315 Physicists
Report Failure in Search for Supersymmetry
In
1993 the New York Times ran a story with that headline. At the time I was a physics graduate student
working at Fermilab. We all thought it
was about the stupidest headline ever-that it revealed the chasm of
misunderstanding between journalists and scientists. Now I think the headline is pretty good (though I'm told the
writer regrets it and blames his editor).
Five years as a reporter has made me both more optimistic and
pessimistic about the journalistic enterprise than when I started. Come hear inside stories of two news rooms
(National Public Radio and Science Magazine) and why it sometimes seems 315
Journalists Fail to Report the Story Right.