science reporting

A very insightful article into how medical research gets translated and, more importantly mistranslated, into the popular press and culture. Columbia Journalism Review Survival of the Wrongest How personal-health journalism ignores the fundamental pitfalls baked into all scientific research...

I just came across this study that looks at the presence of spin in press releases and media coverage of RCTs. I looked at the list of studies (Word document) they selected expecting to see a lot of acupuncture and homoeopathy RCTs, but I could find only 2 accupuncture studies, the rest of the...

Really, really bad examples of dumbed-down or just outright ridiculous stories in the media, presented as science. You know how much you love to hate 'em, so let's have one thread to collect them all! I'll kick it off with this little gem: Scientists are about to find "The Force"...

In this article, reporter Nicholas Wade succintly explains, almost as an aside, what a hypothesis is, and how it is distinguished from non-scientific speculations. I sure wish this simple concept would become common knowledge. But then if Britney Spears ain't spouting it, don't count on it...