Blogosauruses and bad bad bad bad science TV : Neuron Culture

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I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find clips here.) Right now I'm writing my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which explores the hypothesis that the genetic roots some of our worst problems and traits — depresison, hyperaggression, violence, antisocial behavior — can also give rise to resilience, cooperation, empathy, and contentment. The book expands on my December 2009 Atlantic article exploring these ideas. I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years.

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Blogosauruses and bad bad bad bad science TV

Posted on: December 18, 2009 9:24 AM, by David Dobbs

I wanted to rig up an electrified fence around the falsehood to keep the producers from sneaking back to it

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

Carl Zimmer on just how damned bad much science TV is. I've not advised programs, as Carl has, but the times I've seen subjects I'd written about covered on TV -- DBS for depression, and Williams syndrome, which I'd written about for the Times Mag and both of which were subsequently covered by 60 MInutes -- the TV results were truly appalling. And that was the hallowed supposedly best-of TV 60 Minutes.

It's nice when you see it done better. Too bad it's so rare.

Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

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