Science in the public eye
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to know where one stands when writing about – or doing – science. Instead of waiting for the peer review process to take its course and for journals to print the received wisdom, life on the cutting edge is about debating papers released to astro-ph, a slightly policed archive of papers submitted by academics when reviewed, but also sometimes when submitted to the journals or even before. Writers are picking up on that, and that’s fine – I love the fact that you can now read an article on a blog or in New Scientist and with a click be reading the paper.
Some projects have more problems; we’re struggling with Galaxy Zoo to learn what to say when – more on that tomorrow. For now, here’s Emily on what it seems will always be known as the ‘Phoenix flap’.
