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Knight Science Journalism Tracker Home Suggest Stories About Us Staff Contact Us Log In Register to Comment NYTimes Science Times: Mammals that poison; Ta-DA pal, you’re circumicised; Hope diamond lab test; our dun-EE-suh-vin kinfolk…

Perhaps the story most interesting, yet puzzling from a journalistic point of view, in the Science Times today is, on the front page and below the fold, Canadian freelancer Alanna Mitchell‘s catch-up on news about prehistoric Homo sapien couplings with other Homo species – Neanderthal mainly, Denisovan too for sure, and maybe even the Hobbits of Flores. After ten paragraphs I was still sighing! to myself that everything I’d read was just about what has already been widely reported including in the New York Times.Perhaps it is just that the reporter, who writes well-received books, likes to tell a story in a logical timeline fashion rather than start with the new stuff and then jitterbug around with the context needed to appreciate it. Standard news structure does tend to sap a tale of its narrative tension. Plus, to guide the reader through all what’s already gone on, before the good stuff (news), is not a promising tactic for getting a story past the NYT’s [...]

Lots of Ink: The Everglades death toll now apparent. Giant snakes are cleaning the place out of anything big and still alive.

For awhile now the news of pythons and other huge constrictors breeding in the swamps of southern Florida could be put in the brain’s slot for drolly amusing scenes from horror movies. Mankind’s carelessness and hubris, creepy creatures, and brave rangers and police officers tracking them down while local golfers know that “water hazard” is not just a place to lose their little white balls. Just a new version of the endless encounter with gators down there – except these beasts have no legs, bigger stomachs, and are even longer from nose to tail.

This week a report in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, by a team of researchers from the US Geological Survey and several universities, offers a perverse hope for a reason the infestation will burn out. Maybe the great snakes will starve. That’s just me talking, but the figures indicate that they are not only competing with alligators for food and for the top link in the food chain, they are eating just about [...]

Washington Post: NASA’s first, tragic reminder that space ships are dangerous

Four days ago we received notice that the Washington Post‘s Brian Vastag had a melancholy, powerful story on the anniversary of the Apollo capsule fire. It struck 45 years ago during a routine test on the launch pad and with no blast off yet on the schedule. I finally got around to reading his look-back at what the day was like, as recounted by the former wire service reporter who was NASA press officer on duty.

It is a fine, tailored vignette and fitting tribute to the times, to the astronauts who perished suddenly and awfully – Roger Chafee, Gus Grissom, and Ed White -and timely reminder that private companies trying to to fill the space-exploration void left by the shuttles’ retirement face a high-stakes and difficult job. This in no time for assuming the lowest-cost bid for a ride to space is the right one to accept.

As one who often blogs along blithely dismissing as scientifically wasted the taxpayer money spent on putting people [...]

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