image Bill Waterson
Ed Yong, responding to a run of recent rumination about the nature and role of science journalism, ponders the value of the "This is cool" science story:
None of this is intended to suggest that "this-is-cool" stories are somehow superior to those explaining the interaction between science, policy and society, or what David Dobbs calls the "smells funny" stories. They are simply the stories that I prefer to tell. Individual journalists can specialise in one or more of these areas but across the science writing population, we ultimately need a mix of approaches.
Two points…
Not Exactly Rocket Science
Welcome to the eleventh and by far the most important, although surprisingly the most poorly formatted, installment of Carnival of the Blue. Before we get down to the watery, salty, and sometimes rubbery details, we wanted to take a moment to ponder the significance of Zooillogix's role as host of the eleventh COB. Why not the fifth or the ever popular tenth? Why not the second or maybe seventh, sixth, eighth, ninth or third?
Well, according to Biblestudy.org, "If ten is the number which marks the perfection of Divine order, then eleven is an addition to it, subversive of and undoing that…