In the words of Bernard Black, this is fantastic.
There’s a great article on Vox.com talking about science reporting and why most news reports claiming there’s a new cure for X, or that Z causes cancer, are wrong.
And I use Bernard Black specifically here for an important reason – he’s smoking and drinking. We [that’s the scientist we] are pretty clear that we know causes cancer. And drinking wine, which we [again, the scientist we] are less clear about.
The article includes a great visualisation for thinking about cancer risk – studies which show an increased and reduced risk of cancer.
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I love this graphic so much. I think it communicates so much – but if I’ve learned anything in the last few years it’s that science literacy can’t be taken for granted.
So while I think this is a great example of science communication, I want to know from you guys – what do you think? Is this informative?
Will you remember this next week?
Just how, exactly, do our interventions work?
