logo
episode-header-image
May 2023
17m 27s

Audio long read: Can giant surveys of sc...

SPRINGER NATURE LIMITED
About this episode

Shocked by the impact of online misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, several researchers are launching efforts to survey scientists’ thinking on issues from vaccine safety to climate change. They hope that their projects will make scientific debate, and degrees of consensus, more visible and transparent, benefiting public conversation and policymaking. However, others suggest that these attempts might merely further politicize public debate.


This is an audio version of our Feature: Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Oct 23
Briefing Chat: How physicists successfully trapped the electron's antimatter equivalent
In this episode:00:21 New experiment looking for mismatch between matter and antimatterNature: A single antimatter particle in a cage opens door to ‘revolutionary’ physics08:32 JAXA's mission to PhobosAerospace America: JAXA’s MMX mission will include the first wheeled rover to d ... Show More
14m 59s
Oct 21
Scientists put a salt marsh in a giant wave-machine: here's what they learned
In this episode:00:46 How salt marshes could protect coastal regions from super-stormsResearch Article: Willemsen et al.10:56 Research HighlightsNature: Orangutan mothers arrange play dates for their babiesNature: Lead-tainted teeth reveal medieval mines’ unequal toll13:30 Puttin ... Show More
19m 53s
Oct 19
Audio long read: How to stay smart in the age of AI — the science of critical thinking
Critical thinking is a skill that is under threat from the AI revolution in large language models. But all is not lost. Specialists in education and cognition have long been studying critical thinking, and some have useful tips on how to stay cognitively sharp in the age of AI.Th ... Show More
16m 5s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
How Covid changed science, part 2
In the second of our series How Covid Changed Science, Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Health at Edinburgh University looks at the scientific messaging. Just how do you explain to both politicians and the public that a growing global pandemic is likely to kill many people, and ... Show More
27m 50s
Oct 2025
How science got here, and where next
As anti-science leaves research reeling, does evidence-based policy in a scientific society have much of a future? Michael Mann, Naomi Oreskes, Angie Rasmussen and Deb Houry discuss some of the sources and motivations that perhaps belie the current state of scientific affairs. Pr ... Show More
31m 30s
May 2024
Long Covid: Think yourself well?
Long Covid can ruin lives, and scientists are striving to understand the condition and beginning to get some early clues about possible treatments. While there are still more questions than answers, though, many have turned online for help. But could what they find there sometime ... Show More
18m 19s
Jun 2022
Restoring trust in science
Modern scientists are under pressure from critics motivated by political views. 
6m 18s
Oct 2021
The Evidence: When misinformation kills
A maelstrom of misinformation and its sinister cousin, disinformation, have been swirling all around us about Covid-19. The rumours and conspiracy theories have raced around the globe as fast as the virus itself.Untruths, half-truths, misunderstandings and deliberate mischief-mak ... Show More
50m 35s
Jun 2021
#70: Coronavirus origin story; Big Oil’s nightmare; history of the gender pain gap
From a bat… or from a lab? It seemed the question of where SARS-CoV-2 originated had been settled, but recently it's been reignited. Amid lots of conflicting and confusing news stories, the team explores what we really know about the origins of covid-19. They then mark a historic ... Show More
26m 36s
Jan 2022
The Scientists
<p>Matt Chorley talks to Sir Mark Walport, Professor Linda Bauld and The Science Media Centre's Fiona Fox about going from anonymous scientists in front of a microscope to media sensations during a pandemic.</p><br><p>PLUS: Libby Purves and Rachel Sylvester talk Operation Red Mea ... Show More
39m 46s