(English intro to Spanish lang post) Each day the back page of La Vanguardia (Spain) publishes an interview to a broad variety of people who have interesting ideas and experiences to explain. No celebrities but writers, economists, common people with remarkable achivements, different views,...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Each day the back page of La Vanguardia (Spain) publishes an interview to a broad variety of people who have interesting ideas and experiences to explain. No celebrities but writers, economists, common people with remarkable achivements, different views, doctors, artists, and a really high amount of scientists. These interviews are known as “the back page of La Vanguardia”, and are extremely successful among the online and print readers. Here we often highlight some of these interviews to important researchers. But there is a downside that we feel the need to comment: Every once in a while “The back page” (La Contra) publishes uncritical interviews to a whole range of pseudoscientists. This week some circles of Spanish science writers have criticized the text featuring a Mexican doctor who assures he can cure 16 different diseases with water imprinted with the right wavelengths of light. The whole...
Earlier this week, science blogger Emily Willingham took apart - in elegant detail - an opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times which proposed an infectious disease theory of autism (treatable, apparently, by parasitic worms.) You can read the commentary on both pieces that I...
Earlier this week, science blogger Emily Willingham took apart - in elegant detail - an opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times which proposed an infectious disease theory of autism (treatable, apparently, by parasitic worms.) You can read the commentary on both pieces that I posted on Tracker here.
She followed that up with a post titled, "Writing About Autism Science? 10 Things" which should be required reading in science journalism classrooms - and in newsrooms as well. Although many of her suggestions are focused on covering autism in particular, the essay also makes some vital points about science journalism in general. The list ranges from interviewing suggestions to cautionary lessons about interpreting risk research and correlation studies...
For the last year or two I've been saying silently to myself deh-ni-SO-vans for the Homo species or sub-species known only from a couple of teeth and a pinky bone and the DNA they contain. Russian researchers found them in the Denisova cave in Siberia, as I'm sure just about all you tracker readers...
For the last year or two I've been saying silently to myself deh-ni-SO-vans for the Homo species or sub-species known only from a couple of teeth and a pinky bone and the DNA they contain. Russian researchers found them in the Denisova cave in Siberia, as I'm sure just about all you tracker readers know. So, because sportscasters say the tennis player Maria Sharapova is named "..share-a-PO-va" I figured the cave's gotta work the same way. Ditto for its mysterious Denisovan residents of long ago. Do you supposed Maria's surname in Russia is Share-AH-peva and it's all sporscaster's fault for my error? Truth is, I did know better once, but forgot and reverted to deh-ni-SO-vans.
To find out this morning I googled "pronounce Denisovans." Thank you Charles Q. Choi. The top hit was to...
We're on vacation this month but each morning I tend to get a tracker itch. Broad band connections - and this central California beach rental has one - make such things hard not to scratch. It came about the time that Mrs. Tracker was trying to find where the meandering Pacific Coast Trail makes it, via...
We're on vacation this month but each morning I tend to get a tracker itch. Broad band connections - and this central California beach rental has one - make such things hard not to scratch. It came about the time that Mrs. Tracker was trying to find where the meandering Pacific Coast Trail makes it, via a new leg, through the posh and exclusive golf courses (Pebble Beach etc.) and grandly over-fancy castles and baronial palaces of Pacific Grove just north of here. Some of those mansions look a little like Xanadu in Citizen Kane. Actually, they're not San Simeon big. But close.
That comes up because I was following a meandering trail of my own on the iPad, leading me to this real keypad. It started with a story, I think the one on BBC, about discovery of millions of supermassive black holes in the centers of dusty, gassy, and shrouded galaxies. It stems from...
On Monday, this study - Persistant Cannibis Users Show Neuropsychological Decline from Childhood to Midlife - was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)....
On Monday, this study - Persistant Cannibis Users Show Neuropsychological Decline from Childhood to Midlife - was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It's a straightforward title, a straightforward study, and the resulting news coverage (a Google News search found more than 600 stories) was pretty much universally to the point.
