(English intro to Spanish Lang post) The Curiosity Mars Landing has received lots of coverage in the entire Spanish-speaking world. But El Pais and Materia deserve to be mentioned as the ones that have done more extensive reporting. They present good stories describing the landing, scientific...
(English intro to Spanish Lang post) The Curiosity Mars Landing has received lots of coverage in the entire Spanish-speaking world. But El Pais and Materia deserve to be mentioned as the ones that have done more extensive reporting. They present good stories describing the landing, scientific mission, 7minutes of terror, reactions, and so on. But they also find more original angles talking to Spanish engineers involved in the mission, discussing the limitations of a human mission, and gathering all kind of information from different sources. Also: one of the Curiosity’s instruments is a Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), which has been designed and built in the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid. All Spanish media talk about it.
Gran éxito de la NASA con el aterrizaje del Curiosity, destinado a estudiar la atmósfera e historia geológica de Marte, y ver si pudo albergar vida en el pasado. Todo salió...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Researchers from US and Peru have identified individuals in the Peruvian Amazon that are resistant to rabies (English). They have low levels of antibodies. They...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Researchers from US and Peru have identified individuals in the Peruvian Amazon that are resistant to rabies (English). They have low levels of antibodies. They seem to have survived the viral infection without receiving treatment. This is un unexpected result, and it has received fair media attention. But in the Peruvian press, none journalist has done further reporting. The main newspapers (El Comercio and La Republica) simply use information from wires. Peruvian scientists involved in the research continue being strangers to their compatriots.
In Folha-Brazil we read a greatly illustrated story about a new chip developed in Brazil to detect malaria and chagas infections. One of its main advantages is the cost: it’s much cheaper than other methods of detections. The chip is also portable and fast. It has...
(English Intro to Spanish Lang post) An editor of BBC Mundo explains in a post that they regularly check to see what topics are more interesting for their readers. Science news stories are frequently among the most-read ones. BBC Mundo is the Spanish language arm of BBC news. It’s not a mere translation....
(English Intro to Spanish Lang post) An editor of BBC Mundo explains in a post that they regularly check to see what topics are more interesting for their readers. Science news stories are frequently among the most-read ones. BBC Mundo is the Spanish language arm of BBC news. It’s not a mere translation. It has extensive original content covering specific topics from Latin America thanks to three reporters writing exclusively about Science, Health and Technology. Here at the tracker we’ve often noted their good work that brings up scientific issues that the local press might miss or ignore. It’d be interesting to know how these science-eager Spanish speaking readers are distributed. It might mean that in Latin America there are more people interested in science than local editors realize.
We have some thoughts about the “converted skeptic” Richard Muller, as he defined himself in the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Too many important newspapers in the Spanish speaking world said last week that 97% of Greenland’s ice had melted. They talked about the whole ice sheet instead of a thin layer in the surface. The confusion came from the terrible note of EFE; one of the most used news...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Too many important newspapers in the Spanish speaking world said last week that 97% of Greenland’s ice had melted. They talked about the whole ice sheet instead of a thin layer in the surface. The confusion came from the terrible note of EFE; one of the most used news agency in Spanish language. Its first sentence was: “The ice that normally covers Greenland disappeared almost completely during several days in July”, and the title “Greenland lost almost all its ice sheet in July” was literally replicated by some of the main newspapers in Latin America. In Spain, the initial stories were also much more alarmist than they should be (Check Charlie’s post in the tracker). Most reporters in Spain followed up with a less...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Many reporters attending the European Science Open Forum (ESOF) in Dublin, but few stories in the Spanish press. And too much attention to James Watson’s unpleasant words to Craig Venter after his conference. That’s not news. In Barcelona, the European Forum of...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Many reporters attending the European Science Open Forum (ESOF) in Dublin, but few stories in the Spanish press. And too much attention to James Watson’s unpleasant words to Craig Venter after his conference. That’s not news. In Barcelona, the European Forum of Neuroscience has just started. The Spanish tracker is thee. We’ll see which reporters cover more than what press releases offer. From Latin America: Brazil is going to produce (and release in poor areas) 500.000 genetic modified mosquitoes to fight against dengue. They are designed to produce infertile offspring. In Colombia a reporter followed up the controversy about the banning of Patarroyo’s experiments with monkeys. Another one in México wrote a really nice illustrated story about the human’s influence in the evolution of species. And regarding science policy: Peruvian government announced it’s not going to create a...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Colombia's Manuel Elkin Patarroyo has done research on malaria vaccine for more than 30 years. He’s one of the best-known Latin-American scientists. He got government permission to use 800 monkeys per year for his tests. After the studies, these monkeys were returned to the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Colombia's Manuel Elkin Patarroyo has done research on malaria vaccine for more than 30 years. He’s one of the best-known Latin-American scientists. He got government permission to use 800 monkeys per year for his tests. After the studies, these monkeys were returned to the rainforest. A few weeks ago a conservationist denounced him, saying his team bought monkeys hunted in Peruvian and Brazilian rainforest and let them go in Colombia without appropriate public health measures. A court has analyzed the case and concluded that Patarroyo’s research violated some international criteria. Starting this Friday Patarroyo won’t be able to use that species of monkeys (Aotus nancymaae) in his research. He’s denied the accusations and said that this implies the end of his 30-years research on a synthetic malaria vaccine. He also stated that his latest, unpublished results are very promising. The controversy is getting big play in the Colombian press....
