• Question: Is all science in the news true or is it unrealist?

    Asked by snowdenjwh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      All scientific research has to be checked by other scientists (this is called “peer review”) to make sure it is accurate, that you didnt copy anyone else’s ideas, and that you aren’t lying about what your research found. Scientists are often quite good at reading other research in scientific papers, and understanding the whole picture.

      The problem is that when journalists hear about a piece of research they often don’t report it accurately in normal newspapers or magazines – they prefer to make headlines by saying a dramatic statement like “eating brocolli is good/bad for you” etc. Then the general public can get the wrong idea.

      There is a really good scientist called Ben Goldacre who works hard to get journalists to write about science more truthfully (you can Google “Ben Goldacre bad science” to learn more)

    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Wow, good question. Without wishing to slander anyone(!) a lot of journalists are not scientists, especially the editors of newspapers etc. That makes it quite hard to present a scientific story accurately – they’re just not trained to interpret scientific findings so they haven’t had as much practice.

      Quite often journalists will tell a scientific story without presenting their references (studies they got their data and information from). That makes it very difficult for people to check the journalist’s interpretation. Sometimes they don’t even take their facts from scientific articles which is not really fair – scientists has to a have their work reviewed (checked for errors, cheating etc) by other scientists before they are allowed to publish it in scientific journals, but the same is not true for newspapers and tv shows.

      If you’re interested in finding out more, you should read ben Goldacre’s blog – he’s a doctor who has made it his life’s work to expose ‘Bad Science’ in the media!
      http://www.badscience.net/about-dr-ben-goldacre/

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Again I agree with Helen and Jenni. There is a lot of nonsense in the newspapers (particularly the tabloids), but there are also some really good science writers out there (Mark Henderson from The Times springs to mind). A lot of these now write on blogs hosted by newspapers (e.g., Martin Robbins writing for The Lay Scientist blog on the Guardian’s website, as well as Ben Goldacre and Ian Sample).

      When it comes to health-related stories (often the worst – e.g. the MMR scare), the NHS now has a website dedicated to giving the public the correct information after they may have read something in the papers (which can be found here: http://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx )

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