(English intro to Spanish lang post) BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests are free in Spain if a woman has at least 3 direct relatives who suffered breast cancer. The same happens in countries like Argentina. In others like Ecuador, the test is not available. Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy appeared in all Spanish-...
Pere Estupinya's Tracker
(English intro to Spanish lang post) BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests are free in Spain if a woman has at least 3 direct relatives who suffered breast cancer. The same happens in countries like Argentina. In others like Ecuador, the test is not available. Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy appeared in all Spanish-speaking newspapers, but only a few discussed the specific situation in their countries. Also, most reporters seemed to be more concerned about a possible increase in patients’ fears, than analyzing if the procedure should be more common. As instance, a story in Spain says that only 10% of Spanish women with BRAC mutations follow mastectomy. If compared to a 30% in US (NYT story), the question is obvious: ¿should more Spanish women be having preventive mastectomy? Of course it is a very sensitive topic, and we must prevent the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) This Knight Tracker participated last Thu and Fri in the 7th Ibero-American conference of science journalism in Ecuador. With more than 400 attendees and excellent dialogs, the event was a great success. But the tracker felt that apart from words, more action is needed. Many...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) This Knight Tracker participated last Thu and Fri in the 7th Ibero-American conference of science journalism in Ecuador. With more than 400 attendees and excellent dialogs, the event was a great success. But the tracker felt that apart from words, more action is needed. Many students of journalism came to the tracker with sincere interest in science communication. We need to build specific capacitation and opportunities for them and for journalists working already in the media. Especially now that Ecuadorian government is increasing its investment in science and building Yachay City of Knowledge; an ambitious project aimed to promote scientific research and innovation and to create a knowledge-based economy in Ecuador.
El pasado jueves y viernes participé en el VII seminario iberoamericano de periodismo científico que se celebr...
(English intor to Spanih lang post) Researchers at Oregon University have successfully used cloning techniques to create human embryonic stem cells. Spanish newspapers classified the achievement as a scientific milestone, and it's been the main story in the front page of some print editions. Reporters made...
(English intor to Spanih lang post) Researchers at Oregon University have successfully used cloning techniques to create human embryonic stem cells. Spanish newspapers classified the achievement as a scientific milestone, and it's been the main story in the front page of some print editions. Reporters made a great job searching for opinions of Spanish scientists and comparing the possibilities of human embryonic stem cells with IPS cells. Everybody avoided yellow press about reproductive cloning and talked only about therapeutic cloning. We missed more detailed information about the methods used by the Oregon team, in order to understand why this time the cloning was successful. We’ve tracked the main Latin American newspapers. The story occupied the front page in Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Chile, and has not even appeared in other important outlets. In Spain, many reporters highlighted that one member of the Oregon team is a young Spanish...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Argentinean La Nación published and extensive report acknowledging the state of the biotech industry in the country. It highlights the connection between researchers and industry, it describes specific examples, and it says that 124 companies export to more than 120...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Argentinean La Nación published and extensive report acknowledging the state of the biotech industry in the country. It highlights the connection between researchers and industry, it describes specific examples, and it says that 124 companies export to more than 120 countries. In Folha (Brazil) we read that patents will gain value in researcher’s academic cv. Peruvian and Brazilian governments are disputing the use of the '.amazon' domain with online retailer Amazon, arguing the name should be used to promote the protection of the Amazonian rainforest. Colombia launched a $300 million plan to protect its biodiversity, and El Tiempo wrote an enthusiastic editorial about it. Chilean El Mercurio published also a great story about biodiversity, and SciDev reviewed an article comparing the health inequalities in different Latin American Countries (Cuba is the country with less disparities, Haiti has the most). Spanish news...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Last week The Lancet Oncology published an extensive study about cancer control in Latin America. It's a terryfic work, and it was even ...