Re:Researchers use lasers to detect and destroy tumor cells ...
by asdff on Thursday June 13, 2019 @01:53PM
(#20177146)
>do these headlines irritate you?
Sometimes, but I'm usually not exposed to these news articles unless they are posted to hn or something. I prefer to go to the journal article over these written by journalists who don't have time to dig in and do a proper summary of the findings. Usually it goes something like this:
1. Interesting thing published in decent journal, but years away from clinical trials or even animal models and things fail during those tests all the time.
2. Journalist pumps out a half assed article about how its the new silver bullet.
3. Public reads the article, picks up that its remarkably similar to the half assed article they read on tuesday about a completely different thing in a completely different disease.
4. Public complains that there's "a new cure for cancer every day."
5. Public looses confidence in scientific authority.
6. Rinse and repeat when journals push the next batch of manuscripts next week.
What's remarkable is that some of the biggest advances don't get very much coverage at all, or are covered for like a week or two and forgotten, despite the field mulling over and improving that finding for years. Clickbait-style news and scientific findings aren't compatible.
Sometimes, but I'm usually not exposed to these news articles unless they are posted to hn or something. I prefer to go to the journal article over these written by journalists who don't have time to dig in and do a proper summary of the findings. Usually it goes something like this:
1. Interesting thing published in decent journal, but years away from clinical trials or even animal models and things fail during those tests all the time.
2. Journalist pumps out a half assed article about how its the new silver bullet.
3. Public reads the article, picks up that its remarkably similar to the half assed article they read on tuesday about a completely different thing in a completely different disease.
4. Public complains that there's "a new cure for cancer every day."
5. Public looses confidence in scientific authority.
6. Rinse and repeat when journals push the next batch of manuscripts next week.
What's remarkable is that some of the biggest advances don't get very much coverage at all, or are covered for like a week or two and forgotten, despite the field mulling over and improving that finding for years. Clickbait-style news and scientific findings aren't compatible.