1. Don't believe everything you read

There are both innocuous and also nefarious reasons that you might encounter untruths on the internet and in other media outlets. Some lies might be nefarious; some are inadvertently misleading. The latter is often the case with science reporting.

Scientific topics are frequently in the news (ancestry testing, disease risk, global warming and climate change and their potential impacts on species extinctions, and so on). Yet, many journalists are not trained as scientists, and many scientists are not trained in effective communication to non-specialist audiences (i.e., the public).

These two parties involved in the assembly of public-facing reports of scientific discoveries also serve different stakeholders and have different motives. For publicity, career advancement, and self-esteem purposes (among others), a scientist and a journalist want their work to be as publicized and disseminated as possible. This pressure, called a conflict of interest, could provide temptation to oversimplify and/or overstate the conclusions, relevance, and potential future applications of even the most incremental of advances in science.

As a practicing scientist, I know, because I've been there. In fact, for full disclosure, I'm spending my personal time right now beginning this blog for selfish reasons. If I'm successful in attracting you to read more, that this effort might help me gain visibility among colleagues and peers whose opinions I value. Maybe I'll be asked to travel to hold workshops or present seminars on improving information literacy. Maybe I'll get a book deal, or be on TV! Ahh, the allure of the potential for fame.

More seriously, I'm investing my time in this project because I think that what I'm about to tell you is inherently interesting and important. I'm interested in helping develop an informed and skeptical populace because I think that society functions best when everybody is able to make decisions based on truths and not just on what the loudest voices in the room are saying. And this benefits us all.

Thus, while here, I encourage you to practice skepticism: don't believe anything you read unless you are convinced by factual statements supported by objective evidence. The goal here is to objectively analyze and either support or debunk information that has been presented (innocently or deceptively) as fact.