> -----Original Message-----
>
> As regards boundaries, in my experience the best science
> conferences are small affairs where the press are absent, and
> where scientists feel more able to discuss their work freely.
> Its well known that you won't hear exciting new results at
-----End Quoted (and cut) Message-----
Where is that dictionary of widely used terms? Here it is:
"It's well known that..." = I just made it up.
Apart from that, the sentiment is more true than it was but still
displays a lack of understanding of how the media operate.
Fewer writers attend small meetings, but for some of us they are the
best place to go for real news.
While the "Fleet Street" pack sits before terminals awaiting the next
press release from Science, the "investigative" of us go to small
meetings. Indeed, you can skip that stage completely by going to talk to
researchers in their labs. Believe it or not, they will talk to you
about work in progress.
That is because we are gradually removing the old attitude, albeit not
completely given messages that appear here, that scientists are exulted
beings who hand down their findings from on high for the rest of us to
wonder at.
Someone said that they want to show people how science works. I have a
feeling that they were talking about their idealised model rather than
real life. In real life they come up with mad ideas, bounce them around
their mates, publish some speculative papers and see how they fly. If
the research doesn't stick they move on to something else. (Anyone
remember Fred Hoyle's theories of cosmology?)
Of course, knowledgeable observers realise that only the brain dead
researcher does not come up with mad ideas. That is what science is all
about, "pushing the envelope" in business speak. The rest is filling in
gaps, or stamp collecting as I dub it. The fact that more than 90 per
cent of the stuff we see falls into this category does not mean that
writers should ignore the rest.
MK
_______________________________________________________________________
Michael Kenward / Phone: +44 (0)1444 400568 Fax: 401064
/
Science Writer & Stuff / Genetically modified words for sale
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