Posts tagged with journalism.
SpaceBat: the canary for science journalism?
I'd like to dedicate this week's column to the memory of SpaceBat, a tiny bat with lofty dreams. The little Chiropter attached himself to the space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank on March 15th in batkind's third attempt to send one of their own into space (the first attempts, involving a 1996 Endeavour launch and a 1998 Columbia launch, failed when the fledgling bat-stronauts did not have The Right Stuff and flew away when the engines started to rumble.)
Whether it was an injury that kept him from flying away, a desire to visit the ISS to experience zero-G flight, or simply the lack of self-preservation instinct attendant with having a .38cc brain, something kept SpaceBat - officially known as "Interim Problem Report 119V-0080" - on that tank through ignition and launch. The little guy even managed to clear the tower, though his fate after that point is unknown.
While in my heart of hearts I had hoped that SpaceBat at least made it out of the troposphere (I like to picture him soaring high above commercial air traffic to the tune of "Wind Beneath my Wings"), the reality of the shuttle launch is that he probably only held on for a few seconds past the tower before he lost his grip. After a mere moment of free-fall, little IPR 119V-0080 would have tumbled into the solid rocket booster's exhaust plume and expired in a blazing hot trail of spent rocket fuel.
As my shuttle-savvy friend bluntly put it, "In all probability, Squeaky McSpaceBat's body was charred to almost beyond recognition, then swept up with all the rest of the miscellaneous debris that falls on the pad post-launch. But it's way cooler if he made it to space, so I'm going with that."
SpaceBat's ignominious transformation into CrispyBat was a rare occurrence - a science story that received widespread media coverage. This in a month where science journalists wondered "whither science news?" and found that the answer is no longer in the pages of newspapers or magazines.
As Geoff Brumfiel writes in the March 18th edition of Nature News, newspapers are slashing their science sections. As a result, only the most titillating of tales make it to the printed page. Given the past fortnight's publication record, I can only surmise that if you want to make the science pages, your best bet is to market yourself as an ill-fated, Christian, space-bound bat that refuses to comment on its belief in evolution.
This is a shame, as science is verily FULL of interesting news items. A brief glance over the last week's worth of scientific press releases turns up enough to fill a paper or two, in fact.
In a major triumph for Obama's repeal on the stem cell research ban, researchers at Georgetown University have managed to turn cells from adult testes into embryonic-like stem cells that can be differentiated into any cell type, even neurons, giving rise to the possibility that one day entire organs can be generated from nut cells. The possibility exists that an entire nation of ball-people could be grown too, which I could only imagine would spell the end of anniversary cards, instruction manuals, and quiche.
Meanwhile, Nebraskan doctors identified an unusual specimen - the fastidiously clean pothead. Evidently, chronic use of the chronic can lead not only to a predisposition to eating a whole box of Corn Pops in one sitting, but also to a severe vomiting syndrome whose symptoms are only relieved by repeated hot showers. While your stoner roomie might still steal all your breakfast cereal, at least that Big Lebowski marathon isn't going to get in his way of bathing anymore.
So if the newspapers aren't reporting the dawn of the era of ball-people and fresh-smelling potheads, who is?
According to the Nature article, the bulk of science communication is now being done over the web. Scientists are blogging, research institutes are twittering, and sites like eurekalert.org are collating the press releases that feed the science media machine. SpaceBat, for example, probably appeared in a couple hundred newspapers but, in the days since his fiery, furry demise, has spawned over 25,000 Google hits, a tribute website, and a YouTube tribute video with nearly 120,000 views.
The medium has its advantages and its disadvantages. It's instant, globally accessible and lends itself to additional content, be it links to relevant websites, animations, podcast comments from the researchers, or lovingly-scored bat tribute videos. On the other hand, users need to seek it out, putting the onus of scientific literacy on the consumer ("Dude, put down the bong and the Xbox controller. Check this out. Scientists have just confirmed the liquid-liquid phase transition in silicon."). Beyond that, user-created content lacks the editorial polish of traditional journalism (hey, editor - I put that bit in for you ;) (Aw shucks - ed.).
While it remains to be seen what impact the medium shift in science journalism has upon our nation's scientific literacy, the outpouring of love and media coverage for SpaceBat gives me hope that my generation and the ones after it will be active participants in the online exploration of science. Science coverage is evolving, and that's something even an ill-fated, Christian, space-bound bat can believe in.
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JENNIFER GARDY 
