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The popular media really like to grab any neuroscience paper and twist the hell out of it. Talk to most neuroscientists and they are much more conservative in t
by tibbon 13y ago
The popular media really like to grab any neuroscience paper and twist the hell out of it. Talk to most neuroscientists and they are much more conservative in their leaps and jumps... in reality its moving slowly, but the media wants to portray a Ray Kurzweil reading of every finding.
- estebanrules 13y agoOf course. Would you expect anything less from popular media?
- return0 13y agoI think it's a two way relationship, scientists love a chance to reach out to the media too, even if a bit more reserved, you even get that from their press releases. Publicity helps in getting funding in the life sciences, for better or worse, it's part of the system.
- SoftwareMaven 13y agoThe problem is you have multiple amplifiers: The researchers provide the loudest version they feel comfortable with in order to get published. The university PR department makes it a little louder to get a little more attention. Then the media makes it louder yet. Of course, running a signal through that many amplifiers tends to introduce a lot of distortion.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> The popular media really like to grab any neuroscience paper and twist the hell out of it. This is true, but a specialized case of the equally true: "The popular media really like to grab any science paper and twist the hell out of it." Which is just a specialized case of the also equally true: "The popular media really like to grab anything and twist the hell out of it."
- andrewflnr 13y agoI can believe, however, that neuroscience gets it worse, because it has more obvious applications in the lives of readers/viewers etc.