A recent closed meeting about building synthetic genomes raised suspicions about just what scientists were planning, away from the public eye.
Printer George Howe shows the first edition of the Sydney Gazette to Governor Philip Gidley King, in a feature window at the Mitchell Library.
Reproduced with permission of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Digital Order Number: a6509002
What science issues did Australia’s first newspaper - edited by a convict - discuss in its letter pages? The same ones we talk about today: the environment, education and health.
So many questions on climate change.
Shutterstock/Kuznetsov Dmitry
Research showing that more than 90% of climate scientists agree that we’re causing global warming prompted plenty of questions. And the authors are only too happy to answer.
There’s a lot of incentive to hype scientific findings but in the end nobody wins. Overselling findings can undermine the authority of scientists as well as the credibility of the sources and ultimately deceive or even endanger the public.
Shutterstock
Everyone loves to hear a story, says actor Alan Alda, and that’s what every scientists should learn if they are to better communicate their work to a wider audience.
If someone is spouting pseudo-science, should scientists risk legitimising them by getting into a debate with them?
Shutterstock
Some scientists refuse to debate or appear with those they consider to be unscientific. But is this the best approach to combat anti-science narratives?
Extra, extra! The embargo’s lifted, read all about it.
Newspapers image via www.shutterstock.com.
No matter how much evidence scientists present in support of climate change there are those who refuse to believe it. They think it’s all part of the consprarcy theory.
This is what happens when science writing gets too turgid.
Shutterstock
Science can be fascinating and exciting. But much science writing is dull and obscure. Here are some of the tricks scientists often use to suck the joy out of science.
Media savvy researchers see television as a particularly useful way to reach new audiences.
IxMaster/Shutterstock
A former dean of Sydney University’s Faculty of Medicine, where I work, once appointed me to a role where I was to try and increase the news media profile of our staff’s research and to encourage them…
Um, you figured out what by doing which?
Woman image via www.shutterstock.com.
Elizabeth Bass, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Nobel Prize-winning science is almost by definition arcane and complex. While these esoteric fields have their moment in the spotlight, does it matter if the rest of us understand?
All we are is just a link in the chain?
Chain via www.shutterstock.com.
Missing links make a good story, but not good science. Outdated metaphors don’t help us understand the rapid evolution of infectious diseases such as flu and malaria.
The more academics fear being involved in media storms, the less they feel free to explore topics they consider important.
Tim Ellis/Flickr
Public engagement of academics has increased enormously in recent decades. But this new level of engagement is producing problems and conflicts for which many academics are ill-prepared.
Electricity is only one of the marvels brought to us by science. But even that’s not enough to convince some of its value.
Michael Wyszomierski/Flickr
Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty’s new book explores why so many people today selectively reject science, and in the process gives a behind the scenes look at how science really works.
Some activists use open records requests to bully researchers – distracting them from their actual work and silencing others who don’t want to draw attention.
A gigantic sunspot almost 130,000 km across captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory on October 23, 2014.
NASA/SDO
The recent claim that we might enter a mini ice age in 15 years is not only bad science, but it represents a failure of communication by both scientists and journalists.
Sometimes the audience can be a font of illuminating questions.
hackNY.org/Flickr
I sometimes forget that people can feel embarrassed listening to me talk about my research on sperm. But often those same people can also be a source of amazement and inspiration.