Thanks to their vast underground fungus farms, leafcutter ants are one of Earth’s most successful species — and one secret of their agricultural success is bacteria, which the ants use like fertilizer. Full Story »
Posted by James Remeika
This is a textbook example of scientific journalism. It includes a readable, yet very informative summary of a published paper, commentary not only from the paper's authors, but unaffiliated experts in the field, and a report on the implications of this research outside of the academic community. In short, this article provides an excellent way for the public to learn about the state of the art in this particular corner of the scientific community.
This story highlights the essential role that journalists can and must play in science: allowing lay people to keep abreast of progress in the scientific community. This story does not bombard the reader with technical language, but it does not oversimplify the research either. Mr. Keim maintains the perfect balance of technical information and readability that is so badly needed in our public discourse. It may not seem like a story about ants is the kind of crucial information that every Americans needs to ingest, but no many national debates, most crucially climate change, are hugely technical issues that the media largely simplify down to a few quick talking points. In order to engage with an issue like global warming, people need to engage with the science that structures the debate on both sides. But that does not mean that only experts should participate. The media has a crucial role to play, translating scholarly publications and technical data into information that we can all absorb and react to. Brandon Keim has provided an excellent template for how his colleagues should proceed.