The “copy and paste” of scientific press releases in the media is a scourge.

[Shishirgano9]

Sensational extrapolations are regularly backed by scientific projects. As in the case of "breakthroughs" announced in the fight against cancer, to the point of proclaiming the end of this disease. Announcements that immediately spread like wildfire on social networks. Beyond the media echo that they generate, these exaggerations most often do a disservice to science. Since they are not (always) confirmed, they undermine the public's trust in all scientists. Sometimes they are the work of scientists eager for notoriety - as perhaps in the case of genetically modified babies in China.

Most often, they result from increasingly bloated israel mobile database communication teams in scientific institutions, who offer very simplified summaries because they have to be understood by journalists who are less and less specialized. However, the complexity of science deserves to be tackled head on and explained. Even more so in the age of concision imposed by the digital age.

In science, “fake news” also exists and must be fought.

It is true that they are all the more difficult to spot and verify because they concern difficult areas. And to challenge them, you have to know the "manufacturing codes" of scientific knowledge. The damage caused by scientific "fake news" is all the more serious, as shown by the incessant but misleading debates on vaccination . Many editorial offices, particularly in new online media, are not or no longer able to decode this false information, and as a result serve as a sounding board for it.