This article examines the relationship between the general public’s understanding of science and the attitude towards public funding of scientific research. It applies a multivariate and discriminant analysis (Wilks’ Lambda), in addition to a more commonly used bivariate analysis (Cramer’s V), to data compiled from the Third National Survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology in Spain (FECYT, 2006). The general conclusion is that the multivariate analysis produces information complementary to the bivariate analysis, and that the variables commonly applied in public perception studies have limited predictive value with respect to the attitude towards public funding of scientific research.

This paper explores media coverage of climate science through a selection of Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, ABC, Expansión and Levante). We selected a stratified random sample of 363 items to be studied for eleven years (2000-2010). Content analysis allowed us to find out media attention paid to climate science, prevalence of informative tables, evaluation and characterization of news, as well as the presence of questioning or rejection of climate change. According to main results, press coverage of climate science in Spain was mainly focused on the consequences rather than on the causes or natural sources, and media attention paid to it was limited. Overlapping with social and macroeconomic problems in the country also contributed to communication of climate science as a controversial and uncertain science through informative framings.

RESUMENEl análisis de dos conjuntos zooarqueológicos de Punta Entrada, en la desembocadura del río Santa Cruz (Patagonia Argentina), permite abordar el tema de la existencia y explotación de apostaderos de lobos marinos en la localidad. Las características de estos conjuntos incluyen el predominio de los restos de pinnípedos, la representación de dos especies (Otaria flavescens y Arctocephalus australis), la presencia de ambos sexos y de individuos de diversas edades, modificaciones antrópicas y una gran diversidad de partes esqueletarias representadas. Los restos de cachorros de 1-1,5 meses en uno de los depósitos permiten establecer que el apostadero era reproductivo. Los perfiles anatómicos indican el transporte de individuos enteros o casi enteros desde un lugar cercano, que pudo ubicarse sobre la costa atlántica inmediatamente al sur de la localidad, donde la playa y el acantilado son similares a los hábitats en que los pinnípedos emplazan actualmente sus asentamientos. Otro lugar posible es el sector este de Punta Entrada, cuya historia de formación permite suponer que presentaba las mismas características. Además, las fuentes históricas mencionan una isla en el estuario en la que habitualmente se avistaban lobos marinos. Si bien estos hábitats son los que utiliza O. flavescens, la presencia de restos de A. australis en Punta Entrada permite suponer que esta especie también los utilizaba, aunque actualmente prefiera otros. Durante los últimos 2.000 años, el aprovechamiento de estos apostaderos por las poblaciones humanas no habría sido ni continuo ni relacionado con una estación específica del año.

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This article contributes to the clarification of the concept of precaution and its function in social debate. The authors compare the uses of precaution in science and technology-related conflicts (as indicated by an analysis of media reports on precaution) with data from a survey on precaution and the role of science in decision making. While the survey data confirm the existence of opposing "idealized" or "ideological" conceptualizations of the role of science in regulatory decisions, the analyzed media reports show an added degree of complexity on the level of social dynamics. The media analysis identifies an instrumental use of the concept of precaution in social debate, which is independent of "ideological" positions on precaution, and serves as a way of empowerment for social actors critical of scientific-technological proposals, allowing them to counterbalance information asymmetries.