Seminar with Naomi Oreskes

Science, society and disinformation

19 June 2025

Debate

Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, will speak with Agustí Nieto-Galan, Carlos Elías, and Alba Tobella about the situation of scientific knowledge in times of disinformation and post-truth.

Throughout history, political and economic powers have deliberately sown ignorance to suit their own purposes. A confused, misinformed society is, without a doubt, more vulnerable. Based on delegitimisation of knowledge, this strategy has enabled false stories, designed to reinforce unfounded beliefs and deny facts, to permeate the public sphere. Post-truth, denialism, and radical relativism have created a climate that is hostile to critical thinking, that shuns complexity and uncertainty and, as a result, scorns the value of science. This antiscientific discourse is now joined by the crusade waged by certain authoritarian governments against research and freedom of thought, with a political agenda that threatens the scientific domain while also alarmingly eroding academic freedom.

How can social trust in science be strengthened? What is the role of the mass media? Is promoting media literacy and critical thinking sufficient for struggling against disinformation and loss of democratic quality? How have we come to this point and what futures lie ahead? Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science, Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, and an international reference in the political economy of science, will discuss these issues and will be joined in this seminar by Agustí Nieto-Galan, ICREA Academic Fellow (2009 and 2018) former director of the Institute of History of Science (IHC) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and expert on the relations between science and power, Carlos Elías, incumbent of the Jean Monnet Chair (“Disinformation and Fake News”) at the Carlos III University, Madrid, and Alba Tobella, journalist and director of the fact-checking agency Verificat. The session will be moderated by Toni Pou, curator of the scientific culture programme “Radical Science”.

Program

10.00 - 11.30
Agustí Nieto-Galan | Beyond "Scientific Truth": How can authority and credibility be achieved in these turbulent times?
Carlos Elías | Science and Journalism on the Ropes: Are western universities responsible for loss of trust in science and the rise of misinformation and conspiracy theories?
Alba Tobella | The Politicisation of Science: Climate change fact checking struggles to outmatch political noise in an age where truth is public but often ignored
Naomi Oreskes | Round table with the speakers

11.30 - 11.45 Pause

11.45 - 13.00 Open discussion

This seminar is part of “Radical Science”, a cultural project resulting from the research strategy devised by the Complementary Joint Research Plans fund, which is coordinated in Catalonia through ICFO, ALBA Synchrotron, IBEC, and IFAE.

Participants: Naomi Oreskes, Agustí Nieto-Galan, Carlos Elías, Alba Tobella