Epidemiologists rely on all kinds of data to detect the spread of disease, including reports from local and state agencies and social media. But the decline of local newspapers makes it harder to identify outbreaks and forecast their trajectories.
Science writing news
In 1580, ruminating about his kidney stones, Michel de Montaigne wrote, “It is likely I inherited the gravel from my father.” That was a visionary concept, Carl Zimmer writes in She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Power, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. In exploring how heredity defines us, Zimmer covers diverse topics including the pseudoscience of eugenics and today’s three-parent babies.
Former NASW executive director Diane McGurgan is retiring as CASW administrator this week after 40 years of combined service to science writing.
Successful parenting involves teaching one’s children to parent themselves — from learning to put on socks to managing time. While some parents nag or punish, Katherine Reynolds Lewis says there’s a better way to help children master self-control. In The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever — And What to Do About It, she proposes use of the Apprenticeship Model.
Media coverage of the 2017 tax law focused mainly on the creation of lower tax brackets. Receiving scant coverage were significant changes to the deductions for fees paid for preparation of returns and advice on tax planning.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, launched in 2007 with $3 billion in public funding, has generated 42 therapies now in clinical trials for a variety of incurable diseases. Don Reed, a science writer and advocate for stem cell research, describes the program’s successes in California Cures: How the California Stem Cell Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease.
“You are smarter than your data,” Judea Pearl and NASW member Dana Mackenzie assert in The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. “Data do not understand causes and effects,” they say. “Humans do.” Their book explores recent developments in the science of causal inference that make such understanding possible.
Are you a journalist who was stopped for extra border screening or had your device searched at the U.S. border at any point in your career? CPJ and RSF have been working to understand the scope of the problems. Read more and report any cases thru June.
How are computer scientists building their army of virtual fact-checkers? What are their models of truth? And how close are we to entrusting their algorithms to cull fake news? Popular Science tried out an automated fact-checker, using a piece of fake news, and compare its process to a human fact-checker.
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