To give you a few examples:
Pot Smoking May Leavener Mark on Teen Brains, from Amanda Gardner at CNN.
Teenage Marijuana Use May Permanently Reduce IQ, from Naomi Seck at Agence France-Press (shown here in Australia's Cosmos magazine)
...
There are plenty of reasons not to teach kids creationism as science – the primary ones being that creationism is devoid of scientific merit, and it's nutty. So when Bill Nye the science guy posted something on...
There are plenty of reasons not to teach kids creationism as science – the primary ones being that creationism is devoid of scientific merit, and it's nutty. So when Bill Nye the science guy posted something on CNN’s website urging parents not to impose creationism on their kids, I was surprised with one of his reasons: “We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems," he said. He made the same plea on a widely circulated video.
Of course we need engineers, but is there any evidence that creationism prevents people from becoming engineers, or that it interferes with the ability of engineers to do good engineering?
Nye ended his plea to parents by saying that there’s no evidence for creationism. What I want to know is whether there’s any evidence that creationism is bad for engineering. If we’re going to take people...
What, yet another Tatooine? Two of'em in one system to boot? Yep, and it's getting fair pickup in media. Mostly with mention of that Star Wars and George Lucas bit of prescience. Reporters seem to have gotten that angle by themselves. At least, the two press releases down below in Grist don...
What, yet another Tatooine? Two of'em in one system to boot? Yep, and it's getting fair pickup in media. Mostly with mention of that Star Wars and George Lucas bit of prescience. Reporters seem to have gotten that angle by themselves. At least, the two press releases down below in Grist don't mentiong Tatooine. Media almost all have a few basics such as how far away this system, Kepler-47 is, how large the planets are, and some necessary verbiage on whether one of both might harbor life. The answer to that latter one is yes just barely perhaps. One of these worlds is in an orbit lasting just under one Earth year, going around a double system that in total is about as bright and sunny as our own home star. Ergo, one can imagine liquid water there. It's the Goldilocks zone, to apply another popular metaphor. While the planet is the size of Neptune, so itself is likely sterile, perhaps it has a large moon that could be an evolution incubator (making...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Excellent series of stories in La Nación (Costa Rica) about the work of local researchers in the archeological site “Guayabo”. For two days, the topic have appeared in the front page of the print edition. The stories talk about radiocarbon dating, the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Excellent series of stories in La Nación (Costa Rica) about the work of local researchers in the archeological site “Guayabo”. For two days, the topic have appeared in the front page of the print edition. The stories talk about radiocarbon dating, the effects of lichens and bacteria on the rocks, and the restoration work conducted by archeologists at the University of Costa Rica. The series include photos from the site, videos feautiring researchers, plenty of extra information, and an interview to a visiting international expert.
Lo defendemos airadamente: América Latina ofrece un potencial enorme de historias científicas apasionantes, que no está suficientemente explotado debido a la falta de periodistas especializados en la región. Quizás no serán investigaciones con colisionadores de partículas de presupuestos multimillonarios, pero –disculpad la...
Last week, the journal Nature published a paper titled "Risk of de novo mutations and the importance of the father's age to disease risk." As Paul Raeburn...
Last week, the journal Nature published a paper titled "Risk of de novo mutations and the importance of the father's age to disease risk." As Paul Raeburn noted here at the Tracker, the resulting coverage focused almost entirely on whether aging fathers could be suddenly seen as a significant contribution to autism cases.
Perhaps that emphasis isn't surprising given the fact that autism is a high-profile condition and given that earlier stories had put more emphasis on the age of the mother. But, as science writer Seth Mnookin points out in a Monday post at New Yorker.com, the...
I'd like to take a minute to call your attention to a terrific story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this Sunday on the scientific and political battles that surround efforts to keep the...
I'd like to take a minute to call your attention to a terrific story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this Sunday on the scientific and political battles that surround efforts to keep the invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.
