Science Journalism
eklemetti | March 4, 2009
Folks have been suggesting that life on Earth started near volcanic vents for a long time now (and of course, some people don't buy it). Whether or not life sprung forth near hydrothermal vents, undersea black smokers or from the head of Zeus, it doesn't really change the fact that we find organisms living in these places today, expanding what we might consider "habitable" by leaps and bounds. Case and point, researchers from CU-Boulder have recently found a community of micro-organisms happily living near the summit of Volcán Socompa (above) in Chile in the hydrothermal vents. Now, having…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
The people who remain in Chaiten face the potential for a devasting pyroclastic flow, so says Jorge Muñoz of the SERNAGEOMIN in Chile. The volcano is still producing large ash columns on Tuesday and a flyover of the dome forming inside the caldera has lead to the concern that a collapse on a larger scale than those seen last week could wipe out the town for good.
The government hopes news like this from volcanologists might convince the last remaining residents of Chaiten to leave, but no indication of this has come to pass. In fact, things sound like they're getting heated in the fight…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
So, there has been a lot of talk about "volcano monitoring" over the last 24 hours, now hasn't there?
Now, I'm not going to revisit this discussion, but as an example of why it might be important, there is an article today about the location of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines (near the potentially active caldera Natib). These are the sorts of issues that need to be dealt with in regards to volcano monitoring - the cascading effect of an eruption. During the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, there was a chance that volcaniclastic sediment from the eruption could have dammed…
amillikan | January 3, 2009In this week's featured episode of Science Saturday from Bloggingheads, George Johnson and John Horgan returned with new insight on the controversy provoked by their last appearance, including some negative comments directed toward ScienceBlogger Abbie from ERV.
Johnson admitted that he may have been reacting to his cumulative perception of lower-end blogging, the existence of which Horgan explained by 'The law of the conservation of bullshit'—no matter how much the information sphere expands, there's still going to be the same proportion of bullshit circulating throughout it.
But…
amillikan | December 23, 2008The advent of the science blogger is changing the way people talk about science. But along with new modes of communication and new rhetoric come new questions and opinions about how this evolution is affecting the scientific process. ScienceBlogger Coturnix from A Blog Around the Clock posted his views about why both scientists and science journalists sometimes rant about science bloggers, and why this is a good thing.
amillikan | December 20, 2008Today on ScienceBlogs.com, you will notice a new feature on the site. Instead of The Buzz, we have an embedded video from Bloggingheads.tv. This feature will appear every Saturday and can be viewed subsequently here on Page 3.14, the editorial blog of ScienceBlogs.com. This week, John Horgan from the Stevens Center for Science Writings and George Johnson, author of Fire in the Mind and The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments discuss recent attempts of scientists to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology to display graphic images on a computer screen directly from the visual cortex…
awild | September 16, 2008Here's something that bugs me. Instead of emphasizing the real significance of the find, a discovery like the "Mars ant" Martialis heureka is usually condensed down to "Wow, this ant is weird!".
I've pasted below a sampling of leads:
Newly-Discovered Bizarre Ant - Boing Boing
'Ant From Mars' Discovered in Amazon Rainforest - Fox News
'Ant from Mars' found in Amazon jungle - Science News
But weirdness misses the point. We have weird ants already. The suicidal exploding Camponotus is plenty weird. So are the gliding ants, and the ants that swim. The real story here is the…
eklemetti | July 21, 2008
It is always fun to try to comprehend the sorts of numbers that geological processes produce. I mean, how much is 125 million cubic yard exactly? Well, the Cascades Volcano Observatory puts it this way:
"From October 2004 to late January 2008, about 125 million cubic yards of lava had erupted onto the crater floor to form a new dome-enough to pave seven highway lanes three feet thick from New York City to Portland, Oregon. A comparable volume had flowed out to form the 1980s lava dome. All lava erupted since 1980 has refilled about 7% of the crater, which was created by the catastrophic…
tsmith | July 14, 2008So, as you've probably heard and read around here on Scienceblogs and elsewhere, filmmaker Randy Olson has made a new film about climate change. It's billed as a "mockumentary," and it's certainly a mock...something. There are several nuggets of good stuff in the movie, but they unfortunately get lost in the distractions. More after the jump...
In the early portion of the movie, Randy's wealthy gay benefactors, Mitch and Brian (think "Jack" from Will and Grace times two), say they're upset about global warming--but "they don't know why they're upset." Why didn't Randy explain to them why…
tsmith | June 25, 2008I had ended up with a ratty old piece of Army gear, a space suit that belonged to nobody A little voice started speaking in my head. What are you doing here? the voice said. You're in an Ebola lab in a fucking defective space suit. I started to feel giddy. It was an intoxicating rush of fear, a sensation that all I needed to do was relax and let the fear take hold, and I could drift away on waves of panic, screaming for help.
Martha was looking into my eyes again.
The little voice went on: You're headed for the Slammer.
