Social media takes many forms with Facebook and Twitter being the eight-hundred-pound gorillas in the room. But there’s also LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Crowdrise, Quora, Pinterest, and many others. It’s worth exploring a few to see which are the best ways to reach your particular audience. From the Spring 2012 ScienceWriters.
Science writing news
First do no harm, except if you're screening for prostate cancer: the prostate-specific antigen test does more harm than good, but patients and docs say "La la la, can't hear you." Teleportation sets a new distance record; next stop, an orbiting satellite. The Heartland Institute cancels future climate-change denialist conferences and makes common cause with the birthers who deny Obama's US citizenship. The solar eclipse, in full photographic glory.
They are saying obesity is the scourge of the nation. It must be true because it's on television. Body Mass Index and weight-loss drugs. What docs should do about Fat City — and Fat Country. Evidence for the low-carb paleo diet. Evidence against the low-calorie low-fat diet. The Scienceblogging Weekly. Teleportation sets a record: 97 km. Was pornography the first cave art?
The two influenza researchers whose work has triggered a far-reaching debate on the limits of scientific freedom could hardly have handled their publicity more differently. From the Spring 2012 ScienceWriters.
Science and politics and homosexuality. Should science writers boycott North Carolina? Current science says that same-sex marriage is good for public health and adds data to the old conjecture that rabid gay-bashing cloaks same-sex attraction. The gay caveman is exhumed. The Open Notebook presents quotes on quoting. Did dinosaur farts cause Mesozoic global warming? We don't know, but they certainly cause hot air in the media.
One of the disputed H5N1 flu virus papers is now out; the other is on the way. Two swell explainers explain that and much more. But wait, there's more in other H5N1 blog posts too. What does childhood bad behavior portend? How to read science news. Why sex robots won't eliminate sex trafficking. Twitter is terrible at prediction. NEJM 200th birthday, a medical timeline, and how the journal invented science journalism's schedule. Plus Atul Gawande's horrifically beautiful history of surgery,
Post-shibboleths and spambots, catch up on blog posts, Storify pages, and slidecasts of the conference, which was supported in part by an NASW Idea Grant. The Open Notebook has a post linking to early coverage, and the conference site has coverage by University of Wisconsin students. Check the #sciencedenial and #denialconf hashtags, and read about the spam attacks.
Science Writing in the Age of Denial is partly funded by an NASW Idea Grant. If you're not there, you can follow the proceedings online via tbe Twitter hashtags #sciencedenial and #denialconf, the @sciencedenial Twitter user, or the conference web site, where you can review the schedule and speaker biographies.
Once more, retractions in the news. Was Einstein's wife his unacknowledged co-author? Trashing conventional wisdom about cardiovascular disease. Fish oil may not be a panacea after all. Gum disease may not cause heart disease.
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