Science Friday: Flaming Science Wars, and Fiery Coral in the Gallery!

Flame war, or Science Wars 2.0?

Is this a valid criticism of a shoddy science-blog content analysis from the journal Science Communication, or is it a witch-hunt, and proof that we're back to the dark days of the science wars?

I can't help but feel this is latent science-centric angst being vented towards qualitative content analysis and the humanities/ social sciences in general.  It gets a bit nasty, and if you want to mock humanities journals, Art Criticism and Literary Theory are easier targets, as we were shown by "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity".

So, is the offending article as bad as the attack on it claims?  Probably not, but even if it is that bad, the post and ensuing comments are a great way to see the 'two cultures' in opposition.  And there aren't many sympathetic responses to user Pascale's comment: "this type of research exists to identify word and idea clusters, usually as a guide to future studies. I still have concerns about the study, but this is a legitimate form of research."

Agree or not, I think it's disappointing that we may still speaking two different languages.  

So then I guess science journalism is dead? Long live science journalism!

SEED magazine discusses how a New York Law suit giving bloggers access to press passes will affect the future of science reporting.  We've mentioned the issue before here-- the blog 2020 Science have a good roundup of the conundrum with "To tweet or not to tweet – social media and the scientific meeting: Should live tweeting and blogging from scientific meetings be controlled?"

Chemists, physicists, online, oh my!

(Via Science@UCD Library) The Royal Society of Chemistry have launched a new electronic publishing platform RSC Publishing beta, and they're looking for feedback.  Similarly, the IOP have launched a new site for accessing their journal material: http://iopscience.iop.org/

A Wooly Wonder

And lastly, remember to visit Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, which opens tonight at Science Gallery.  You can hear our interview with curator Margaret Wertheim here.