There is no gray literature now: Everything is a magnet for immediate attention and misunderstanding. An unbelievable, inaccurate study no longer has to linger in obscurity; it may bubble over into the public consciousness as soon as it appears online, and get passed around the internet like a lost kitten in a preschool.
—James Heathers, chief scientific officer at Cipher Skin and self-described practitioner of what he calls “forensic peer review”—a careful accounting of publications in the scientific literature—writing recently in The Atlantic about the perils of the public’s acceptance of research results in the COVID-19 era (October 23)
| ACROSS 1. ___ cell (think epidermis) |
It’s the prerogative of elected governments to determine what goes on in their constituencies, and if science is part of that they should have a say. But politicians who are not trained in science should not meddle in our day-to-day business, or tell scientists what’s right or wrong.
—Maria Leptin, new European Research Council president, speaking to Nature about how she’ll navigate the confluence of politics and science in her post atop the basic research funding agency (October 25)
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