All the Facts That Are Fit to Fit

Long-time readers of this grand site, which is probably most of you by now, understand there are a few things which continually peeve the Czar. One of these is bad science reporting. Nearly every story of even slight scientific interest hits the mass media with oversimplifications, nonsense filler, or just plain awful mistakes.

Take a 40-page scientific paper. Read only the abstract at the top. Try to reduce that to ten sentences. Provide a link to Wikipedia. Tie it into a popular movie or television show. Done.

Why? Actually Borepatch takes on this question with an analysis of a few different popular science topics (ranging from The Titanic to Global Climate Change) to see how the way scientific information is being reported to the public is responsible for the public’s struggle to understand or accept or reject popular science.

Short, pithy, well-quoted, and worth 1.2 minutes of your time.