Andrew Peacock
asked
Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Hey NDT! From the desk of a budding science communicator focused on astronomy, which three academic journals would you recommend following to stay on top of scientific discoveries? To add to this question, which three books have been instrumental for you as you’ve grown into a science communicator?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
There's a difference between what we normally think of as "scientific discoveries" and what appears in academic research journals. Academic research journals report the bleeding edge of research, much of which may ultimately be shown to be wrong. Actual discoveries are research that have been verified at least once, preferably multiple times by independent researchers. Also, such papers are often arcane, readable only by others who are fluent in the sub-field.
I strongly recommend a news digest, such as Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org or Scientific American. From there you can dig out the relevant links to research papers that fed their reporting. That's a vastly more efficient exercise.
I don't know of good books about science communication. But I've found a subscription to the Skeptical Inquirer https://skepticalinquirer.org of immense value to my background in addressing so many topics that matter to so many people, especially the pseudoscience traps that people fall into.
I strongly recommend a news digest, such as Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org or Scientific American. From there you can dig out the relevant links to research papers that fed their reporting. That's a vastly more efficient exercise.
I don't know of good books about science communication. But I've found a subscription to the Skeptical Inquirer https://skepticalinquirer.org of immense value to my background in addressing so many topics that matter to so many people, especially the pseudoscience traps that people fall into.
More Answered Questions
David Howell
asked
Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Can you explain, if the universe is expanding from the point where the Big Bang occurred, how can the light from the objects (now) X billion light years away just now be reaching us? How did our slow selves physically get "out here" AHEAD of that light, while we wait patiently for it to arrive? In other words, how is the expansion of space faster than light?
Andrew Peacock
asked
Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Hey Neil, I’ve noticed that certain individuals respond to the realms of climate change or COVID-19 vaccinations by pointing fingers at cases in which scientific expertise has failed them — such as the abuse of DDT/insecticides, or our anthropocentric understanding of Earth’s location in the universe. How do you respond to people who attribute their distrust in scientific authorities to these precedents?
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