The Observatory

Synthetic Biology Still Not a Story

Americans know little about the emerging field, poll finds

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 6, 2009 at 02:15 PM

According to a recent poll, Americans know very little about synthetic biology, which seeks to genetically engineer new forms of... More

Grantham Prize Seminar To Honor Air Pollution Series

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 2, 2009 at 12:28 PM

Anybody in or around Washington, D.C. on Monday should check out the fourth annual Grantham Prize Seminar on the State... More

Green Rankings a Means, Not an End For Journalists

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 28, 2009 at 04:24 PM

Are you invested in a dirty company? If you work for the state of New York and plan to draw... More

Are Americans Wild Enough?

Ken Burns’s documentary and the debate over how much nature we need

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 25, 2009 at 06:20 PM

On Sunday evening PBS will air Ken Burns’s much anticipated documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. News outlets and... More

Sidebar: The New Energy Beat

Our Web-only list of the energy sites journalists need to know

By Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell   Sep 24, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Energy Journalism All Green To Me: An eclectic energy and environment Web site from The News Journal in Wilmington,... More

Newsweek Ranks 500 Greenest Companies…

But shills for Big Oil in the process

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 22, 2009 at 06:45 PM

The press’s latest attempt to quantify and categorize the environmental track records of myriad businesses attempting burnish their eco-credentials is... More

MinnPost.com Launches “Science Agenda”

Newcomer outlet picks up the slack left by MSM

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 18, 2009 at 04:43 PM

On Thursday, I wrote about a group of thirty-five research universities that have launched a “newswire” called Futurity.org to showcase... More

Is Futurity the Future?

Citing a lack of science coverage, universities launch their own “newswire”

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 17, 2009 at 04:52 PM

Citing the decline of science coverage in the mainstream news media, thirty-five of the country’s top universities have banded together... More

Science Needs a Storyline

The question is not if, but how scientists should frame their research

By Matt Nisbet, Dominique Brossard, Dietram Scheufele   Sep 16, 2009 at 11:22 AM

Journalists choose an angle for every story they write. Should scientists do the same when explaining the import of their... More

From Hudson to 9/11

Times smartly pairs two lower-Manhattan anniversaries

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 11, 2009 at 04:26 PM

Remember remember the month of September. So says a smart tribute in today’s New York Times, pairing the eighth anniversary... More

Research, Not Relations…

Why scientists should leave communications to the pros

By Earle Holland   Sep 9, 2009 at 04:58 PM

A piece in The Observatory last week lamented the fact that Rajenda Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on... More

EPA Targets Major Emitters

Journal sees an admission that limiting carbon will be costly

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 4, 2009 at 11:41 AM

The Environmental Protection Agency sent a “tailoring rule” to the White House for consideration on Saturday that would limit regulation... More

When Kennedy Didn’t Compromise

Lessons from the senator’s early health reform failure

By Cristine Russell   Sep 1, 2009 at 10:17 AM

I join the chorus of those who have long admired Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s remarkable Senate career and his persistence... More

Can Science Be “Humanized?”

Or is democracy doomed, Harper’s wonders

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 31, 2009 at 09:38 AM

There is a hauntingly dystopian headline in the September issue of Harper’s Magazine: “Dehumanized: When math and science rule the... More

Media Hype Swine Flu Report

Coverage of possible death toll ranges from wrong to remedial

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 26, 2009 at 12:58 PM

On Monday, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a report (pdf) about the possible impact of... More