Popular Press vs. Scientific Article

Pitfalls of popular press articles verses the actual scientific article

I did a review of a popular press article called "Stanford researchers uncover link between two aging pathways" and a review of a scientific article called "SIRT6 links histone H3 lysine 9 deacetylation to NF-kB-dependent gene expression and organismal life span". I did this comparison to determine the differences in writing and the information that is given in each different type of article.
The difference between these two types of article was very noticeable, this was particular true in the amount of detail that was given for the findings the researchers had . For example the scientific paper went into a lot more detail about how the experiments where performed and what they found from each. While in the press article they don't even really mention how the researchers went about how the researchers went about determining the new finding on SIRT6. Another noticeable difference was seen in the way the finds could relate to humans. An example would be how in the popular press article they really emphasis the possibilities that SIRT6 could prevent aging and make people younger. While in the actual scientific article they really down play that aspect of research and emphasis more how the findings that SIRT6 regulates NF-kB gene are a novel finding.
These noticeable differences are really not surprising because of the different audience these two article are geared toward. For example the popular press article is much more for the general public, so it is meant to capture there attention and keep them interested. This is one of the reason I think that the popular press article really emphasis the possibility of preventing aging though the discovery that SIRT6 loss leads to an advanced aging phenotype. And this also explains why the popular press article really didn't delve into the actual scientific part because they wanted to keep there readers interested and able to understand there article. While the scientific article is meant more for technical readers to understand and see how they actually did there experiments. This is the reason the scientific article goes into so much more detail about how they went about there experiments and the conclusions they draw from each.
These two article clearly illustrate the difficulty that general writers have with trying to turn the discoveries by researchers into an exciting article that can both capture the public. And also give enough information so the public can understand and at the same time conveying the science in such a way that is true to the science.

References

Conger, Krista. (2009). Stanford researchers uncover link between two aging pathways. Stanford StoryBank. Retrieved from http://storybank.stanford.edu/stories/stanford-researchers-uncover-link-between-two-aging-pathways

Kawahara, T.L., Michishita, E., Adler, A.S., Damian, Mara., Berber, E., Lin, Meihong., McCord, R.A., Ongaigui, K.C., Boxer, L.D., Chang, H.Y., Chua, K.F. (2008). SIRT6 links histone H3 lysine 9 deacetylation to NF-kB-dependent gene expression and organismal life span. Cell 136, 62-74. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.10.052

Mark Devries
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last updated 1/22/09
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Devries Gen677-S09