Looking Back on Research the Headlines in 2013

It’s been 4 months since Research the Headlines went live, with the support of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland.

We’ve tried to cover as broad a range of topics as possible, from the technology behind future supercomputers and new states of matter, to how we should address risk in sexual health, and what legislation can do to mitigate global warming.  We’ve asked whether we can watch bacteria evolve before our eyes in the lab, whether brain training games work and how well can we predict the weather.  We’ve even looked at the internet’s favourite news delivery system, the infographic, and shown how some make claims that aren’t always backed up by the evidence.

At times, we’ve been delighted by how well the media has covered complex research into important issues such as autism and dementia, and the efforts they’ve made to track down the people carrying it out.

At other times, we’ve been forced to highlight how the media not only makes mistakes, but sometimes invents a scientific basis for a story that doesn’t exist.  We’ve even taken the occasional columnist to task when airing their opinions of how research is conducted.

The Research the Headlines team hope you’ve enjoyed reading our posts, and we look forward to bringing you our perspectives on the reporting of research in 2014!