The tools of the trade used at COSMOS to get that all important perspective provided by authors and experts alike.

One of the things you may notice about COSMOS articles is that there is always at least one independent expert for each story. These experts are there to provide an unbiased perspective on the research, ensuring that underneath the buzz and spin is a solid foundation of science. It’s part of a commitment to journalistic integrity and something that I find quite admirable. Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy to get these comments, as recently vented by Oli in his blog about not receiving any useful replies from his email enquiries.

Silent experts are one thing, but sometimes the problem is an expert or author that is really excited to share their work. Their words tumble over each other, sentences are broken off half way as a new fascinating thought occurs to them, and segues into completely foreign concepts are rife. It’s like being the horse whisperer, except instead of keeping a horse from bolting, you’re keeping a scientist on topic and speaking in language that can be communicated to the public.

The fact that scientists are often so keen to share their work certainly isn’t a bad thing, far from it. I’ve been amazed at the willingness of researchers from around the world to dedicate time to answering our questions.

Having said that, there have been occasions when I’ve had a really fascinating, rambling conversation with a researcher, tapping out pages of notes throughout, only to hang up the phone and realise that I have absolutely nothing I can use in an article. It seems to be more of an art than a science, using such conversational techniques as “Going back to what you said earlier…” or “Do you think you could explain that in simpler terms?” or, when things get desperate, “Please just give me a sound bite, please, I’m begging you.” The difficulty is that usually the off-topic stuff they are talking about really is interesting, and I often have to reign my own curiosity back in to make sure I ask the questions I need to ask to get the article written.

Perhaps one day we’ll have the time, staff, and technology to provide full virtual interviews with scientific personalities, each of them trained in the art of condensing their research into beautiful, bite-sized snippets of information that can be effectively communicated to the public with no contextualisation needed. Or maybe a T.V. channel dedicated to communicating science? I can see it all now: a hit series of ‘Keeping Up With The Gravitons’, or perhaps ‘The Neil deGrasse Tyson Show’ where everyone looks under their seats and finds grant money for new and exciting experiments.

Sadly, that future will stay a dream. In the meantime I’ll keep calling up experts and authors in search of that one perfect quote.

~ Phill