Science and the Media
The department's editor, Steven T. Corneliussen, is a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics. He monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA's history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.
John Heilbron illuminates "the path to the quantum atom" in Nature's celebration of the Bohr atom's centennial.
Should scientists not only take part in politics, but take off the gloves to throw punches?
The century-old business magazine applauds an arXiv paper claiming an "independent" LENR test.
Only national rigor, they declare, can "combat the current lock-step march to the bottom of international student performance."
A widespread media debate engages the official decision to move toward industry-focused science.
News articles worldwide report not just the positioning-precision failure, but a sense of loss.
Only national rigor, they declare, can "combat the current lock-step march to the bottom of international student performance."
Concerning Colin Macilwain's criticism of a "troubling mist of complacency," Nature prints a protest, but no rebuttal.
A new report—with immigration-politics implications—finds science, technology, engineering, and math workers plentiful.
The award is seen as affirming an information-age approach to reporting news—including science news.
The news coverage only indirectly engages the long view for open access and scientific publishing.
The award recognizes only certain columns from 2012, none reflecting his climate-wars participation.
The New York Times appears alone in reporting on their letter, which has 22 physicist signers.
Old news from biology renews an even older debate about how science itself evolves.
A PNAS paper has taken a new look at the prospects for future storm surges.
A Morning Edition piece exhibits a much-criticized kind of journalistic balance.
Do the studies in European Physical Journal D deliver?
Spirited interest from two NASA scientists leads to new information about an old controversy.
Articles and opinion pieces invoke memory of an R&D institution "designed to encourage serendipitous encounters."
A special issue "takes a hard look at the gender gap—from bench to boardroom—and at what is being done to close it."
With Ernest Moniz and Gina McCarthy, President Obama can press a climate agenda through executive action.
Articles and illustrations fill the Science Times on paper, with animations and a video online.
Discord and questions remain, however, in science publishing's long internet-age transition.
Science magazine and Forbes.com spotlight a study from Geophysical Research Letters.
Millions are spent "casting doubt on climate-change science and fighting efforts to address the problem."
Republican leader and liberal columnist conduct a science skirmish in the ideology wars.
Seeing only deficient near-term prospects, Charles Lane calls for dropping the whole thing.
But the political circumstances appear as challenging as ever.
Do MOOCs constitute a revolution? Columnist Tom Friedman and others think so.
Physicists are rebutting a claim that the Lorentz force contradicts special relativity.
Objections to compact fluorescent lights are circumvented or mooted.
A Wall Street Journal columnist calls it unimportant; Fox News calls it grounded in bad data.
Story plus front page photo present dramatic examples of unexpected heat, floods, and cold.
Do media reports engage the impact threat seriously and soberly?
A Wall Street Journal essay sees an end to robust, transformative technological progress.
In a Nature commentary, David Goldston condemns "shopworn" approaches
What does the math say about prospects for decarbonization?
Notes of alarm permeate their consideration of nuclear-weaponry implications.
Staccato US method contrasts starkly with Europe's "stately" approach.
Eugene Robinson presses climate-science awareness; David Ignatius calls for US "technological mastery."
The Nobel laureate in economics wonders if a senator's geology comment presages America's "inexorable decline."
Commentary by metamaterials researchers tantalizes by framing solid science with science-fiction possibilities.
An "age of energy adequacy" is foreseen for the US based on an International Energy Agency report.
The editors add some scolding for NIF's leaders' alleged "unrealism," "bluster" and "hubris".
Should something like attorney-client privilege shield scientific deliberations? Oceanographers, compelled to comply with a subpoena, call for legal change.
The activist physicist regularly challenges what he sees as harmful orthodoxy.
Former Democratic presidential science adviser calls science a "basic investment principle."
Six scientists are sentenced to six years in prison over earthquake-risk advice.
The media have paid only scant attention to the laureates' partisan pronouncement.
Nature and other major outlets report on research involving Alpha Centauri B.
US News, Nature, and the Guardian publicize what a Guardian scientist-blogger calls "boneheaded fantasies."
In a collection of articles, a reporter, editors, and two scientists examine science's prospects.
How far should journalists reach in trying to judge when one side is simply wrong on the facts?