(English intro to Spanish lang post) We’ve used kiosko.net to track all the front pages of the main newspapers in each country in Latin American. We wanted to check which ones had the Higgs boson in the front page of yesterday’s print edition. All Spanish newspapers had it,...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) We’ve used kiosko.net to track all the front pages of the main newspapers in each country in Latin American. We wanted to check which ones had the Higgs boson in the front page of yesterday’s print edition. All Spanish newspapers had it, being the lead story and picture in the principal ones. No single mention in Panamá, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba, and Paraguay. Few small headlines in Perú, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominic Republic, Guatemala and Bolivia. Good presence in Uruguay, Colombia and Ecuador. We expected a bit more from Chile, Brazil, and Argentina. Disappointing lack of references in most of the Mexican’ front pages.
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Some points about the coverage of Higgs’ discovery in Spanish speaking countries: 1- All newspapers in Spain have excellent notices. El Pais led with the most complete coverage. 2- Mediocre coverage in Latin America. We found good stories in Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Some points about the coverage of Higgs’ discovery in Spanish speaking countries: 1- All newspapers in Spain have excellent notices. El Pais led with the most complete coverage. 2- Mediocre coverage in Latin America. We found good stories in Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica. We expected more of some newspapers from México, Chile and Colombia. Many important outlets from other countries offered only small notes from wires. 3- In Spain, readers tweeted and facebook-liked by the thousands. It’s been the most read story of the day in many newspapers. 4- In Spain, only a few journalists still used the term “God’s particle”. This term is still common in Latin America. 5- Some of the first stories defined it as “a particle that probably was Higgs”. Now nearly everyone talks about Higgs Boson. 6- Many stories have searched for the contribution of local scientists in CERN's research. We'll continue tracking.
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(English intro to Spanish lang post) A Spanish reporter accuses NASA’s communications office of distorting the data published in Nature about the existence of ice in Shackleton’s Moon crater. Here is the situation: Nasa’s...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) A Spanish reporter accuses NASA’s communications office of distorting the data published in Nature about the existence of ice in Shackleton’s Moon crater. Here is the situation: Nasa’s press release was titled “NASA Spacecraft Reveals Ice Content in Moon Crater”, and started by saying “NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has returned data that indicate ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in a crater located on the moon's south pole”. By contrast a press release Nature sent to science journalists was entitled “Planetary science: A relatively dry lunar south pole”, and explained that “Shackleton has been a target of numerous Earth-based and spacecraft analyses because of the possibility that the shadowy environment may contain frozen water. Data in this week’s Nature suggest that the crater does not contain...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Lonesome George died last Sunday in the Galapagos National Park. He was the last giant turtle of the species Geochelone abingdoni, and probably the most esteemed animal in the Galapagos Island. He was found dead in the morning by his 40 years caretaker Fausto Llerena....
