DW: Markus Weisskopf, you've been on the science ship as well. What is your favorite experiment on board?
Markus Weisskopf: It is quite difficult to say. There are a lot of very interesting exhibits on the ship. But I quite like the washing machine. Normally you have tensides in your washing agent. Now you can take bacteria instead of that - and that is very good for the environment.
Similar to the ship, you have an organization, the Science in Dialogue initiative, a center of expertise on science and science communication. What are you hoping to achieve with this. Is it addressed toward young people?
Yes, we address young people to discuss controversial issues of science and research. For example climate change, genetically modified organisms and so on - new developments in research. We try to interest them in science in general.
Isn't this the job of schools?
I don't think so. Schools teach what we found out 50 years ago. But they don't have the possibility of showing how science is working today. And that's what we can do.
So it's basically about getting them to be pro-active about science. You yourself have come up with some great concepts, in fact. Tell us about the "Fishbowl" and the "Science Slam".
Fishbowl Discussions is a new format to engage people much more in discussions. Normally people sit on the podium and they are far away from the audience. In the Fishbowl Discussions the experts are sitting in the middle of the audience and there are two empty chairs, so everybody from the audience can join the discussion and they can directly speak at eye level to the experts. And that is quite a new format. The Science Slam is a really good competition - a competition for young scientists. They've got 10 minutes. They have to speak in an understandable way, and they have to be funny a bit, and the audience chooses their slam champion for the evening.
So it's about young people and getting them interested. What about social media forums? What kind of a role do they play in communicating science today?
Social media are very important for science communication today. Everybody is on facebook, everybody is on Twitter, so we have to use those channels as well. But I don't think they work on their own. We have to put it together with real events. So we have discussions and afterwards we discuss it again in the web with the same people and with other people. That's the way it works.
(Interview: Anne O'Donnell:)