I've had another article published in @IEEESpectrum (pinch me - I have loved this magazine for two decades). This one is on a very cool #NZ company turning olivine into multiple valuable materials, while producing no waste

https://spectrum.ieee.org/nmc-battery-aspiring-materials

Just a heads up because I've been seeing it shared around here, but a news article is claiming the SMOC (Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation) has reversed when the original paper says no such thing.

A reminder that science journalism is a difficult field of work with a lot of complex concepts and data often not successfully translating to a news article, and preconceived notions can often muddy the waters and spread misinformation or even disinformation.

I'm Team Captain Planet, but addressing climate change needs sound science and trustworthy publishing and reporting for us to have a chance at winning the fight for a sustainable world.

Doomerism breeds where falsehoods lurk. If you find research publications to be impenetrable, it's good to wait a week after extraordinary announcements to see if any scientists step up to call bullshit. If you are unfamiliar with academia, trust me when I say that scientists love calling bullshit on extraordinary claims.

https://iowaclimate.org/2025/07/06/ocean-reversal-hysteria-facts-not-included/

“From climate change to vaccines, the United States government is making false statements about science—and basing new policies on those falsehoods.”
#Scicomm #Science #ScienceJournalism
https://buttondown.com/carlzimmer/archive/fridays-elk-life-in-the-clouds/

Latest blog post--science, this time:

https://www.allandyenshapiro.com/post/correcting-some-awful-science-journalism-about-hiv-from-nyt-and-npr

#HIV
#ScienceJournalism
#AIDS

last year's feature about ancient #Australia is now in the #OpenArchives:

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/06/ancient-australia.html #science #CurrentBiology #ScienceJournalism #ScienceWriter #ancientDNA #anthropology #humans #migration

It has gotten to the point that even good science reporting sucks. It’s simplified down to the usual 8th grade vocab & comprehension, so I’m left wondering thru all the oversimplification what exactly was discovered?! Sure in this wondrous Information Age I could look up the paper, but, like, not while driving & listening to the radio where I heard the science report. #dumbingdown #sciencejournalism #moreinfoplease

On our radar: Beware pre-shredded lettuce

“Perhaps ironically, the bags of shredded lettuce that promise to be pre-washed and ready to eat are riskier than whole heads of romaine.”

Nicholas Florko, @TheAtlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/05/bagged-romaine-lettuce-food-safety/682734/

A nice shoutout from the Association of Health Care Journalists in their recent tip sheet, “Covering the ongoing bird flu story as it unfolds.” Thanks for including us!

Explore more:

Read the tip sheet:
https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/05/covering-the-ongoing-bird-flu-story-as-it-unfolds/
Check out our explainer:
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2025/scientific-facts-about-h5n1-bird-flu

BREAKING NEWS: "Scientists have found trillions of molecules of Hydrogen Dioxide in our rivers, under the influence of the Earth's gravitational field, moving at a rapid rate towards any Ocean they can find, and violently colliding with each other and the river bed, billions and billions of times every second, in what they are now calling Bernoulli Turbulent Flow.

1/n

What does it feel like to be a science journalist — or any kind of journalist — in the USA right now? Talia Lavin talked to Deborah Blum, director of the Knight Science Journalism Center at MIT, a specialist in toxicology, and the woman who literally wrote the book on the history of U.S. food regulations. "As a country, we tend to suffer from what I think of as regulatory memory failure. We don't have a sense of what things were like before regulations went into play. Most Americans don't really have a sense of what the environmental landscape of the United States looked like before the EPA, for instance," says Blum. "Instead, we demonize regulation, when often we're really talking about consumer protection. And when we're talking consumer protection, we're talking about protection for every American citizen. But until you have those kinds of universal standards in place, the people who suffer the most are going to be the people who can't afford the good stuff."

https://flip.it/EEAN0S

Short but sweet bit of #ScienceJournalism.

Magical thinking: it's either all-in or... Poof! The magic vanishes. This is why #MagicalThinking can turn violent, I suppose. All -must- believe lest cognitive dissonance becomes painful.

"In a 2013 paper, Fulcheri suggested some saints, interred in many-layered arrangements (a coffin inside a sarcophagus inside a cold stone tomb), might have been “confined in a particular microclimate” hostile to putrefying microbes."

https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/incorrect-relics-why-some-corpses-dont-decompose/

Interested in pursuing #SciComm as a profession? Then this new Master's program in Germany might be for you: tuition-free (also for international students), entirely taught in English, covering everything from #ScienceCommunication to #ScienceJournalism, #SciArt, public engagement and more.

https://www.hs-ansbach.de/en/master/science-communication/

Application period starts on May 1st.

Africa: 'A Great Loss' - SciDev Former Africa Editor Passes Away: [SciDev.Net] Nairobi -- "A great loss" for science journalism as Kenyan science journalist Ochieng' Ogodo--the former head of SciDev.Net's English language Africa edition--passed away in the early hours of Thursday (17 April). http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TKDWb7 #Africa #ScienceJournalism #OchiengOgodo #RIP #JournalismLoss

Ah yes, the riveting tale of dioxygen difluoride: a compound so unholy even Satan himself would swipe left . But first, let's solve the internet's greatest mystery—how to enable #JavaScript and #cookies . Truly, science journalism at its finest!
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride #dioxygendifluoride #sciencejournalism #internetmystery #HackerNews #ngated

You feel you're doing a great job at #SciComm? Apply for the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt #Awards for Excellence in Science Communications!

Submissions are accepted by independent/organizational communicators, researchers, or journalists.

https://www.nationalacademies.org/awards/excellence-in-communication/for-applicants

oh. #RIP #TimRadford, #ScienceWriter extraordinaire. He actually gave me a brief introduction to the job many years ago. I remember I couldn't get a word in edgewise. and he commissioned/edited a few stories I wrote for the grauniad. Back in the days of the ever-changing pullout sections dedicated to science / #technology.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/13/tim-radford-obituary #science #PublicUnderstanding #scienceJournalism

My latest for Forbes Science is about a new development from Northwestern Uni - a reusable sponge that can remove a range of pollutants from stormwater and recover the valuable bits, like zinc and phosphate #science #scicomm #sciencejournalism #water #stormwater

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewinkless/2025/02/12/specialist-sponge-captures-valuable-minerals-from-polluted-storm-water/

Pétition pour le maintien d'un journalisme scientifique de qualité à la SSR - essentiel pour une démocratie éclairée
https://www.openpetition.eu/ch/petition/online/des-faits-plutot-que-de-fausses-informations-pour-un-journalisme-scientifique-fort
#sciencejournalism