The Nature of Evidence

摘要

"You just want to sell newspapers," a scientist hissed at me at a meeting not long ago. "That's your bottom line." The event was one of many efforts around the United States to bridge the gap that supposedly exists between scientists and science journalists. "Well, yes," I replied. We do like to sell newspapers or attract viewers, just as much as the average scientist likes to have a big turnout for his talk at the annual meeting. But that is not the main motivation for me and my science-writing colleagues as we sift among the many scientific developments of the moment and single out a select few for our scarce column inches or minutes of airtime.