Frontiers In Science News Bits - From Bees to Comic Books

Frontiers is one of the worldwide publisher of Open Access journals and publications. Formed in 2007 by scientists, it is based in Switzerland and is a partner of Nature Publishing Group. The mission of Frontier is to "empower all academic communities to drive research publishing and communication into the 21st century with Open Science tools".

The "Frontiers in" series of journals is published with the help of scientific organizations such as the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). The series publishes around 500 peer-reviewed articles each month with the help of over 25,000 editors and reviewers.

Around five million views of its articles are recorded monthly by Frontiers. The following are some of the latest articles featured in Frontiers.

• Bees Have The Ability To Count
• Navigating Comic Books
• Electronic Control Devices and Law Enforcement
• Artificial Neural Connections and The Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries

The Importance of Maintaining an Unbiased and Accurate View In Online Science and Technology Reporting

Two researchers published a paper on how the Internet is a big factor in announcing scientific discoveries but also can mislead the public due to bias and inaccurate reporting.

One thing that is important in reporting discoveries and disseminating information based on science is that it has to be accurate and unbiased. Science is based on experiments that should be both observable, measurable, and repeatable.

When CERN announced the discovery of the possible Higgs particle, they reported it as a 5 sigma discovery. This means that the discovery has a probability of 0.00003% that the result is accidental or due to chance.

Science reporting must be based on facts. Theories, although not yet proven to be science fact, still undergo scrutiny and has a fundamental principle behind it. The Higgs particle was a theory before, and it took the construction of the Large Hadron Collider for it to be discovered.

And even then, the discovery of the Higgs helps establish another theory which is the Standard Model.

There will be dissenting arguments when it comes to scientific research. Some are even on opposite sides such as Loop Quantum Gravity vs. String Theory. But regardless, it will ultimately fall on research being observable, measurable, and repeatable.

Personal beliefs has no room when it comes to science reporting. A recent article touched on how a Wikipedia editor kept deleting references to Global Warming on the Hurricane Sandy page because he personally does not believe in Global Warming.

Even now, there are still clamors on taking out evolution from science books because it clashes with their religious beliefs.