The congress of Microbiology of the Spanish Society of Microbiology (SEM) was recently held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), attended by the professor and Dean of the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra, Ignacio López-Goñi. Together with Dr. Manuel Sánchez, professor at the Miguel Hernández University, López-Goñi organized the symposium"Microbiology and journalism: a symbiotic relationship", held at framework of congress.

Cristina Ribas, president of the association Catalana de Comunicación Científica (ACCC), was one of the guests, as well as José Antonio López Guerrero, professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and director of Scientific Culture at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO) and Mercè Piqueras, writer and science editor of International Microbiology.

During the meeting, it was stressed that science should be at the service of people, "enabling them to change the world". In Ribas' opinion, "the design of the research should include the opinion of citizens". Initiatives such as patientslikeme, a portal web site that puts patients, health professionals and laboratories at contact , and which has initiated certain clinical trials of interest to patients themselves, were also presented.

Spain at the bottom of Europe
For his part, López Guerrero referred to the data of the FECYT that places Spain at the bottom of Europe in scientific cultural level:"doctors and scientists are the most valued professionals, and people -besides football- are interested in medicine and health, energy and the environment". For this popularizer, "if we scientists do not act, pseudoscience will fill the space left by science", and he also asked for an evaluation of the popularization activity of the scientist.

Along the same lines, the discussion on Who should communicate? was developed. Piqueras regretted that "science careers do not encourage communication, they do not teach how to communicate. Everything can be communicated, but you have to know how to do it, without boring and maintaining rigor". The expert encouraged scientists who can and know how to do so to dedicate part of their time to communication and knowledge dissemination. She also recalled that "some of the errors in the press come from the communication offices themselves, which inhibits many researchers and scientists from collaborating with them".

For Professor López-Goñi,"we researchers must continue to make an effort to communicate and disseminate our activity as it is a duty of justice to society. Joining efforts between the world of science and communication is still a pending task also in our University".