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Last week The Lancet Oncology published an extensive study about cancer control in Latin America. It's a terryfic work, and it was even published open access in Spanish. The main message is that there are far fewer cases of cancer in the region than in the US or Europe, but the proportion who die is much higher. Important also: cancer cases are rising threateningly fast. The study discusses late diagnosis and inequality in access to treatment. It compares rural and urban areas, indigenous and no indigenous people, and health care systems in the region. It talks about specific risk factors like indoor pollution from burning solid fuels, and it gives plenty of data from all the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Pictures of nine 6-months old transgenic lambs were released yesterday by the Animal Reproduction Institute Uruguay (IRAUy). According to researchers, this is the first time that transgenic lambs have been produced in Latin America. They incorporated the gene coding for the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Pictures of nine 6-months old transgenic lambs were released yesterday by the Animal Reproduction Institute Uruguay (IRAUy). According to researchers, this is the first time that transgenic lambs have been produced in Latin America. They incorporated the gene coding for the green fluorescence protein, that makes them aglow under ultraviolet light. A science journalist from Cromo-El Observador was who first and more extensively reported about the announcement. Researchers explain that their goal was to test a new met that can make transgenesis more efficient. In their quotes scientists admit that they are just doing basic research, that they are not planning to work on practical applications, and that other researchers in the world will be able to take advantage of the scientific knowledge they created. That’s a beautiful but quiet naïve view of scientific endeavor, and we think Uruguayan reporters should be more inquisitive about...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Big Pharma received several critical views in Spanish media in the last few days. The most significant one was from a popular TV program, which denounced the dishonest practices that led Spain to be Europe’s most overmedicated country. The program interviewed medical...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Big Pharma received several critical views in Spanish media in the last few days. The most significant one was from a popular TV program, which denounced the dishonest practices that led Spain to be Europe’s most overmedicated country. The program interviewed medical doctors, pharmacists, drug company salesmen, members of Spanish health care system, and representatives of the industry. It concluded that the system is not well regulated and facilitates medical doctors to prescribe unnecessary drugs, which costs millions of euros to the government. Other critical views derived from the publication of the Spanish version of Goldacre’s book “Mala Pharma”. We read remarks on issues like the hiding of negative results, marketing expenditure, conflicts of interest, and so on. These problems have been more discussed in English speaking press, but not so much in Spanish speaking countries. A third focus of criticism came...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) NYT had a story yesterday about Peruvian glaciers melting due to the rise of global temperatures. Interestingly, in Peruvian press we read stories covering a study done by the Peruvian Institute of Geophysics suggesting that tourism is the main cause of the ice loss of a...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) NYT had a story yesterday about Peruvian glaciers melting due to the rise of global temperatures. Interestingly, in Peruvian press we read stories covering a study done by the Peruvian Institute of Geophysics suggesting that tourism is the main cause of the ice loss of a specific glacier in Huaytapallana Mountain. The hypothesis is interesting. We’ve sent a quick email to an expert on glacier’s melting and said that ice fragmentation by tourism –especially if there’s motor activity involved- could indeed influence the speed of ice loss. The study probably deserves to be analyzed carefully, and opinions of other researchers are needed. But unfortunately Peruvian reporters have been very simplistic in their coverage. We think that they didn’t realize how interesting the topic could be, and that they missed the opportunity to write a solid story about it.
We comment also in two controversial...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) India’s Supreme Court rejected Novartis’s patent claim on a modified version of anticancer drug Gleevec, arguing that it is a...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) India’s Supreme Court rejected Novartis’s patent claim on a modified version of anticancer drug Gleevec, arguing that it is a minor modification of the original imatinib drug, and that Gleevec “fails in both the tests of invention and patentability”. The resolution has been celebrated in all Spanish speaking media as a protection to the production of generic (and affordable to poor Nations) medicines in India. We’ve read plenty of stories in Latin America and Spain. Many mention the tactic known as “evergreening” (to extend patent life by making minor modifications to the drug). Only a few of the stories include opinions from Big pharma representatives. The best reporting is from El Pais, which a set of three stories giving a great context to the case and showing...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) SciDev makes an analysis of several initiatives in Latin America to engage citizens in the science policy decision-making, which casts doubts on their effectiveness, and criticizes that nobody is evaluating the real impact of these initiatives. From Cuba we read a good story...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) SciDev makes an analysis of several initiatives in Latin America to engage citizens in the science policy decision-making, which casts doubts on their effectiveness, and criticizes that nobody is evaluating the real impact of these initiatives. From Cuba we read a good story about the big potential of clean energy sources. We track also some stories about the cancer genetic maps published this week, and a very detailed one about the potential and limitations of fMRI to predict reoffending criminals.
