Do your research! Six ways to find science you can trust online

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Credit: Tim Abbott, used via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 License

If you wanted to know more about a medical condition would you take a trip to the library and pore over medical textbooks? Of course not, you’d look it up on your phone while you’re still in your doctor’s waiting room.

Looking up things online is essentially second nature for most of us – but do you ever worry if you can trust what you find? Most of us get all our information from the Internet – and science and medicine have been made far more accessible by the Internet and mobile phones. It’s incredibly convenient, but it is also a minefield of potential misinformation, misunderstanding and, even worse, fraud. How can we know if we can trust what we see online? Here are some of my best pointers to use this amazing resource to obtain reliable and relevant information – especially when it comes to science and medicine.

Warming & hurricanes; gluten-free diet & diabetes; testosterone & poor choices: Sept. 4-10 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

The September 6 Solar Flare Credit: NASA/GODDARD/SDO

• What We Know about the Climate Change–Hurricane Connection by By Michael E. Mann, Thomas C. Peterson and Susan Joy Hassol at Scientific American
• How Hurricane Harvey’s Record-Setting Rainfall Happened by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• Denying Hurricane Harvey’s climate links only worsens future suffering by Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science
• What hurricane categories mean and why we use them by Mary Beth Griggs at Ars Technica
• Lessons from Germany’s transition from coal to renewable energy by Emma Bryce at Ensia
• The sun just belched out the strongest solar flare in 12 years by Leah Crane at New Scientist
• Solar flares via Cosmos
• Experiment reveals evidence for a previously unseen behaviour of light by Jon Butterworth at Life and Physics
• A Personal Voyage with Voyager by C. C. Petersen at The Spacewriter's Ramblings
• Massive genetic study shows how humans are evolving by Bruno Martin at Nature
• The lonely walk to extinction by Jan Freedman at Twilight Beasts
• How short-term increases in testosterone change men’s thinking style by Emma Young at British Psychological Society Research Digest
• Anxiety may alter processing of emotions in people with autism by Jessica Wright at Spectrum
• Low gluten diet – evidence of link to type 2 diabetes at The Skeptical Raptor
• Black Salve BS by Kat Day at The Chronicle Flask
• The stories behind a CV by Wei Ji Ma at Science
• Condemning Predatory Journals/Publishers: Nature by Pranab Chatterjee at Scepticemia
• Dr. Sims built a lab and experimented on enslaved women. Take down his statues by Dr Jen Gunter 
• Mutación Responsable de Enfermedad Cardiaca Podría Quedar en el Pasado gracias a la Ingeniera Genética en Embriones Humanos por Attabey Rodríguez Benítez at En Arroz Y Habichuelas

Check back next week for more great picks!

Find out vital info about hurricanes, nukes, cancer and more in our August 28-September 3 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

• Ten Surprises For Scientists And Skywatchers During The Total Solar Eclipse and Science knows if a nation is testing nuclear bombs by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang! 
• Don't Use Hair Conditioner In A Nuclear Blast by Trina Espinoza at Ms. Beautyphile

• America approves ‘revolutionary’ CAR T cell immunotherapy — what does this mean for cancer patients? by Claire Hastings at Institute of Cancer Research 
• This 1,000-year-old oak tree survived Hurricane Harvey by Ellen Airhart at Popular Science 
• Perspective: What's the Risk of an Outbreak After a Flood? at Infective Perspective 
• Were Ancient Humans Healthier Than Us? by Ricki Lewis at DNA Science Blog 
• Memo To White Nationalists From A Geneticist: Why White Purity Is A Terrible Idea by Ricki Lewis at Science Trends 
• For politicians, the more data, the more they ignore by Scott K Johnson at Ars Technica 
• How biotechnology is making farming more sustainable by Randy Krotz at Genetic Literacy Project 
• Missing symbionts: do some animals lack resident gut microbiomes? by Elin Videvall at The Molecular Ecologist 
• Podcast of the week: Microbiome Research – Opportunity or Over-hype? with Anand Jagatia, Benjamin Thompson, Julian Marchesi, Jim Prosser, Lindsay Hall and Thorunn Helgason at The Microbiology Society 
• Eating Triggers Release of Endogenous Opioids in Human Brain, Study Reveals at Sci News 
• The concept of schizophrenia is coming to an end – here’s why by Simon McCarthy-Jones at The Conversation 
• The brain’s wiring as you've never seen it before via Cosmos Magazine


Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre – Diffusion of Axons from cscweb on Vimeo.
• Which encoding mechanism is best for Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean? by Cherrie Kwok at NYU Center for Data Science 

Check back next week for more great picks!

How do ligers fit in evolution? Does life need a planet? Find out in our August 21-27 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

• 

  The recent eclipse as it appeared from space! Credit: NOAA

  Exclusive: We may have detected a new kind of gravitational wave by Mika McKinnon at New Scientist
• Earth’s final total solar eclipse will happen in less than a billion years and Will Scientists Ever Discover Life Without A Home Planet? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang
• Moon Shadow at Cosmos Magazine
• Martian weather kicks into high gear at night by Rachel Lallensack at Nature
• Mayweather and McGregor’s 8-ounce boxing gloves have started a science fight by Stan Horaczek at Popular Science
• The Physics behind the PERFECT free kick at Mystifact
• Science podcast of the week: SoT 275: Almost Edible by Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday and Lucas Randall at ScienceOnTop
• What Ligers, Grolar Bears, and Mules Show Scientists About Evolution by Jordana Cepelewicz at Wired 
• Aerodynamics For Cognition Tom Griffiths talks to Edge 
• This algorithm cleverly recreates 3D objects from tiny 2D images by Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch 
• Sunscreen: Hero for Humans, Villain for Marine Life? by Mary Sabuda at Sciworthy 
• New study finds that climate change costs will hit Trump country hardest by John Abraham at Skeptical Science 
• GOOP’s physician branded supplements warrant a closer look by Dr Jen Gunter

Check back next week for more great picks!

The essentials: The eclipse, whisky and the origin of life, all in our August 14-20 2017 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Each week, the ScienceSeeker editors pick their favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise. Here is a round-up of the Science Seeker Editors’ Selections for the past week:

Compound Interest on climate archaeology

• Eclipses show wrong physics can give right results by Tom Siegfried at Context
• The Best—and Quirkiest—Maps of the 2017 Solar Eclipse by Betsy Mason at All Over The Map
• Three Myths About Solar Energy and the Eclipse by Mike Jacobs at Union of Concerned Scientists
• The Hormone Myth by Harriet Hall at Science-Based Medicine
• Artificial vision: what people with bionic eyes see by Matthew Petoe, Lauren Ayton and Mohit Shivdasani at The Conversation
• What does the statement “we don’t understand how artificial intelligence takes decisions” mean? by Julián Estévez at Mapping Ignorance
• The origin of complex life on Earth just got a little less mysterious by Annalee Newitz at Ars Technica
• DNA Barcodes Reveal Two Distinct Butterflies Are Male and Female Of Same Species by Grrl Scientist
• Why adding a drop of water can make whisky taste even better by Sophia Chen at New Scientist
• Podcast of the Week: Preventing genetic diseases in China, a red supergiant star's mystery, and the algal boom by Kerri Smith and Adam Levy at Nature Podcast
• The science of ice cores: Atmospheric time machines by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest 
• There are almost 100 new volcanoes hiding under Antarctic ice by Andy Coghlan at New Scientist
• Scientists, Insta-Fix Thy Public Image by Paige Brown Jarreau at From the Lab Bench
• The comet that created the Perseids might bring an end to humanity by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang!
• A Look at Russian Reindeer Herders’ Battle with the Bottle by Lauren Kaljur at Arctic Deeply
• White nationalists flock to genetic ancestry tests. Some don't like the result by Eric Boodman at STAT News
• Book Review: The Mind of God by Dr. Jay Lombard by Oné R. Pagán at Baldscientist

Check back next week for more great picks!