Skip to main content

Beyond the Hype - Fiona Fox ****

Fiona Fox runs the UK's Science Media Centre, which acts as a kind of interface between journalists and scientists to try to improve the reporting of science in the media. This is the story of that Centre and its major events.

As a science writer myself, it's a strong area of interest, and Fox puts across the story in a lively fashion. There is no doubt that there was a need for something like this from both sides. Many scientists are poor at communicating their work - yet it's essential that it is done well, both because that work is often publicly funded and to make sure the public understands the scientific view. Similarly, many journalists, particularly those without a science background, over-hype science results (especially when reporting initial, small-scale medical studies) and need help in accessing the right people to get the story straight. 

As, for example, Covid and climate change demonstrate so clearly, science has a huge impact on our lives and fostering a better understanding is essential. Apart from these topics, Fox also covers a good range of others, from GM and animal experimentation to dealing with breaking news and the interplay between science and politics. The chapter I found most interesting was the one on the furore that exploded after some unwise, intended to be self-deprecating, remarks by a male scientist (Tim Hunt) about female scientists that was taken out of context and resulted in a major collapse of his career. Fox not only covers the Science Media Centre's involvement, but gives some valuable insights into the ways that the media reacted to the story.

The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it did sometimes feel like a book-length advertorial for the Science Media Centre. Perhaps this is inevitable in the circumstances - and Fox does note a few times when they got it wrong - but it might have been better if someone else had written this book to put a little distance between the author and the topic. Fox is clearly proud of the centre and what it has done, which is great - but, particularly in the introduction, her enthusiasm can come across as a little heavy-handed.

If you have an interest in the way science is communicated to the public, this is an essential read.

Paperback:   
Kindle 
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free hereShort

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics - Frank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert **

It's with a heavy heart that I have to say that I could not get on with this book. The structure is all over the place, while the content veers from childish remarks to unexplained jargon. Frank Versraete is a highly regarded physicist and knows what he’s talking about - but unfortunately, physics professors are not always the best people to explain physics to a general audience and, possibly contributed to by this being a translation, I thought this book simply doesn’t work. A small issue is that there are few historical inaccuracies, but that’s often the case when scientists write history of science, and that’s not the main part of the book so I would have overlooked it. As an example, we are told that Newton's apple story originated with Voltaire. Yet Newton himself mentioned the apple story to William Stukeley in 1726. He may have made it up - but he certainly originated it, not Voltaire. We are also told that ‘Galileo discovered the counterintuitive law behind a swinging o...

Ctrl+Alt+Chaos - Joe Tidy ****

Anyone like me with a background in programming is likely to be fascinated (if horrified) by books that present stories of hacking and other destructive work mostly by young males, some of whom have remarkable abilities with code, but use it for unpleasant purposes. I remember reading Clifford Stoll's 1990 book The Cuckoo's Egg about the first ever network worm (the 1988 ARPANet worm, which accidentally did more damage than was intended) - the book is so engraved in my mind I could still remember who the author was decades later. This is very much in the same vein,  but brings the story into the true internet age. Joe Tidy gives us real insights into the often-teen hacking gangs, many with members from the US and UK, who have caused online chaos and real harm. These attacks seem to have mostly started as pranks, but have moved into financial extortion and attempts to destroy others' lives through doxing, swatting (sending false messages to the police resulting in a SWAT te...

Battle of the Big Bang - Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Harper *****

It's popular science Jim, but not as we know it. There have been plenty of popular science books about the big bang and the origins of the universe (including my own Before the Big Bang ) but this is unique. In part this is because it's bang up to date (so to speak), but more so because rather than present the theories in an approachable fashion, the book dives into the (sometimes extremely heated) disputed debates between theoreticians. It's still popular science as there's no maths, but it gives a real insight into the alternative viewpoints and depth of feeling. We begin with a rapid dash through the history of cosmological ideas, passing rapidly through the steady state/big bang debate (though not covering Hoyle's modified steady state that dealt with the 'early universe' issues), then slow down as we get into the various possibilities that would emerge once inflation arrived on the scene (including, of course, the theories that do away with inflation). ...