Recommendations for Further Information

For the ones interested in the topic of science and media I prepared a few links.

v     Science Media Centre

This is the official page of Science Media Centre, mentioned previously regarding the article of its director Fiona Fox. The page offers a service for journalists who want to promote science in a proper way, but it is also useful for readers interested in professional opinion. In the section “Press Releases”, there are experts’ answers to current media science news, which may be educational and interesting (e.g. reaction to the concerns over nuclear energy after Japanese earthquake)

v     Bad Science

This page, previously mentioned in the article assessing Goldacre’s “Don’t dumb me down”, is unique critical piece definitely worth attention. The page’s description begins with “Each week, Ben Goldacre skewers the enemies of reason.” It threatens journalists who distort science because of sensation, politicians who lie and ignore facts and advertisers who misuse science. Goldacre critically approaches current media-science issues and explains them in detail.

v     True about Mice

Remember the mice “turning gay”? This analytical and comprehensible article in Scientific American explains the results of the study mentioned in my second posting and points to how media misinterpreted it. I recommend reading this long article mainly because it is a great example of clash between scientific results and their representation in media. The author not only criticizes misunderstanding of the study, but also courageous statements of the scientists who conducted it.

v     Webcomic

Finally, I would really recommend looking at this part of XKCD webcomic series. XKCD is a popular entertaining webcomic dealing mainly with scientific topics, so it is often incomprehensible for an internet user not interested in science. This part deals with media sensationalizing and exaggerating small scientific results. 

Mice Turned Gay or How Media Simplify Science Too Much

Homosexuality has been a controversial topic for a long time. Today, it is definitely more tolerated than fifty years ago, but various opinions and attitudes toward it exist. This and the memory of past punishment of homosexual people makes this issue very sensitive and scientific work focusing on it may be considered controversial. Media did not miss a chance to provide their audience with some “interesting and shocking” news when Nature, a prominent scientific journal, published a study about sexual preference in mice.

The study was published online on March 23, 2011, in Nature, with not very sensational and widely-comprehensible title “Molecular regulation of sexual preference revealed by genetic studies of 5-HT in the brains of male mice”. According to the scientists who conducted the study, sexual behavior of male mice deprived of serotonin neurons increases and they mate with both male and female mice. The results did not touch directly homosexuality and connections to human sexual behavior would be quite premature, because this study was first of its kind and explained only one aspect (serotonin). Nevertheless, some media did not hesitate to make this connection and attracted readers by really shocking titles. The best example of this is probably the article called Scientists Turn Mice Gay by Depriving Them of Serotonin. This was published on Gawker web, which is popular page allowing anyone who requests and is approved for sending them news. It was only one day after the original study was resealed in Nature. Mostly the title is problematic, because scientist turned the mice rather bisexual than homosexual (gay). The body of the article informs that male mice without serotonin neurons lost their interest in females, while this is not true – they mated with both sexes. In the introduction, the author also connects the results to the mood, because low levels of serotonin are connected to depression and antidepressants raise serotonin levels. He does so by suggesting that if one feels depressed, than he might be a gay. Although this can be easily perceived as irony, the connection is puzzling and makes the results of the study appear as not serious.

Much better article was published for example by CBS, emphasizing that whether the results can be applied to humans as well as whether the mice turned bisexual or only their sexual behavior was increased, is questionable. Sadly, this approach is not prevalent in popular articles, indicating that the purpose is more to entertain than to educate and inform.