Last post, I introduced some of social media’s coverage of science as a way to provide the everyday person with an easily accessible version of science happenings. Many of these are created with the intent to pique the interests of readers who may not have an existing affinity for science. For those whose interests have already been piqued, long-form science coverage may be an option.
Though it might seem like an obvious option, science periodicals or larger periodicals with science sections are a good place to start for more in-depth information, and these often work hand-in-hand with their social media outlets. The tweets from these newspapers, websites, and magazines are intended to grab readers’ attention and feed them the very basic one-sentence summary of a story. The links at the end then bring readers who want to know more to the actual articles, where the story is developed in more detail.
Other long-form endeavors worth investigating are science blogs, whether done by individuals in the field or as supplements to a science magazine. Skeptical Raptor, for example, is written by a pharmaceutical industry veteran who systematically debunks pseudoscience regarding vaccination, evolution, and other areas of controversy. Discover, Scientific American, and many other periodicals also host a plethora of blogs on their websites covering topics from all disciplines.
And for you multimedia aficionados, there are radio and video outlets to satisfy your science needs and wants. Public radio stations across the country broadcast weekly science shows, including NPR’s Science Friday and the National Science Foundation’s Radiolab, and HuffPost’s senior science correspondent, Cara Santa Maria, runs the video series “Talk Nerdy to Me.” These cover science news as well as topics of general interest that may not normally be published; I think it’s fair to say that the research behind why our fingers wrinkle when they’re wet is not a matter of importance to media magnates.
Whether you want tidbits, full coverage, print, online, written, audio, or video, there is science coverage for you. So sit back, turn on that secret recording of the Bill Nye theme song you have on iTunes, and enjoy all that the scientific world has to offer.
