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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged NASA

1. December 3, 2010 01:23 PM

   A Life Less Ordinary

   After speculation about aliens, arsenic-eating microbe stirs wide coverage

   By Curtis Brainard

   A bacterium trained to substitute arsenic for phosphorus—one of six elements considered essential for life—in some of its basic cellular functions is stirring widespread, high profile coverage. On Monday, a cryptic NASA press release about the research—embargoed by the journal Science until Thursday afternoon—led to wild speculation about the discovery of life beyond Earth. What the new finding actually suggests,...

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2. December 1, 2010 12:42 PM

   Close Encounters of the Media Kind

   NASA press release leads to wild speculation about alien discovery

   By Curtis Brainard

   Over the last two days, bloggers at a few of the country’s top news outlets have engaged in wild and wholly unsubstantiated speculation about the discovery of alien life. The runaway blogging stems from a cryptic press release issued by NASA on Monday, which said that the agency would be holding a news conference at 2 p.m. on Thursday “to...

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3. March 8, 2011 10:58 AM

   Microbes and the Media

   Burned in the past, journalists wary of astrobiology hype

   By Curtis Brainard

   Claims about extraterrestrial life are once again making headlines. Unlike a December incident involving an assertion about the discovery of arsenic-eating microbes in Mono Lake, however, journalists have treated the latest news with intense skepticism almost from the outset. On Friday, the Journal of Cosmology published research by NASA scientist Richard Hoover reporting that he had found fossils resembling bacteria...

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4. November 8, 2012 03:00 PM

   Obama and the environment

   Media react to the election with speculation, some insights

   By Curtis Brainard

   Journalists didn’t leave energy and the environment out of post-election speculation about what President Obama’s second term might look like. A lot of the commentary was a recitation of the ups and downs of Obama’s record during the first four years—from tightening vehicle fuel-efficiency standards to dropping a plan to reduce smog—and prognosticating about what the next four years could...

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5. December 7, 2010 05:07 PM

   The Right Place for Scientific Debate?

   Scientists snub media as controversy over arsenic-eating microbes rolls on

   By Curtis Brainard

   First there was the wild speculation about the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Then came widespread, sometimes misguided, coverage of the real news: discovery of a bacterium than can substitute arsenic for phosphorus, one six elements considered essential for life (which may, perhaps, expand the scope of humanity’s search for life beyond this planet). Now comes the third installment in the...

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