5th World Conference of Science Journalists

“Facts don’t speak for themselves; they will be suppressed by politicians or will be misused by advocates.” - Chris Mooney

The days when we passively sat and read or listened to science are over.

Ever since last year’s scandal surrounding Korea’s cloning researcher Hwang Woo Suk gained worldwide media attention, the issue of scientific fraud exposure seems to have taken on some momentum of its own.

The media faces more challenges following the resurgence of interest in nuclear power in many countries, said a panel of scientists and journalists at this session.

“Who here, by show of hands, does not trust peer review?” John Rennie, editor in chief of Scientific American, asked that question of a hundred delegates in this session.

Life and Death in 2020: How will science respond? The title of this session led to many questions by both the speakers and the audience.

“Are TV science shows really science journalism?” asked Graham Phillips, chair of this session.

For the journalist, there’s a certain amount of seduction in covering the brain. It’s mysterious and carries cachet, perhaps because it is hidden from view. Covering the brain sciences is a sexy beat, but do journalists risk losing our skepticism when reporting on the brain and the mind sciences?

Sometimes, evidence-based medicine is misreported because it is complicated or counter-intuitive.

“The relationship between [science journalists] and the journals defines the way the rest of the world views science,” said Pallab Ghosh from the BBC.

The cocktail of chemicals that are the byproducts of a modernizing world pose an increasing public health burden to people.

Often reports in the media on medical studies are misleading or even wrong. Whose fault is it and what can be done about it?

How much time do we have left?

Climate change is now a hot topic to governments and scientists in developed and developing countries.

Now is not the time for complanency.

As that 40-foot wall of fire closes in on your uninsured home, it’s important to remind yourself that wildfires have been humanity’s erstwhile companion on the ecological landscape for thousands of years.

Science-based business, particularly private and public biotech companies, often produce media releases in quantity rather than quality.

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore climbed over an elevator in one of the scenes featured in his recent Oscar Award documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” to demonstrate how high the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas would rise in the sky, if the current emission course remained unchanged. The elevator lifted him up to about three stories.

A new round of excavations in the so-called Hobbit cave will be resumed in the hope that it will end the lasting controversies in the human evolution scientist community.

Water in Australia is emerging as a scarce commodity, fueled by population pressures, intensive irrigation and erratic weather patterns brought on by global warming.

More efficient use of coal, using new technologies, provides cheaper energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

Convincing media editors to give more space to science stories is difficult but not impossible.

Science journalists from developing countries highlighted the most common problems that face them in this session.

How to do away with patents, or at least create a sort of open source biotechnology.

In many parts of the world, it is the women who are responsible for food security, yet rural women farmers have little access to the benefits of research and innovation.

From Plato’s Euthyphro to UNESCO’s Universal Ethics Project, ethicists have failed to define a universal ethic. Unsurprisingly, today’s discussion on the ethics of stem cells would have suffered that same fate.

Food safety, nuclear power and chemical pollution… We live in a risk society where the hazards of scientific and technological progress step into highlight.

Having trouble writing about quantum computing in a simple way? Well, keep working on it, because the quantum revolution is happening, and it’s here to stay, said experts at this session.

Forming science journalist associations is an important aspect of science journalism, but it requires conforming to some basics.

Suicides should appear in the media as a way to increase understanding of mental illness, but journalists should be cautious in how they portray them, experts said Thursday

Making a story bigger doesn’t mean you have to sensationalize it.

PRODUCER: Rada Rouse, Medical Observer
CHAIR: Pallab Ghosh, BBC (UK)
SPEAKERS: Gus Nossal, consultant, WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and Ian Frazer,UQ Director, Diamantina Institute for Cancer Immunology and Metabolic Medicine
“Vaccines buy you a lot of health for a small amount of money,” says renowned immunologist Sir Gustav Nossal.
Trouble is, there are still not […]

Why is it that medical studies that are widely reported in the media sometimes later turn out to be wrong?

Delegates heard how to urge political action, information science could really use.

Scientists who are important contributors to socio-economic development must become more familiar with high-level communication skills.

Drought, soil salinity, frostbite: Australian crops face it all. To help farmers, scientists with the Australian Centre for Functional Plant Genomics (ACPFG) is working to make crops more tolerant to harsh conditions.

A two course sit-down lunch presented by the Australian Science Media Centre and theSouth Australian Government
The challenges that face society at local and global scales make it abundantly clear that knowledge of science and technology is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity. How do we build a more proactive scientifically literate society? […]