tential public health implications in Web sites. In an era in which information on health matters is disseminated rapidly by the media, circulation of information within the scientific community should be at least as fast, while preserving the quality and reliability of scientific journals. This work was performed as a part of Ricerca Corrente degli Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, 1997.

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News about risk factors and their prevention as well as technological and environmental factors related to cancer were among the most important topics published in the general press and magazines, together with conflicts with administrative bodies. Informations related to new therapies were a less frequent topic. Scientific journals have an important role as an information source for mass media together with political and scientific institutions.

Under the theme of "scientific knowledge and cultural diversity," Barcelona brought together in the first week of June 2004 more than six hundred people from every continent at the 8th International Conference on the Public Communication of Science and Technology. This open network of professionals extends to more than fifty countries and embraces the different aspects of science communication, including journalism, museology, research into scientific communication, and policies for scientific culture promotion, among others. On this particular occasion, the need to establish effective dialogue between the different forms of local knowledge and scientific knowledge was discussed and developed. The aim was not only to preserve cultural diversity but also to contribute to developing human knowledge and instilling a culture of peace. Various experiences demonstrated the essential role of the scientific communicator in this context.

Public communication of sciences is of strategic relevance in the transition from the industrial society to the knowledge society. The Master’s Course in Scientific, Medical and Environmental Communication of Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (Spain) responds to this economic, social and cultural need. The result: professionals who clearly understand the key aspects of the transmission of scientific knowledge to society through the different essential communication channels in multiple organizations as, among others, mass media, institutional and public relations and museums. This initiative collaborates also to build informed and educated citizens, who understand, accompany and are able to participate in the necessary and unavoidable adaptation to this new society.

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We review the respective roles played by mass media, museums, universities, professional associations and administrations (national, autonomous and local). Although Spanish scientific communication has experienced growth and recession phases since the 1970s, it has never stopped professionalising. Good examples are the offer of specific university studies on science communication (mainly master's and postgraduates courses); the growth of professional associations in number of partners and in their activities; the creation of collaborative networks (such as units of scientific culture, museums and science centres, etc.); the emergence of research groups dedicated to the analysis of this field; and the consolidation of major professional events. 2. Science and SC in Spain before the 1970s The need to recount great happenings is something inherent in the human condition and even before printing had been invented, the public communication of news or events was already taking place. Epidemics, plagues, weather forecasts, environmental disasters, wars and their technological implementations, and quarrels between wise men (or among wise men, mages and monks) are examples of issues that have been present in the 'public arena' throughout history. Nevertheless, SC was transformed in Spain with the printing press and technological advances, as well as scientific revolutions and the institutionalisation of science. Scientists themselves (engineers, doctors, astronomers, naturalists etc.) for centuries acted as disseminators in Spain (López-Ocón Cabrera, 2000). The amassing of artefacts and the 'culture of the curio' (Bolaños, 2008, p. 44), common to all countries with a colonial past or that commissioned great scientific expeditions, formed the basis for some of the first science museums in Spain. Examples include the country's National Museum of Natural Sciences, founded in 1771 on the basis of the collections of Pedro Franco Dávila or, towards the turn of the century, today's Museum of Natural Sciences in Barcelona, based on the collections of Francesc Martorell. Science news in the press is as old as the press itself. SC historians have found records of science news dating back to the 17th century in France and England. Unfortunately, research into the history of SC in Spain is so scant that we have nothing on record regarding these periods, but there is every reason to think that Spain also published this kind of article in the same period. This is particularly so given the fact that the country was at its cultural zenith (the so-called 'Golden Age' of Spanish hegemony in Europe, spanning the 16th and 17th centuries), with writers such as Cervantes and painters like Velázquez.

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