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Lonesome George died last Sunday in the Galapagos National Park. He was the last giant turtle of the species Geochelone abingdoni, and probably the most esteemed animal in the Galapagos Island. He was found dead in the morning by his 40 years caretaker Fausto Llerena. Lonesome George was estimated to have more than 100 years, but he hadn’t suffered health complications in the last months. Biologists in the Park said that his death was unexpected. Maybe because of that the stories in the main Ecuadorian newspapers have been growing since Monday, covering different aspects of Lonesome George's life. We must say that the stories have been really elaborate. They described the reaction of visitors, social networks and personalities. They explained George’s death was due to natural causes and that his body will be preserved and on display in a local museum. They interviewed his caretaker and biologists in the park. But the stories talk also about...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) The coverage of Rio+20 in Latin American newspapers has been disappointing. Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Spain and Bolivia have written a few stories that are decent to good. They’ve been mediocre in Perú, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador. And close to nonexistent in Mexico...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) The coverage of Rio+20 in Latin American newspapers has been disappointing. Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Spain and Bolivia have written a few stories that are decent to good. They’ve been mediocre in Perú, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador. And close to nonexistent in Mexico and most Central America. We can understand why some outlets in the region are not eager to publish cutting edge science produced in different countries, but sustainability, environment and development are extremely important topics for most of the region. We also expected more detailed stories. We’ve review some that gives us a view of the government’s positions on the summit. For instance, Colombia seemed more active proposing actual changes, Ecuador says Yasuni ITT is the most specific mechanism to protect nature ever formulated, Bolivia wants to nationalize natural resources, and Peru's president has promised to reduce the impact of the mining industry. One story has...
(English intro to Spanish-lang post) The most important Spanish-speaking newspapers have sent their reporters to Rio de Janeiro to cover the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, iwth its final phase to start tomorrow. We see lots of expectation but some pessimism for the moment. It...
(English intro to Spanish-lang post) The most important Spanish-speaking newspapers have sent their reporters to Rio de Janeiro to cover the UN Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20, iwth its final phase to start tomorrow. We see lots of expectation but some pessimism for the moment. It might be early to analyze the coverage, but we review how different reporters have framed their initial stories. There are three specific countries that deserve more attention: Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia. Bolivian president Evo Morales says that environmentalism is the new colonialism. He complains that institutions and NGO’s from developed countries impose protection measures in developing ones, when they haven’t historically taken care of their environment. He says he will defend the “mother earth”, but he is against the green economy. Argentinean government is also reluctant to the concept of green economy, and has declared it will vote against it. As an example...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Centenarians have DNA with fewer cytosine methylations than newborns do, according to a paper published in PNAS. The work was directed by one of the leaders in epigenetics, the Manel Esteller of Spain. Most of the Spanish science and health reporters reacted with detailed...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Centenarians have DNA with fewer cytosine methylations than newborns do, according to a paper published in PNAS. The work was directed by one of the leaders in epigenetics, the Manel Esteller of Spain. Most of the Spanish science and health reporters reacted with detailed stories. Researchers compared the DNA modifications in white blood cells of a newborn, and two adult subjects, aged 26 a 103 years, all in Spain. They analyzed the epigenome and found a decrease in methylation associated aging, and also some deregulations. Genes that should be active were silenced, were were the other way around. They confirmed these results by expanding the study comparing methylations of specific DNA regions of 19 newborns and 19 people between 89 and 100 years old. These results confirm experimentally previous hypothesis, and open the possibility of analyzing other tissues. Manel Esteller has told the Spanish press that drugs or lifestyles that slow down...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Several interesting stories in Latin America this week. First, an Inter-American Development Bank study says that Latin America faces costs of around $100 billion by 2050 from diminishing agricultural yields, disappearing glaciers, flooding, droughts and other effects of...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) Several interesting stories in Latin America this week. First, an Inter-American Development Bank study says that Latin America faces costs of around $100 billion by 2050 from diminishing agricultural yields, disappearing glaciers, flooding, droughts and other effects of climate change. Initial stories by such news services as AFP and EFE lean toward primary advice that countries in L. Am. should invest in reducing their emissions to ease the effects of global warming. Fortunately other news corrected this nonsense by saying that the region's first priority is to invest in adaptation, not mitigation. A reporter from BBC Mundo writes a very good story in which she interviews the responsible authors of the IADB study. English-language IDB Web Summary, IDB...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) “The Spanish R&D system is not large enough to justify paying as many researchers as it currently does”. These are words of Spain's Science Secretary yesterday in Nature. It’s...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) “The Spanish R&D system is not large enough to justify paying as many researchers as it currently does”. These are words of Spain's Science Secretary yesterday in Nature. It’s a very tough letter. As a response to the recent campaigns by researchers to oppose the cuts, the Secretary tells them: “Look around and don’t be fooled. We must now stop talking about the importance of science, and instead commit ourselves to the need for excellence in science“. That seems unfair. Even offensive when she says “continued criticism will not help us to dig our way out. Excellence involves having an attitude based on effort and work, not just on criticism“. She suggests that having a technological park in each region is nonsense, and that there are too many overlapping institutions. We think that’s not scientists’ fault. Carme Vela's words imply that she...
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