Good point Hugh, NS flagged this up too...
best wishes
jenny
--On 23 November 2006 15:34 +0000 Hugh Aldersey-Williams
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Further to this, I think it's important to note the trickle-down effect
> (legacy?) NS has had in the wider press. Many broadsheet and other
> science correspondents (Steve Connor, Pallab Ghosh, Charles Arthur et al)
> cut their teeth at the magazine, and for better or worse the stylistic
> idiom they picked up there colours the way we all read science in Britain.
>
> Hugh
>
>> Hear hear!
>>
>> I'm pleased somebody has spoken up for New Scientist. I personally think
>> is an excellent publication but even if I didn't rate it at all somebody
>> needed to put the grumpy comments we've been getting into perspective.
>> The responses so far seem to be addressing features rather than
>> reporting and comment sections. It may be that the features are the
>> least 'useful' to scientists qua scientists, but it would be a mistake
>> to judge the utility of the whole magazine by just one type of article.
>> A large chunk of the high-quality science reporting and comment (as
>> distinct from features) we've come to rely upon is accounted for by New
>> Scientist. Scientists should value New Scientist simply because it helps
>> to keep reporting standards high. Who else could you rely upon to place
>> your field in its wider context?
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Murphy Glenn
>> Sent: 23 November 2006 13:13
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Does New Scientist help scientists?
>>
>> The pretext for this question was "does NS help scientists?"
>>
>> Most of the answers so far seem to have been to the question "does NS
>> give you watertight, peer-reviewed, up-to-date information on work being
>> done in your field, leading you to new avenues of inquiry?"
>>
>> I would argue that this is not the purpose of a generalist publication
>> like NS. And I would also argue that it does help scientists, by
>> providing a wider context for our work.
>>
>> True, NS might not tell you anything new about your own field - but why
>> would you expect it to? The very nature of science determines that
>> fields of study are divided and sub-divided until each individual ends
>> up working on a very narrow, specific question or area of research. Once
>> there, you become an authority on that area, and the longer you work on
>> it, the more of an authority you become. Possibly THE authority,
>> depending on how narrow the field is. (It's much easier to become the
>> world authority on the breeding behaviour of one species of abyssal
>> trench fish, for example, than it is to become the world authority on
>> marine ecosystem evolution, worldwide.)
>>
>> Hence, it's easy to scoff at a NS article (about your, specific
>> sub-field) as being "old news" or "outdated" if all you ever do is study
>> that field and its developments. But unless you're so arrogant as to
>> presume that you know everything about every field of science (and if
>> so, please ignore my humble musings, as you are clearly a remarkable
>> polymath the likes of which I could not even hope to understand)...then
>> there is always something new to learn about other people's work (and
>> possibly even your own), provided you're open to it.
>>
>> The way I see it, generalist publications like New Scientist have the
>> near-impossible task of trying to keep pace with rapid, worldwide
>> developments in an almost infinite range of infinitely-subdivided
>> fields...and then writing something new and interesting about them that
>> SOMEBODY OUTSIDE THE FIELD might want to read. I'm not talking about
>> someone outside the field of science - just outside the scope of the
>> article (be it marine ecosystems, abyssal trench fish, or whatever). We
>> are all laymen outside of our own fields of knowledge. Anyone that tells
>> you different is deluded or selling something.
>>
>> Personally, I've always found NS to be extremely engaging and
>> interesting, and I feel that it helps by placing a huge variety of
>> contemporary research in context. In doing so, it can also introduce us
>> to associations between fields, and to the wider environmental,
>> socioeconomic and political issues involved - making us think about how
>> we feel about them. If you'd rather avoid dallying with these tedious
>> trifles, then a good field-specific journal should provide a welcome and
>> preferable haven.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> G
>>
>>
>>
>>
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=============================
Dr Jenny Gristock
Fellow, Science Communication
SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research
The Freeman Centre
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QE, UK
Telephone +44 (0)1273 876711
Fax +44 (0)1273 685865
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www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/profile29408.html
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