Richard Preston opens his new publication, a collection of essays…
tsmith | June 23, 2008 Many of you probably followed the 2005 "Kitzmiller vs. Dover" trial in Dover, Pennsylvania closely. From its early days, with daily updates at the Panda's Thumb to the publication of the ruling--"Kitzmas"-- in late December, the trial was filled with drama and moments right out of the movies. From the defendants' remarkable lying on the stand to Behe's admission that his definition of a scientific theory included astrology, it seemed that each day was better than the last for the pro-science side, culminating in the stinging tongue-lashing doled out by Judge Jones in his decision in favor…
sciencetolife | May 29, 2008
I recently teamed up with Hitt Medical Writing, LLC to bring you science/medical writing jobs (see the new section of the sidebar).
Hitt Medical Writing is a company that provides solutions to industries in the life sciences, including continuing medical education, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies.
Company founder, Emma Hitt Ph.D., produces "The HittList"TM, a free weekly subscription email containing information about science/medical writing/editing jobs (both staff and freelance).
I've been receiving this job list for ages and find it to be a great resource for freelance, full-…
sciencetolife | April 8, 2008I recently co-founded a group called the Science Writers Association of Emory (SWAE). It was created out of an overwhelming interest in science journalism and medical writing among Emory graduate students.
We were lucky enough to get the support of our Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences as well as the Journalism Department.
With their support we decided to create (write, edit & publish) a science magazine that would provide Emory grad students the opportunity to showcase their science writing skills and build up their writing portfolios.
To date, we have organized…
sciencetolife | March 26, 2008
The March 2008 issue of Nature has a great editorial piece on the current (and future) state of science in news media. The article draws heavily on new information released by The Pew Research Center in a report called The State of the News Media 2008.
It discusses the glaringly evident problem of waning science coverage in news media.
Here are the main points:
1.Apparently, science coverage has never been very high in news media. It hovered around 4-6% (of total news coverage) from the mid-1970s until 2001 and is currently down to about 2%.
2.The problem doesn't appear to be just with…
tsmith | February 26, 2008This is the third of 6 guest posts on infectious causes of chronic disease.
By Whitney Baker
While working out at the gym last night, I was perusing the latest SHAPE magazine to help pass the time. In it, I read a small article about researchers finding an association between Adenovirus-36 and human obesity. Since I am in the infectious disease field, I was already aware of this proposed link- an infectious cause (or contributor) for obesity. But for the millions of health-conscious readers hearing of this for the first time, what would they make of it? Would they have visions of…
tsmith | November 14, 2007 WIRED Science host Ziya Tong reveals how she ended up where she is today, and the secrets behind her success. Check out her post to see how spamming, melting make-up, Jane Goodall, and Michael Jackson have played into her career trajectory.
(And if you've not watched WIRED Science yet, tonight Ziya will have a segment on the business of disease and direct-to-consumer drug advertising, using the example of Restless Leg Syndrome).
tsmith | November 6, 2007 I've written a post or two (or a dozen) discussing science journalism--the good, the bad, and, mostly (because they're the most fun), the ugly. There was this story about how blondes "evolved to win cavemen's hearts." Or this one that completely omitted the name of the pathogen they were writing about. Or this one, where a missing "of" completely changed the results being discussed.
I ran across another glaring example yesterday, dealing interestingly enough with one of my favorite topics: chocolate, and bringing in an "omics" prospective to it.
The news story covered a recent…
tsmith | September 11, 2007...so claims this headline. Only the story screws it up.
The article highlights this dissertation research by Charles Courtemanche at Washington University in St. Louis. Courtemanche's thesis is that the rise in gas prices causes more people to walk, ride bikes, or take public transportation (which they'd also have to walk to), as well as eat at home instead of going out; therefore higher gasoline prices can result in a thinner population. Sounds plausible. I won't get into all the details of his research (the .pdf is available from the above link for anyone interested), but just by…
purepedantry | August 22, 2007NYTimes Science section, why do you make me so mad?
Gretchen Reynolds published an article in the Times on cognitive improvements associated with exercise, and I would like to use it to make a point about how science journalism often gets the facts right but the interpretation wrong.
It begins with the following incorrect statement:
The Morris water maze is the rodent equivalent of an I.Q. test: mice are placed in a tank filled with water dyed an opaque color. Beneath a small area of the surface is a platform, which the mice can't see. Despite what you've heard about rodents and sinking…
tsmith | July 12, 2007Traveling yet again today (things finally calm down in September, I think). In the meantime, here are a few posts from elsewhere I've been meaning to highlight:
Some more background for those of you who may not be up to speed on HIV/AIDS: AJ Cann explains what we know (and don't know) about how HIV causes AIDS.
Speaking of HIV, ERV has 4 years to come up with an HIV vaccine, and another bad story about science in the media.
David asks if biologists have physics envy. I think I just have other-fields-of-biology envy, and want to do it all.
PZ has a very nice posts explaining the…