• Question: what do you think is the most interesting thing that you have read about science in a newspaper?

    Asked by E_kelleher to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 16 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      I try not to read science articles in newspapers, as these tend to be highly biased and not based on facts.The last article I’ve read was about the possibility of turning coffee waste into fuel, which would be great considering that according to the article we waste around a billion tonne of coffee waste a year, and that every 4 kilos can give you a litre of fuel.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      I don’t really read about science in newspapers, but I do read articles on the BBC news website and have just been catching up on the latest stories about Philae landing on the comet. They have released pictures that show the probe bounce when it landed which is incredible!! I’m excited to see what the data that has been collected says so I’ll be keeping a close eye out for that!

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      I have to agree with the others. Science columns in newspapers frustrate me – they have a “skip to the end” approach, looking for that killer “punchline” that will sell the paper, and frequently they skip over the important parts of the research that actually make it possible.

      That said, recently I think the BBC’s science reporting on their website has really taken off (by ‘recently’ i mean in the last 2-3 years). From that, the reporting on the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope has been fascinating. This is a radio telescope that is so big, it will spill off the edge of a continent! It is going to be spread across Australia and southern Africa. (the square kilometer bit describes the collecting area – imagine a telescope with a lens 1km across!). I love things like this – the science, the logistics, the planning, not to mention how do you get all the equipment to talk to each other! And that’s nothing compared to the excitement of getting the first results!

    • Photo: Francesca Palombo

      Francesca Palombo answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      It is always fascinating to see how newspapers reports scientific findings especially in relation to diseases and novel therapies. Then you can always read the original journal article and see whether they made a good job of reporting the news – it is very important for your own learning

    • Photo: Rebecca Ingle

      Rebecca Ingle answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      I have some sympathy for people who write science columns for newspapers in how difficult it can be to communicate science both in an interesting and accurate way as people don’t really want to read ‘science may have found something that could potentially indicate …. etc. etc.’ which tends to be closer to what individual science studies show.

      Some of the coverage of Philae has been great and I think it’s because the facts are just astounding as it is – something that has been flying for 10 years to land on something 2.5 miles big? That’s pretty amazing!

Comments