Okay, the headline - Fish Barrier vs. Carp DNA: What to believe? - isn't all that compelling. But the story, by Dan Egan, is. It's a beautifully written narrative of experimental genetics research, old-time fish barriers, court battles, exasperated scientists, the U.S. Corp of Engineers and, of course, the relentless progress of the carp toward one of American's greatest fisheries.
It starts with style:
"Anyone who has looked into the soupy river and canal waters flowing through Chicago knows that even with a diver's mask and halogen light you'd be...
Not long ago a daughter of mine suggested I try the tablet app Zite. It delivers an attractive personal magazine with a sophisticated type face and culled by some sort of robotic algorithm that triggers on the topics one chooses from a list. The stories are grabbed both according to their currency on the web...
Not long ago a daughter of mine suggested I try the tablet app Zite. It delivers an attractive personal magazine with a sophisticated type face and culled by some sort of robotic algorithm that triggers on the topics one chooses from a list. The stories are grabbed both according to their currency on the web and from one's own list of rss feeds. So its site says.
I loaded it and geared it for climate and science and auto news and some other interests. I quickly saw a bunch of aggregator mulch, recycled or from-the-source press releases, and low-grade blog entries and I rudely scoffed. Looks like automated cut and paste that doesn't pay anybody for anything it runs (sort of like we do here at the tracker, actually). I told her, initially, I already have systems that do better than that. But y'know? It's growing on me. It also turns up, in its mindless way, more than a few gems. It, like a few other apps of the same genre,...
Wow, you geologists out there. Check out the image. Doesn't that make your mouth water? All those sedimentary-looking strata, but maybe aeolian and there's a fancy word or two you don't get to use much unless you are a geologist. But ... the mouth-watering over virgin terrain doesn't do you much...
Wow, you geologists out there. Check out the image. Doesn't that make your mouth water? All those sedimentary-looking strata, but maybe aeolian and there's a fancy word or two you don't get to use much unless you are a geologist. But ... the mouth-watering over virgin terrain doesn't do you much good unless you are standing there on Mars with a rock hammer, lens, a few of those draw-string sample sacks and a full oxygen tank. OR, unless you have an obedient machine to dispatch up the hill with laser zappers and mineral digesters and multi wavelength spectrometers and what-all at the plutonium-powered ready.
For the rest of us, which scenario draws more interest? Even I, a skeptic about the merits of sending geologists or anybody on government payroll and cabfare off to Mars or anywhere else so far away, suspect I'd log on to the first human on Mars more often than our new Curiosity emissary. But how about the second or third or tenth person...
Today's ScienceTimes features two similarly-constructed stories, both in first person with a tale of direct experience, and one of which is not strictly conventional journalism as it lacks extensive consultation with varied sources with their quotes buttressing the reporter's own voice and stance.
...Today's ScienceTimes features two similarly-constructed stories, both in first person with a tale of direct experience, and one of which is not strictly conventional journalism as it lacks extensive consultation with varied sources with their quotes buttressing the reporter's own voice and stance.
Congratulations and salutations to the four winners (including one semi-anonymous team of editor types) of the 2012 NASA Science in Society Awards. Best way to read up on the details is with the NASW's press release that went...
Congratulations and salutations to the four winners (including one semi-anonymous team of editor types) of the 2012 NASA Science in Society Awards. Best way to read up on the details is with the NASW's press release that went out on Friday. In case you missed it and are in a hurry, here they are:
On Sunday, the New York Times published an opinion piece, An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism, by Moises Velaquez-Manoff, the author of a recent book that takes a broad-...
On Sunday, the New York Times published an opinion piece, An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism, by Moises Velaquez-Manoff, the author of a recent book that takes a broad-spectrum look at the role of the immune system in human health.
In it the author expresses his opinion (emphasis mine) that inflammatory disease may account for a large chunk of autism cases: "At least a subset of autism — perhaps one-third, and very likely more — looks like a type of inflammatory disease. And it begins in the womb." I emphasize the word opinion because as you get further into the piece, you realize that there really isn't much science to back up that statement.
Actually, people who study autism aren't sure that it "begins" in the womb, whatever that means. Neither does the rich literature of...
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