposium than concrete answers, but the step of acknowledging this is a positive one. More... Volunteer Reporters at the World Knowledge DialogueSeptember 17, 2006Type/Items(s): Special Focus, Scientific Sessions  Volunteer Reporters Raquel Martinez-Alpman, Erkan Alpman and Beatrice Nordin get to the bottom of one of the WKD sessions. Reporters were trained to work in teams to distill the essence of the Symposium. Image: J. Garbino, ICVolunteers. With most of the World Knowledge Dialogue (WKD) Symposium's participants holding positions of influence in the academic, scientific, economic and political fields, the challenge of the Symposium's ten volunteer reporters was not only to convey the essence of presentations, but also to capture contributions coming from participants with different perspectives and backgrounds-- to encourage communication, interaction and debate. More... What Separates Us from the Apes? Neandertals and the Path to the Modern HumanSeptember 17, 2006Type/Items(s): II Origin and Migrations of Modern Humans, Scientific Sessions  Ancient DNA extracted from Neandertal remains will help researchers understand the molecular evolution of modern humans. Image source: Wikipedia Professor Svante Pääbo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany is an eminent researcher in evolutionary genetics and ancient DNA. He believes that through genetic analysis of humans and some of our closest modern relatives, the great apes, patterns in our history could emerge. More... Nurturing the New da Vincis, Galileos and NewtonsWorkshop 3: Reshaping university education for improved dialogue and societal responsibilitySeptember 16, 2006Type/Items(s): Workshops, Special Focus, Discussions & short presentations, Scientific Sessions  Standing at the feet of giants. Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey. Image: Wikipedia The simultaneously ambitious and mysterious-sounding slogan of the World Knowledge Symposium, "Towards a modern humanism", reflects the very nature of the challenge of this first Symposium: to bridge the gap between the natural sciences and the humanities. A lofty ideal, but how can we achieve it? More... Of Flour and Salt are both Bread and Paste MadeWorkshop 1: Dialogue driven by political instruments and respecting academic autonomySeptember 16, 2006Type/Items(s): Workshops, Opening & Closing, Discussions & short presentations  From ideals to action: most agree that dialogue among fields of natural and social science brings benefits to society as a whole, but not all share the same ideas about methods. Illustration: R. Schmieder Getting any minds together in one room is a challenge in itself. Getting great minds together is harder. Getting great minds to agree on a common methodology is the stuff of miracles. But at the World Knowledge Dialogue, miracles are just what the organizers are after. More... The world has problems, universities have faculties: How to promote interdisciplinarity in academic institutionsWorkshop 2: Dialogue driven by academic institutional governanceSeptember 16, 2006Type/Items(s): Workshops, Opening & Closing, Discussions & short presentations  Georges Haddad invites the workshop's participants to discuss how governance of academic institutions can promote interdisciplinarity. Image: J. Garbino, ICVolunteers Georges Haddad, the UNESCO Director of the Division of Higher Education led and chaired the workshop session on "Dialogue driven by academic institutional governance". He requested participants to discuss the Millennium Development Goals and their relationship to higher education. More... Always Look on the Unified Side of Life; Discussions on the Origins and Migrations of Modern HumansScientific Session 3: Origins and Migrations of Modern Humans, DiscussionSeptember 15, 2006Type/Items(s): II Origin and Migrations of Modern Humans, Discussions & short presentations, Scientific Sessions  Dame Julia Higgins looks on as Ofer Bar-Yosef, Svante Pääbo and Bernard Victorri listen attentively to questions during the dialogue on Origins and Migrations of Modern Humans. Image: V. Krebs, ICVolunteers After the three presentations on Origins and Migrations of Modern Humans, a lively question and answer session followed, in which a unified theory of migration and a successful case study in interdisciplinarity were presented. More... Have We Become Wiser?Reports from Round Table PresentationsSeptember 15, 2006Type/Items(s): Workshops, Discussions & short presentations, Scientific Sessions, Networking & Social  Participants from 34 countries join the discussions of WKD to discuss knowledge dialogue. Image: V. Krebs, ICVolunteers Who has not felt shy engaging a simple conversation with the cute/handsome neighbor at the bar, albeit the place has been designed for it? Many roadblocks hinder straightforward communication and spread of knowledge. In essence, human beings procrastinate, taking the extra step to establish a dialogue. Partcipants unite to debate how to foster dialogue and free up knowledge from instrumentalisation, but more could actively take the step towards a reflection about dialogue. More... Result page: 1 2 Next » | Quick Jump to
The World Knowledge Dialogue at a glance The World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium 2006 is an institutional initiative to bridge the gap between the natural and the human/social sciences starting from new, revolutionary discoveries with potential impact at the scale of paradigmatic changes.Click for more information and summaries of sessions. Focus on Young Scientists "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein Thirty-eight Young Scientists were selected from around the world to actively participate in The World Knowledge Dialogue. | ||