The Atlantic hosts a spirited defense of government-funded energy R&D.
In an age of automotive "computers on wheels," Reuters elevates researchers' long-term concern into present-day alarm.
A news report appeared online at the start of each political convention week
Information technology proponents' letters dispute Adam F. Falk's Wall Street Journal op-ed
International Atomic Energy Agency reports doubling of underground centrifuges near Qum
Nuclear facilities face trouble; the Higgs boson resets particle physicists' hopes
Would the Republican vice presidential candidate push science budgets toward "historically small sizes"?
Periodical for the biomedical sciences offers a special collection of articles
Long letter casts support of climate consensus as "fib," "shrill," "lurid," "histrionic"
Business-minded environmentalist cites drought and record heat, but scorns attribution of weather to climate change
In a New York Times op-ed, physicist Richard A. Muller reports a "total turnaround" of his scientific judgment
With careful clarity, Dennis Overbye reports on the "Pioneer anomaly"
"If scientific publishers are not trembling in their boots, they should be"
The Wall Street Journal's L. Gordon Crovitz credits Xerox and free enterprise
A Washington Post editorial challenges a New York Times editorial's answer
The question draws increasing attention from both scientists and journalists.
The Higgs boson news exposes the "tragedy," he says, of religion-based scorn for a scientific achievement.
Physicists are doing all right, but reality for biologists and chemists contradicts calls for boosting science training.
Wall Street Journal editorializes, "Breakthrough marks a beginning, not an end."
The UK has recently generated two high-visibility public reports on internet-age scientific publishing.
July physics conference in Australia occasions June media speculation.
An intellectual conflict with philosophy draws media attention.
Satirist Stephen Colbert lampoons North Carolina Republican legislators.
An official White House petition is nearing its signature goal online.
A Nature opinion piece calls for countering misinformation with postpublication commentary.
US media have paid little attention so far, despite the UK's substantial place in world science.
A New York Times commentary echoes ideas that scientists are considering.
Controversy reported in major newspapers implies added importance for CrossRef's new CrossMark system.
The bipartisan initiative honors "seemingly frivolous research that produced big dividends."
"Heated debate" foreseen on paper in press at Physical Review Letters.
Nobel laureate sees "anti-tax mania" closing a century of high-energy physics in gloom.
Articles link problems, including extreme weather events, to global warming.
William D. Nordhaus debates skeptic authors of Wall Street Journal pieces.
Two articles in the UK show little patience for publishers' added-value arguments
The subhead says, "The late physicist taught Chinese that the search for truth demands democracy."
Biographer of physicists comments in a New York Times book review.
National Academy members' op-ed blasts the state's pending teach-the-controversy legislation.
A humorist borrows physics terms and concepts to skewer a presidential candidate.
Physicist and chemist co-authors want to reduce the college-level STEM dropout rate.
The former federal official calls climate's "observed response" to more CO2 "not in good agreement with model predictions."
Nature and the Wall Street Journal consider climatologist Michael E. Mann's new book
Business models are "crucial," declares Maria Leptin in Science, but science's stability matters even more.
A Wall Street Journal news article presents the consensus and its critics on an equal basis.
The TV news satirist cites a New York Times story to josh physicists.
Charles Lane says it's not just Republicans who sometimes deny physical realities.
Commentary analyzes American innovation and draws provocative letters.
Science Times article sees a "vitriolic" debate and "nasty standoff" on scientific publishing's future.
Science magazine, NPR, the Associated Press, and major newspapers spin an inconclusive statement
A nuclear engineer advocates nuclear power for future energy needs; readers are invited to comment.
Sixteen adamant climate-consensus disbelievers publish their second long op-ed in less than a month.
The Times reacts immediately to news from Nature Nanotechnology.
Nature's editors urge scientists to find efficiencies before politicians impose them.
A "lecture backlash" reflects the contrast between the deficit model and the engagement model in science outreach.
A Nature commentary and rebuttal letter spotlight the conceptual conflict.
Belated but respectful obituaries revisit his efforts to avert the 1986 shuttle Challenger disaster.
Media coverage includes the fun—but also some serious news about STEM education.
Priya Natarajan's thoughts complement recent similar calls in Science.
