Huzzah, aspirin prevents cancer and heart disease! Maybe. These American Lies: Department of Climate Change. These American Lies: Department of Apple, Science Journals, and Science Writing.
Science writing news
Teaching hospitals did poorly in Medicare's new patient safety data ratings, and the objections aren't at all spurious, Jordan Rau of Kaiser Health News tells CJR: "These metrics, which measure such things as serious blood clots and accidental cuts and tears, were created for a different purpose. The original aim was to help hospitals look at and track internal problems. They were not set up to compare one hospital with another." Rau's story.
You knew it wasn't good for you, but here's evidence from Online Schools: "People joke about being addicted to their cell phones, but recent research suggests it's no laughing matter. A recent study found people were more likely to give in to cravings to use social media than they were to give in to satisfy other desires. That little blue bird may seem harmless enough, but are we on the verge of becoming a nation of insatiable Twitter junkies?"
Pity the poor science writer who has to translate the latest Higgs evidence into something an average reader can grasp. Luckily, Fermilab, source of the newest Higgs news, has posted a Frequently Asked Questions page about the Higgs and the history of its search. Elsewhere, John Timmer, Jon Butterworth, and Adam Mann discuss what the latest findings mean, and what's next.
Glendon Mellow thinks so after reading in the scrapbooking site's terms of service that its users "are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content," including "pinned" images. "How many images have you posted on Pinterest that you have permission for?," Mellow asks. "How many are available under Creative Commons Licences or expired copyrights? Have you looked? Are you aware that you’re on the hook if someone is suing for violations?" More.
It's not as easy as you might think, Justin Ellis writes in a Nieman Journalism Lab report on how Gizmodo live-blogged the new iPad's grand unveiling: "When a Gizmodo liveblog rolls out it’s a neatly packaged machine, text flowing inline with photos with stories posted throughout the duration of an event. Gizmodo, like many tech blogs, has this down to a routine — or, actually, a drill. 'We had a practice run on Monday,' Brown told me. 'Yes, we do practice.'"
Synthetic biology: a critique from 111 organizations and a dose of realism from a synthetic biologist. A year later, Fukushima and the future of nuclear power. More synbio: Engineering Homo sap to cope with climate change.
The science site Matter isn't the only journalism startup that has turned to Kickstarter for seed money. This story in Columbia Journalism Review has a list of others and some of the stories behind them. Matter's quick success — it blew past its $50,000 goal in less than two days — has attracted comment both positive (Felix Salmon) and negative (Stephen Robert Morse).
Two views on the social media phenomenom's viability, centering on its business plan — if it even has one. First comes Bloomberg Business Week with a cover story saying that "Twitter is becoming a plausible contender for the online budgets of the world’s top advertisers." The contrarian view comes from Gawker: "Twitter's business has been a joke, will have to be rebuilt from the ground up, and as far as we know is still in terrible shape."