Materia has spent a year providing daily information on science, technology, health and the environment, and to celebrate, it was organizing the Materia’s first "Saving science" meetingon September 19th at CaixaForum Madrid. This year Materia has published 750 reports and 90 videos on over 500 different topics with 2,300 external media that have re-posted this content. The publication has become a reference in popular science, and present on stage were Paco Guinea (Material Science researcher from CSIC), Miguel Delibes de Castro (Chairman of the Board Involvement of the Doñana Biological Station of CSIC) Manuel Lozano Leyva (Professor of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics, University of Sevilla) and Carlo Frabetti (writer, circulator and screenwriter)
The distinguishing stamp of Materia was observed at its anniversary celebration. The website urged its users to comment on the page to improve science in Spain. Michelangelo Pantaleoni (Physics student at UCM) Jara Pérez-Jiménez (Research Institute of Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN -CSIC) Marga Gual Soler (PhD in Cell Biology and UN collaborator) and Andrew Carmona (professor of Philosophy) were the four selected to participate as speakers at the meeting. Testimonials at the event would later be collected in an e -book which can be downloaded for free on the web. Patricia de Lis, journalist director at Materia, explained that the Materia III meeting was given for several reasons: the passion for explaining science creatively, the conviction that it is time to discuss and convey science to society, and that the republication of content facilitates the spread of knowledge to citizens. Hence, Materia’s motto is “Read. Think. Share".
Speakers at the conference agreed that an economic policy based on science and innovation is the only solution, as well as encouraging an interest in science for citizens. "Science education will lead to a number of hypotheses and the development of true a democracy. Having knowledge can be debated," said Andres Carmona. Miguel Delibes de Castro insisted that long-term science must do more than raise resources and should transmit enthusiasm for knowledge. This last topic was the main argument of several other speakers: "There must be a change of mind and access to rational change. It's an attitude," stated Carlo Frabetti; "A model for stronger circulation is needed. There is no communication training for scientists," Marga Gual explained; “Science and democracy are intrinsic. We scientists are morally and socially referent, "said Manuel Lozano Leyva; " Lack of scientific culture benefits some power circles for eliminating critical thinking , "said Jara Pérez . The meeting resulted in public interest and the round of questions had to leave some questions unanswered for lack of time. Ultimately, Materia III served to advocate a scientific culture and an economic policy based on R & D, so that the salvation of science is, for the first time, in the hands of society.
