Inside Science strives to provide accurate, trustworthy news and information to its audiences, which include many nonscientists who are intrigued by the latest ideas and concepts in science. Recently, Inside Science has taken to setting the record straight on high-profile science-news items that often create misconceptions among people in the general public when they are reported on many mainstream media sites.
This month, Inside Science ran an item addressing recent science-news coverage suggesting that researchers had observed light acting like a particle and a wave at the same time. This notion of wave–particle duality is intriguing to many in the general public. However, Inside Science director Ben Stein pointed out in the item that a single photon of light cannot be observed as a pure wave and particle at the same time. Instead, the experiment simultaneously observed some photons acting like waves and others acting like particles. Inside Science obtained insights and perspectives directly from the original experimentalists themselves, as well as the University of Toronto physicist Aephraim Steinberg, another noted expert on this topic.
In just its first week, the piece has received more than 10,000 page views on the InsideScience.org website, more than 100 tweets on Twitter, and nearly 5,000 Facebook likes (many from Physics Today’s link to the item from their popular Facebook page). The piece even generated a follow-up story from the popular online news website Gizmodo, clarifying the actual observations of the experiment. Gizmodo writer Maddie Stone tweeted to Inside Science, “Thanks for helping to keep the science straight!”Inside Science also helped to clarify the facts on data from the BICEP2 gravitational wave experiment and the science concepts in the movie Interstellar. To view and subscribe to Inside Science content, we welcome you to visit InsideScience.org.
