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.
Science writing news
Two freedom-of-information advocates discuss the Obama Administration's record in the Columbia Journalism Review and sound disappointed. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Executive Director Lucy Dalglish: “The Obama administration at least says the right things. But there’s somewhat of a disconnect between what we consider to be 'transparency' and what they think that means.” Also: Jennifer Lynch, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Print still dominates but e-books grew from 17% of sales in December to 21% just two months later in February, according to this new study from the Pew Research Center. Authors will be pleased to learn that e-book device users read more: "Those who read e-books read more books than those who don't have the devices: The average reader of e-books has read 24 books (the mean number) in the past 12 months, compared with an average of 15 books by a non-e-book consumer."
Anything on the popular Last Word on Nothing site, according to a post by Heather Pringle: "Currently, the Last Word on Nothing.com is persona non grata in China, blocked from its millions of computers. The country’s Great Firewall — the massive internet censorship operation masterminded by the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing — has risen up against us and struck our website down." She also explains how to tell if your site is blocked.
One of the best science writers dissects the work of another: "Great science writing is defined as much by what is omitted as what is used. Jargon doesn't appear without an attempt at explanation. There are no self-conscious asides, no obvious crutch words like "basically", and no woefully mixed metaphors. There's nothing to shake you out of the story, no moment where the writer winks at the camera." Also, Katie Pratt reviews a Zimmer talk.
Never heard of him? Well, how about his magazine, McClure's, which published the work of Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens more than a century ago? Dean Starkman of Columbia Journalism Review discussed his influence at March’s Narrative Arc Conference: "McClure and the muckrakers, after a fashion and without intending to, crafted what can be called a journalism ideology of sorts, an ideology of anti-corruption, a keystone value of American journalism to this day."
"Only 14% of second-class male passengers escaped, so he certainly managed to beat the odds, and if he hadn't done so I wouldn't be here now," Nicholas Wade said of his grandfather, Lawrence Beesley, who survived 100 years ago today as the great ship sank. Bessley wrote a book about the tragedy. Wade reads excerpts for The Economist and writes in the New York Times about his own questions, one century later, about his ancestor's actions.
More on the limits of DNA and science writing. Dealing with complex statistical studies. The limits of Twitter as a tool for science writers. The limits of explaining why genes are not destiny. Here come the alien dinosaurs with high IQs. Chemistry lesson on the origins of chirality. The origin of life as a feedback loop: did life come from space, or was it the other way around? Robot news: Robowarriors, Robocops, Robosquirrels, and RoboBeatles
All those struggling journalism startups can only envy the $11.5 million Roger Goodell draws as National Football League commissioner, Joshua Benton writes at Nieman Journalism Lab: "The future-of-journalism point here is that the NFL has found a spot in the vagaries of the tax code — a defined niche in which they can fit," Benton says. "I just wish the IRS could find a way to give dozens of small, community-oriented news organizations the same sort of status."