This week was packed with news stories and events that have implications for health care, research, funding, and science writing. Tuesday sparked two major discussions on Twitter. The first was regarding the speech given by Jonah Lehrer (former journalist at The New Yorker and science writer) at a media learning seminar for which he was paid $20,000 by the Knight Foundation. As explained by Scientific American, this speech was expected to be a sincere apology and explanation of his actions after being caught plagiarizing and fabricating quotes in his writing both at The New Yorker and in his books. Instead, the disgraced journalist proceeded to explain his actions in terms such as, “For some cognitive biases, being smart, having a high IQ, can make you more vulnerable to them.” Understandably, science writers took umbrage and started the hashtag #worth20K to highlight science writing and journalistic efforts worthy of being paid $20,000.
Scientists routinely give talks on original research at unis, schools & public events. Sometimes they get dinner. Sometimes not. #worth20k?
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) February 14, 2013
Excellent piece by @erinpodolak on why so many journalists were furious yesterday, and the one good thing: #worth20k sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/were-a… — Ben Lillie (@BenLillie) February 13, 2013
This brought up questions of professional ethics, and another hashtag that comes up when science and health collide #bioethics.
Twitter could be used to geo-track and determine the influence of various environmental factors on health bit.ly/12Gxk1O #bioethics
— Taub Health Sci Lib (@MLibraryHealthy) February 12, 2013
The great #obesity politics piece written by @helenwalls @stacymcarter. Follow both! #bioethics #publichealth #law newsatjama.jama.com/2013/02/14/jam…
— Ross D. Silverman (@phlu) February 14, 2013
Don’t Shoot the Messenger — Keeping Our Eye on the Real Meaning of the eLife-PubMed Central Scandal wp.me/pcvbl-7V0
— Scholarly Kitchen (@scholarlykitchn) February 12, 2013
The second major news event of Tuesday was the State of the Union (SOTU) Address. The importance of funding science and research initiatives was highlighted in the President’s speech and Twitter took a closer look at those issues. These tweets came from a variety of tags including #SOTU and #science.
Investing in Science, Reaping Rewards on.wsj.com/UwBGC3Excellent article on the human AND economic rewards of health care research.
— John Risner (@jwrisner) September 7, 2012
For reasons that Medical Research should be isolated from the sequester see: forbes.com/sites/matthewh… and washingtonpost.com/local/dumb-bud… — Bert Gold (@BertGold4) February 14, 2013
GEN | News Highlights:Obama Finds Support for Research Spending Plea genengnews.com/gen-news-highl… via @genbio #biotech #science — Karen Sharma (@sharma1) February 13, 2013
Join the crowd. Supporting science through crowdfunding. n.pr/UilXcU #science #crowdfunding by @joepalca — Malcolm M. Campbell (@m_m_campbell) February 14, 2013
Part of the conversation around SOTU focused on the Affordable Care Act and peeking out were some health and technology issues that showed up in #HealthIT.
New eJournal Looks to Synthesize Data from Clinical Research Projects is.gd/XzfZI3 #healthIT, — HITECH Answers (@HITECHAnswers) February 14, 2013
Social networks improve research, help patients with regimen adherence ow.ly/1Sd4fW #HealthIT #hcsm
— Michael Crosnick (@MichaelCrosnick) February 13, 2013
Use social media to advocate for primary care [VIDEO] http://youtu.be/oshS6kKsAaQ #hcsm — Kevin Pho, M.D. (@kevinmd) February 19, 2011
On the topic of health and technology, is this weekend’s #TEDxManhattan. TEDx are independently organized Technology, Education, and Design conferences based on the same format as the original TED conferences. The topic for this particular conference is “Changing the Way We Eat.” TEDxManhattan will be streamed via the internet, and live tweeted via the #TEDxManhattan and #TEDxMan hashtags.
3 days until #TEDxMan! Who are you most excited to hear? Tune in online on 2/16 from 10:30-5:30 EST: bit.ly/WJEFYg
— TEDxManhattan (@TEDxManhattan) February 13, 2013
Culinary Mindfulness: Something You Won’t Hear About At #TEDxManhattan – Forbes onforb.es/Vf0tze — Todd Essig (@ToddEssig) February 14, 2013
And if you want to chat about sustainable foods a little closer to home:
RT @mlibraryhealthy: Come this Friday to the Sustainable Food Careers Symposium from 9-4 in Rm 1040 in Dana Bldg .. fb.me/1SOyXoBIZ
— Taub Health Sci Lib (@MLibraryHealthy) February 14, 2013
[...] This guest post by Chris Bullin was originally published at the THL Blog: http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/hashtags-of-the-week-hotw-ethics-and-politics-week-of-febr…. [...]
[...] I originally wrote and posted this at the Taubman Health Sciences Library News Blog. [...]