By Victoria Costello, PLOS Senior Social Media & Community Editor With 2.3 million visitors reading more than 600 new posts on PLOS BLOGS Network over the past year, this last week of 2015 seems a goodCategory Archives: Science Writing
Your Top 15 in ’15: Most popular on PLOS BLOGS Network
By Victoria Costello, PLOS Senior Social Media & Community Editor With 2.3 million visitors reading more than 600 new posts on PLOS BLOGS Network over the past year, this last week of 2015 seems a goodPosted by in #SfN15, Absolutely Maybe, Collaboration between scientists, DNA Science, drug prices, EveryOne, featured, History of Public Health, medically unexplained symptoms, Mind the Brain, Obesity Panacea, PLoS Biologue, plos biology, PLOS BLOGS Network, PLoS Medicine, PLOS Neuro, PLOS One, PLOS Paleo, Public Health Perspectives, Public science communication, scicomm, science communication, Science Writing, sciwriters, Victoria Costello
Cancer, processed meat, red meat. Just how bad? Not very.
NO MORE BALONEY The remarkable thing about the latest World Health Organization declaration–that processed meats are definitely carcinogenic and red meat probably is too–is how many media folks responded by trying to save our bacon.Breast cancer: Should DCIS be treated? Pig genome: messy and quite boaring
SHOULD DCIS BE TREATED LIKE BREAST CANCER? No one seems to know exactly what to make of the big study on the outcomes of DCIS. (DCIS = ductal carcinoma in situ, often called stage 0 breast cancer or precancer, which … Continue reading
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First Americans mystery again plus $100 million search for extraterrestrials
DUELING PAPERS ABOUT THE FIRST AMERICANS Oh, goody. Dueling papers. Always a treat. And dueling papers in the same week in Science and Nature, an extra-special treat. The topic a hot one, as befits dueling papers: Based on genetic studies … Continue reading
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Posted by in aliens, Americas, ancient DNA, anthropology, archaeology, Asia, Astronomy, ET, extraterrestrials, genetics, Genome, Human Evolution, media criticism, migration, On Science Blogs, paleontology, Research, science blogging, Science Journalism, Science Writing, Stephen Hawking, united states
Down with time changes plus the NY Times hearty series on cardio developments
WAIT A SECOND It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, the time being 1972, a time before computers ran the world. That’s when it was decided that a way must be invented to keep precision atomic … Continue reading
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Obamacare lives and Kennewick Man is a Native American
WHEW! The Affordable Care Act (aka ACA, aka Obamacare) subsidies to help people buy health insurance got saved by the US Supreme Court after all, with the somewhat unexpected help (unexpected by me, anyway) of Chief Justice John Roberts. Here’s … Continue reading
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Posted by in ACA, affordable care act, ancient DNA, Asia, contraception, dna, Evolution, genetic engineering, genetics, Genome, Genomics, health care, Human Evolution, human origins, human paleontology, Kennewick Man, media criticism, medical journalism, medical writing, mitochondrial DNA, Native American, Obamacare, On Science Blogs, paleoanthropology, paleontology, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Politics, Research, Science Journalism, Science Writing, united states, women
More fallout from the retracted gay marriage paper; social sciences under fire
For the third time here at On Science Blogs, fallout from the fraudulent Science paper about the ease of changing opposition to gay marriage. The commentary now has moved on from that particular paper to the shakiness of social science … Continue reading
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Eat chocolate and lose weight! Plus more on the fraudulent gay marriage paper
Eat chocolate! Lose weight! Lie to everybody! The first response to journalist John Bohannon’s latest sting operation against schlock science journals and schlock science journalists–publishing a paper claiming that a chocolate bar a day helps people lose weight–was a savory … Continue reading
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[UPDATED] Fraud in Science: the retracted study on attitudes toward gay marriage
[Update added comments from Retraction Watch’s Adam Marcus and comment on Tara Haelle’s post at the health journalism blog Covering Health.] There’s an interesting meta-question growing out of the flap over that Science paper that’s just been retracted. I speak, … Continue reading
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Posted by in fraud, gay marriage, gays, homosexuality, lesbians, media criticism, medical journalism, medical writing, On Science Blogs, political science, Politics, Research, same-sex marriage, science blogging, Science Journalism, Science Writing, scientific journals, scientific misconduct, social science, united states, women
Beware the bad survey: Science literacy isn’t as bad as the statistics make it look
Read the catchy one-line statistics that circulate in the headlines and on social media and you’d be forgiven for thinking that public understanding of science is in a sorry state. A few months back, we heard that 80% of Americans … Continue reading
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