During the pandemic, we turned to our leaders for updates on the rapidly worsening, unprecedented situation.
As days turned to weeks, and the sick lined up outside city hospitals, we craved information. But much of it was in the unfamiliar language of virology and immunology, public health and epidemiology.
In those early days, politicians and government officials who'd never heard terms like "cytokine storm" and "RNA virus" were suddenly charged with explaining what was happening. Thankfully, informed voices emerged. Experts regularly held zooms with science journalists, providing technical updates that we used to inform our articles, blog posts, podcasts, and other means of communication.
"Do Your Own Research" Fuels Science Illiteracy
COVID reawakened the mantra DYOR: do your own research. According to AI, it isn't new:
"The phrase 'do your own research' seems ubiquitous these days, often by those who don't accept 'mainstream' science (or news), conspiracy theorists, and many who fashion themselves as independent thinkers. On its face it seems legit. What can be wrong with wanting to seek out information and make up your own mind?'"
But doing "research" by choosing what to read, watch, or listen to, is not at all the same as the research that scientists do. We don't pay attention only to the data that support our hypotheses – science is more about rejecting hypotheses, thinking more, and devising new experiments to investigate something in nature. Science is about data, not "content."
To continue reading, go to DNA Science, where this post first appeared.