Hace un tiempo hablábamos en este tracker sobre la consulta ciudadana que preguntaba a los mexicanos qué áreas de ciencia consideraba prioritarias para su país. La consulta fue un éxito de participaci...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Today we comment on an extensive and well-documented story published in the Weekend supplement of “La Tercera” (Chile), about a family who decided to stop the chemotherapy treatment of their 2-year-old son affected with leukemia. Parents argued they didn’t...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Today we comment on an extensive and well-documented story published in the Weekend supplement of “La Tercera” (Chile), about a family who decided to stop the chemotherapy treatment of their 2-year-old son affected with leukemia. Parents argued they didn’t want his son to suffer anymore, and that there were other “natural” alternatives. Medical doctors were against this decision, and the hospital tried to legally oblige the parents to continue with the treatment. A court refused the allegations of the hospital. Six months after stopping chemotherapy the infant is healthy and the parents proud of their decision. The story describes the medical aspects in depth, it is very well balanced, and it explains that the doctors consider the decision irresponsible and alert that the infant's future is uncertain. The narrative is excellent, but overall, the story seems to incite parents in similar situations to take the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Argentinean government presented the plan "Argentina Innovadora 2020" aimed to duplicate the number of scientists in the country and triplicate the R&D public funding in the next 7 years. During the presentation of the plan,...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Argentinean government presented the plan "Argentina Innovadora 2020" aimed to duplicate the number of scientists in the country and triplicate the R&D public funding in the next 7 years. During the presentation of the plan, Argentinean president Cristina Fernández said that diabetes is a disease of rich people that eat a lot and are sedentary, that Argentinean scientists working abroad want to return to Argentina but they can’t because of their mortgages, that Argentina has good human resources because they eat lots of protein, and several other surreal assessments. Nonetheless the plan seems to be really solid, ambitious, and it can make a big impact in Argentinean R&D system. It was brilliantly exposed by the minister for Science and Technology. At this moment science reporters have only explained its basic details and goals, but they will soon have to analyze the plan more...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) ESA scientists working with the Plank Telescope have presented the most detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the Universe, only 380.000 years after the Big Bang. The data reveal that the Universe is 80 million years older than previously thought, that there’s...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) ESA scientists working with the Plank Telescope have presented the most detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the Universe, only 380.000 years after the Big Bang. The data reveal that the Universe is 80 million years older than previously thought, that there’s a bit more dark matter and a bit less dark energy than it was assumed, and that the current cosmological models are remarkably accurate. We’ve read many stories about it in the Spanish speaking press, but for the moment none that deserves to be highlighted. Much more interesting is the long and very detailed story published in El Mundo about the disappointing results of one of the trials of the Glaxo’s malaria vaccine. The protection in kids dropped to 17% after 4 years of inoculation. The results of a more important phase III trial will be presented end of 2013, but all sources used by the reporter agree that the current data published in the NEJM is...
(English intro to Spanish lanf post) Monarch butterflies are experiencing and steady decline, a new report says. Scientists surveyed their habitat in a Mexican Biosphere Reserve, and they found that the insects occupied 59% less land than the previous year (the smallest area recorded in 20 years). The report...
(English intro to Spanish lanf post) Monarch butterflies are experiencing and steady decline, a new report says. Scientists surveyed their habitat in a Mexican Biosphere Reserve, and they found that the insects occupied 59% less land than the previous year (the smallest area recorded in 20 years). The report suggests that the use of herbicides and the loss of favorable fields along their migration route are the main reasons of the decline, along droughts and high temperatures that can affect larvae. In their stories, some journalists preferred to blame the climate change and others the farming practices. Also in Mexico, scientific institutions have received a big amount of philanthropic money to foster biotechnological research on better corn and wheat crops. From Colombia we’ve read a great report about the poor health facilities in rural areas, and from Chile a really interesting story about the beauty and implications of the most common mathematics equations. We review...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Half of Mexican babies are born by Caesarean section, explains a story that harshly criticize Mexican medical community, and accuses doctors of trying to save time and play with calendars despite the WHO recommendations against the procedure. We also discuss a report...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Half of Mexican babies are born by Caesarean section, explains a story that harshly criticize Mexican medical community, and accuses doctors of trying to save time and play with calendars despite the WHO recommendations against the procedure. We also discuss a report published by UN saying that Latin America is the region where human development indexes have improved more in the period 2000-2012, but there are big differences between countries. Other stories talk about a study showing the huge economic costs of Chagas Disease, the effects of Quinoa's rising demand in Bolivia, the state of the first Ecuadorian satellites, and Peruvian students helping researchers to study the possibility of Mars colonization. We discuss also the decision of the UN of not banning bee-harming pesticides, the creation by Spanish researchers of a microdevice that reads brain activity and liberates drugs, and a cool story about the longer...
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