Pervez Hoodbhoy's three January newspaper analyses advocate nuclear restraint.
Teaser blurb says, "Sixteen concerned scientists: No need to panic about global warming."
In a letter, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine calls for distinguishing medical from scientific papers.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama touches on issues pertinent to the science community.
It's an opportunity for scientists to contribute letters to the editor—but they must act fast.
Letters appear in the New York Times from the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Physical Society.
A Guardian commentary attacks; a New York Times feature offers thoughtful future-mindedness.
The Times calls this information-technology achievement the result of "a heated international race between elite physics laboratories."
A growing number of technopolitical murders starts to look like a campaign.
Public Library of Science founder Michael B. Eisen also calls for scientific societies to quit the Association of American Publishers.
Recent editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post highlight physics-related stories.
Has the reduced media attention hampered study of links between climate change and extreme weather events?
To what extent, if any, should—and can—biosecurity trump openness?
Commentaries challenge phony science and Islamic extremists' incitements to violence.
The news article is based on a scientific paper and an explanatory essay in Nature.
"Exhaustion, corruption, cronyism" could affect spaceflight—and therefore NASA.
Newspaper front pages report biosecurity request that Science and Nature withhold information.
Washington Post front page reports that the particle might well appear at CERN in the predicted energy range.
In City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern alleges unintended negative consequences from NCLB.
A New York Times op-ed presents the debate scientists are having over the name Anthropocene.
The Wall Street Journal offers "Why time travel won't be like the movies: A few basics will make it easy as pi—like antimatter, antigravity and neutron stars."
Has "Climategate" actually had little political effect, as Nature's editors assert?
Representative Cliff Stearns takes a hard line in response to a Times editorial.
Theoretical physicist Robert Garisto tells the story of a bet about the future of fundamental physics.
Media coverage varies widely on the newly revealed second batch of UK climatologists' email.
MSNBC, CNN, Fox, Daily Mail, and Wired UK suggest to the public that the “E-Cat” might be legitimate.
One kind of systematic error is now said to have been ruled out; others remain at issue.
The geopolitical part involves Marines in Australia; the technopolitical part involves space-science collaboration.
Final line says, “Perhaps [he] will still do the honorable thing, if only for the sake of his reputation.”
Joel Achenbach’s prominently displayed commentary quotes well-known physicists.
Half-page article covers astrology-based advising and claims of psychic powers.
The power company Ameren withdraws from federal FutureGen demonstration project.
The Big Bang Theory is seen as one of several possible motivators.
Editorial assesses recent developments in freedom-of-information case involving climatologist Michael Mann.
In Wednesday's presidential debate, Governor Rick Perry ticks off Commerce, Education—but can't call third target to mind.
Republican senator’s actual criticisms of the National Science Foundation are left undiscussed.
Columnist sees and deplores extremism on both sides of the "fracking" controversy.
Article outlines seven-decade career that started under Rabi at Columbia.
Comedy Central's fake-news Daily Show of 26 October merits physics community's attention.
It's an obvious opportunity for physicists to join, and maybe help lead, an important technocivic discussion.
Front page flags article summarizing JWST’s exciting science prospects—and perilous budget realities.
Solyndra political analysis trumpets what it treats as a revelation: politics isn’t physics. Analysis in the New Yorker presents a completely different spin.
Dennis Overbye invokes poet, singers in reporting physicists’ continuing skepticism.
The headline reads “The post-global warming world: Moving on from climate virtue.”
Climate skeptic’s Berkeley study refutes assertions that the planet is not really warming.
The government makes an effort to rise above “slapdash and irrelevant publications read by next to no one.”
Virginia Republican Representative Frank Wolf presses to restrict bilateral activities.
Editorial sees hard but not hopeless times; article is less optimistic
Article, not editorial, in business-focused national newspaper proclaims the start of a new energy era
Columnist known for climate skepticism expresses joy and awe at physics research result
Proposal co-authored by scientist and engineer who write for the general public
What—if anything—might that consensus have to do with speedy neutrinos or quasicrystals?
Harvard’s Robert P. Kirshner ponders implications of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Bipartisan Policy Center declares that the time has come to study and consider geoengineering.
