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New Science News Service

By clock on September 15, 2009.

There is a new site for you to bookmark today - Futurity.org. This is a collaborative effort of, for now, 35 major Universities in the United States (those include, for my local readers, UNC and Duke - why is NCSU lagging behind?!).

The site is the answer to the question:

How will the public learn about important breakthroughs at leading research universities as traditional news outlets continue to shrink?

The site is taking selected science stories from the participating Universities and putting them together in one place, sorted by topics and searchable by tags (by topic or by school). Let's hope that more schools choose to join in, and also, that their feed gets incorporated on major news sites. The site is a "pull" strategy vehicle (it will be found and read by people who are interested in science and actively seaching for information) and inclusion on front pages of mainstream media sites would add a "push" strategy (making sure everybody sees the science news, even those who are not specifically looking, but may say "Wow - this is cool!") which is necessary for more widespread popularisation of science.

Tags
science reporting

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Cool, though the name looked suspiciously like a consultant picked one! It looks like a spiffed up version of sciencedaily and eureka alert with web 2.0 styling and interactivity...

Very cool! I've added the Med/Health feed to my reader. Thanks for letting us know about this.

By Jonny Dover (not verified) on 15 Sep 2009 #permalink

I work as a public information officer and science writer at NC State University, and I agree that Futurity is a great site. In fact, I found the site months ago and contacted the folks who run the site at the University of Rochester. Participation in Futurity is only available to universities that are members of the American Association of Universities (AAU); NC State is not a member. (Here's the list of members: http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476) So, for the time being, NC State is unable to share its research results on the Futurity site. If you're interested, you can check our news site at news.ncsu.edu and get your fill of research. I doubt you'll think we're "lagging behind" as you explore our site.

Ah, I see. That's a shame. I know how kick-ass research is at NCSU and it should be available on Futurity.