Here at ksjtrcker a roundup earlier this week of news on a report in PLoS ONE about how Alzheimer’s disease – or the version in lab mice to be more exact – spreads in the brain noted with curiosity that the NYTimes’s Gina Kolata was the only reporter who had wind of a second paper on the same topic. It even used much the same protocol, but is not yet published by the journal that has accepted it, Neuron. The post wondered how she found out and got hold of the author, all in general admiration of her having a more thorough story than others did.

The rest of the story seems to be coming clear, and has been spelled out by the diligence of Ivan Oransky at his exceedingly useful, inside-the-news-biz site Embargo Watch. ON reading his post one senses some internal friction at the journal over what happened, and perhaps some confusion over policy. The way it worked out, reports Oransky after making several runs at [...]

Noticia original: Knight Science Journalism Tracker

I am still debating whether to set aside a perfectly good opportunity to work in the yard or clean out my office closet to watch the NFL’s Super Bowl game. No Niners, no reason to jump up and down. But the Giants did beat them fair and square in a very close game so if I tune in, I’ve been thinking, I ought to root for the NFC’s representative.

After reading on the AP Seth Borenstein‘s article, I am thinking perhaps I better instead follow my head rather than my heart and clap my hands for the Tom Brady bunch from Boston. Or wherever it is, Foxboro, that’s it,  that the Patriots play. That’s because the AFC champs have, it says here, let numerical and statistical analysis trump tradition and instinct in play-calling. One ought to root for cool logic in its battle with myth and superstition.

It’s not a science story? Yes it is. Science is built around observation, data collection, mathematical and other deduction, and so [...]

Noticia original: Knight Science Journalism Tracker

(English intro to Spanish lang post) Astrophysicists from Carnegie Institution led by Catalan Guillem Anglada announced the discovery of GJ667C, an exoplanet only 4.5 times the Earth’s mass and orbiting inside its star’s habitable zone. “It’s the best candidate we have to contain liquid water and maybe life as we know it”, said the Spanish researcher to his countries’ press. El Mundo has the most extensive story yet out. It is the only outlet whose reporter  talked to the Spanish astrophysicist. El Pais tends to cover all news coming from NASA, but curiously it is the only newspaper among those checked that hasn’t reported this story yet. In Chile, the two main newspapers title the story as if the super-planet was discovered by Chilean scientists. Two Chileans were part of the international team.

Un equipo internacional capitaneado por el astrofísico catalán Guillem Anglada ha descubierto el planeta extrasolar con –hasta el momento- mejores condiciones para la vida. El tracker está contento por Guillem, quien compartió hace un par de años [...]

Noticia original: Knight Science Journalism Tracker

Some things that have a nice internal logic to them, data in support, and the public’s benefit topmost in mind are still so ludicrous-sounding off the top that some reporters can hardly wait to find outraged sources just to hear them cackle in derision. One need look no further for example than the opinion-piece letter to Nature from University of California, San Francisco, researchers who say processed sugar is so toxic, if one couches the definition carefully, and causing such vast harm that the feds should police its distribution. Regulate it like tobacco, or booze.Levy high taxes. Something anyway.

But first, one must recognize that a reporter and science writer, known for risk-taking themes in his writing and with a few duds (that he has not, as I recall, conceded to be duds) to his credit such as lambasting prions as myths, made the first big splash  last April: Gary Taubes in the NYTimes Magazine with the simple, “Is Sugar Toxic?”

The howling and parodies and giggling are already [...]

Noticia original: Knight Science Journalism Tracker