Category: Rastreador Científico en Español

(English intro to Spanish lang post) The new government in Spain has eliminated the Ministry of Science, and transferred  responsibility for scientific research to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Initially, the scientific community reacted in fury in blogposts and such avenues as social media. Fear were high that the new government of Mariano Rajoy is just not interested in science or related basic research. The first stories in newspapers reflected these views. But other opinions, little by little, have showed up. Some say that having a specific ministry is irrelevant. Others see the decision as an opportunity to put science in closer connection to economic growth. However,  few reporters have done a good job taking all views into account.

...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) Spanish paleoanthropologists say they have identified a new genus of primate that  lived 11 million years ago, and could help to understand the origin of monkeys in Eurasia. They infer this from a mere 15 teeth discovered in the 70’s. A few stories have been published, but none explains how the researchers ascertain that this is a new genus, and they don't have independent opinions of other paleoanthropologists. That’s a common pattern: we very rarely perceive skepticism in paleontological news in Spanish press.

Also from Spain, in 2007 the Department of Health commissioned a study to analyze the situation and efficacy of alternatives therapies in the country. The main conclusions are that there is a huge amount of unregulated therapists without any medical training, that the majority of the 139 natural therapies analyzed haven’t proved any positive effects, that acupuncture seems to work for a few specific discomforts, and...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) Spanish reporters are in love with the LHC at CERN and its search for the Higgs Boson. Yesterday’s non-announcement has been covered with great joy. “We are closer to it!” exclaimed some as if these were big news. Even when the accident at LHC, and the rumors that LHC costs compromised the budget for other scientific projects of the EU, there’s never been critical angles towards this unquestionably fabulous scientific enterprise. The positive consequence is that Spanish readers are in love with LHC too. The story about the conference at CERN explaining that Higgs should be -if it exists- in the range on 115-130 GeV, it’s been for several hours the most read story in the online edition of El País. ABC wrote 4 different online stories, and all of them were in the top ten. Similar in other newspapers, like El Mundo. One interesting observation is that when several stories are published, the ones explaining the fundamentals about what is the...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) This is excellent reporting on health. The National Children’s Hospital in San Jose (Costa Rica) accounts for 6 times more deaths of infants after cardiovascular surgery than world’s average data. An independent report concluded that this is not due to wrong diagnoses, neither inadequate postoperative cares, but due to systematic malpractices during the surgeries. This is serious stuff. The story began internally in 2005 when some medical doctors denounced an apparent increase in mortality after surgery. Then in 2006 an Argentinean specialist detected failures in some surgical techniques. And in 2009, a group of experts from the US visited the hospital and prepared a report that confirmed the use of “inappropriate techniques in cardiovascular surgeries in infants”, and even recommended “to change the leading surgeon in order to improve results”.

Luis Eduardo Díaz, a reporter from La Nación has been following the case since...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) In Spain, some Universities used to host external pseudoscientific courses when offered by associations defending astrology, radiesthesia, Qi-gong therapies and some other esoteric practices. The courses' organizers gained credibility in being hosted by an academic institution, and the University received revenues. But a few months ago some members of the Spanish skeptic circle started internet campaigns denouncing Universities that lent their names to pseudoscientific activities. As a result, some of these courses have been cancelled. A brave story in Público summarizes the situation. It starts with the sentence “what reason could not do is achieved by action on the internet”. 

Elsewhere, no big news yet from Durban. And no interesting coverage in Spain either, where the main newspapers are using information from wires. The exception is El Pais, where an experienced reporter is in Durban publishing very pessimistic views of...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) In 2005 an ambitious biomedical research center was inaugurated in Valencia (Spain). Now, with the economic crisis in Spain and the short views of our politicians, half of the scientists in The Príncipe Felipe Research Center have been fired, and 14 of 26 labs closed. Some newspapers have been more critical than others with the extreme cuts. But all reflect the letter of support signed by 3000 scientists around the world.

In a totally different topic, Science published last week a study suggesting that (by adding more data from past events to current climate models) doubling CO2 atmospheric levels might cause less warming than IPCC predicts. One of the study’s coauthors is Spanish. We’ve read some stories about the paper, but none confronts the conclusions of the study with other climatologists that are not involved in the research.

Talking about environment, glaciers in Spain are disappearing fast and they...

(English intro to Spanish lang post) The Amazon is more interesting, one may easily believe, than the universe beyond our planet but it doesn’t have NASA’s Office of Communications. There are far more potentially amazing environmental stories in Latin American forests than in US and Europe together. But they seem invisible to Latin American reporters. They are missing the opportunity to share with readers the richness of the diverse natural environment so close at hand.

Nine environmental journalists from Latin America received grants to attend the Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ) meeting in Miami three weeks ago. The Spanish lang tracker was also there to ask them to send him stories related to the conference or are important to its topics in their countries. By far the most prolific is Costa Rican reporter Michelle Soto. In only two weeks Michelle produced original stories abou topics including the problems and solutions of jaguars and pumas...