Press reports on new study from the journal Pediatrics.
Prominently placed Style section article reviews a “graphic novel” about the memorable Nobel laureate.
In a New York Times commentary, poet Diane Ackerman conjures a flourishing NASA.
Wall Street Journal sees “scandal”; New York Times calls for more spending; Washington Post comes out in between.
Initial reactions to speedy-neutrino news reinforced at Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal.
After former federal science officials William Happer and Raymond Orbach point out the limitations placed on the climate implications of CERN’s CLOUD experiment, climate skeptics respond.
Newspaper borrows and runs a New Scientist piece; this year’s 22 winners include 9 scientists, with Harvard condensed-matter physicist Markus Greiner among them
Administration to support scientists in workplace flexibility for work-life balance
Announcement of provisional European result makes next day’s print editions of the New York Times and Washington Post
Op-ed in Wall Street Journal predicts direct and indirect benefits, including for science and technology
Pulitzer-winning student of oil industry sees rapid changes but no oil peak
Is global climate disruption as plain as “high school physics”?
What’s the effect of this show’s nerd caricatures on public perceptions of the physics profession?
The climate consensus caused APS fellow Ivar Giaever of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to quit
Editors of the Wall Street Journal charge “vaccine demagoguery”; former Bush speechwriter charges “public health illiteracy”
Online, nonprofit “SciDev.net” covers and promotes science and technology in the developing world
“Attribution scientists” could run “operational climate-attribution systems”
One says they “deserve our admiration, not our contempt”; the other says they “feel defensive and less respected”
Commentary amplifies the climate-wars politicization of CERN’s CLOUD experiment
“A Final Smash For America's Giant Particle Collider”
Opinion editors on climate science: Anecdotal report 2
Opinion editors on climate science: Anecdotal report 1
“Invitation to a Dialogue” offers chance for outreach by the physics community
Essay in Nature urges colleagues to ensure their own security while the Chronicle takes a closer look at the group behind the attacks.
Climate contentiousness in the presidential primaries—and a "litmus test"
The Times’s source, a study in Science, actually focuses only on the National Institutes of Health.
“Invitation to a Dialogue” means science-outreach opportunity on energy
Both articles see compromise between the 12 member congressional “supercommittee” as crucial.
“Scar on the moral body of science” is mostly in biomedicine, but physics is criticized too.
New York Times writer Cornelia Dean says scientists shun politics and most citizens can't name a scientist.
"Not so much an obituary as an editorial rehashing the political agenda of those who intensely disliked Bush and his policies," says Frederick M. Bernthal.
Center for American Progress blogger contrasts with two New York Times writers
Criticizes shuttle, calls for manned exploration, advocates James Webb Space Telescope
Can Dennis Overbye's science writing teach anything about connecting nonscientists with science?
Physicist, university president, national lab director and presidential science adviser dies at 70 after a long illness.
Newspaper obituaries highlight the contentious technopolitics of his eight years advising President George W. Bush
Editorial and news feature portray “violent collision of world views”
Two topics: physical constants more sharply defined; no exotic results from Large Hadron Collider
Opportunity to discuss an aerospace engineer’s view of the future-of-NASA. Will members of the physics community respond?
Commentary in this week’s Nature
Editorial, two op-eds, front-page feature criticize Congress, warn of dire future
Story reported prominently in New York Times “Science Times”
Proposers for NSF grants must now cite specific national priorities
Will this mean more branding of the physics profession? If so, what kind?
Impending federal anti-incandescent mandate is criticized as excessive government intrusion — and advocated as a tremendous energy saver.
A Wall Street Journal letter writer wants to know
New York Times invites public to debate school reform
New York Times op-ed calls nuclear fusion “essentially inexhaustible" source of energy
So declares New York Times science writer Dennis Overbye—citing physics's own "Alpinekat," Kate McAlpine
Are open access journals becoming more popular than traditional scholarly publishing? A paper in PLoS One looks to some trends.
German Chancellor (and physicist) Merkel criticized on science, President Obama on law
What are the threats? What can be done?
Medical physics issues return to New York Times front page: Overuse of CT scanning? The Washington Post follows one day later
Illnesses in Germany highlight a question: Can a physics tool enhance food safety?