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Tuesday 19 February 2013

The Importance of Being Boring

Hmmm, I've just hit a problem with my grand entry into the blogosphere...   What I am hoping to do is bring some deeper explanation to some of the various science stories which hit the media (i.e., those I know something about!), and frequently to debunk the silly stories that emerge from a rather scientifically illiterate media.
...the problem: Well of course the media see there job as to make everything interesting!  No bad thing, except that accuracy is frequently abandoned and balance is not even on the radar!  So beware the science news source which has to sell its stories!  To be honest, scientists often have to exaggerate and skip facts to be understood... but the idea of this would be to retain the real essence of the story.  The media really just don’t care. Interesting/wacky/fun is the most important thing.  Nothing else really matters.  The Mail and the Express seem to be the worst, from reading the headlines on newspaper racks.  They seem to have a cure for osteoarthritis every month for example.  Has anyone ever thought... “how come they keep publishing stories about new cures, but I have it/ or my mum has it and there doesn’t seem to be a cure!?”.
Well on that particular one: there is no cure. Sorry.  May be one day, but it will come in so slowly (years of trials first) that it will probably bypass the newspapers all together.

So... If I set about taking interesting media science stories and debunking them, this is going to be an awfully tedious blog!!!

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