We don't have to settle for television news any more. The Web makes it possible for ordinary folks to go beyond what reporters tell us. Now anyone can enter the privileged realm once restricted to scientists and the press.
When I worked at the U.S. Geological Survey, my desk was just around the corner from its great research library, known only by insiders. I spent many hours there browsing scores of journals and thousands of books and maps, giving my curiosity free rein. Often the authors of papers sat in the next building and would answer my questions. It was a superb postgraduate education—and something of that experience is available today to anyone on the Internet.
Science Magazines and the "Open Literature"
Major popular science magazines, like Scientific American and Science News, are all giving away content on the Web, either adapted from the print version or in online exclusives. Geotimes is a standout example in the geosciences. I have a list of these and more journals.
Primary science journals have been online for years. The American Geophysical Union, in fact, now considers the Web its official publication of record (though subscribers still get a paper journal). For a while, the Geological Society of America put the full contents of journals like Geology online. For the public this was a rare peek at the hard-core literature—something you might see only in a distant college library—and regular visitors to About Geology before 2001 got steered to some interesting reading. While the GSA has locked up the archives (except for GSA Today), you can still see the abstracts. Oddly enough, what's called the open literature is closed to the average Web user.
Digging Past the Journals and Journalists
But you can go beyond these sources using your favorite search engine. Here are some tips for digging out details that reporters miss.
- When you get wind of a news story, visit the Web site of the newspaper or TV station where you saw it. Often there will be extra background and links.
- Most stories are triggered by press releases, and several sites (I prefer EurekAlert) collect press releases.
- If you have a scientist's name and institution, visit the institution's site and look for the press office or news releases. If nothing is relevant there, look for the author's department home page—often each department has its own independent space for announcements. Don't forget the coauthors: in many cases their institutions prepare press releases too.
- Look on the author's own home page for a copy of the paper. Often what you see there is an earlier manuscript, not the final version. That's OK for most purposes. Again, look up the coauthors. I have found that a junior author, who may be a graduate student or simply someone more Web-savvy, is the jackpot.
- Many news stories arise from a talk given at a scientific meeting. In that case, the meeting's sponsoring organization may have its own set of press releases.
- A hidden bonanza lies in the abstracts of the talks, when they're online. You can locate the very talk that gave rise to the news story, in condensed scientific language, along with other presentations on the subject. It's a valuable glimpse of the frontier of science in the author's field, almost like being in the room. I gave some details of this last method in a 1997 article—and years later, the same abstracts are still online.
Blogs, Personal Sites and the Clear Literature
A growing amount of information comes direct from scientists themselves. The practice of authors putting up PDFs of their papers is almost routine these days. For an example, see Don L. Anderson's faculty home page at Caltech.
And of course there are blogs. Everyone else has them, even the Guides on About.com. Yet not many working geologists take the time to create or participate in blogs. Surely this will change with the generations. But a few climate change researchers have raised their voices in outstanding blogs such as Realclimate and Prometheus, because the times demand that they speak out. Other blogs are emerging, but many scientists have little taste for the low signal-to-noise ratio of so much online discourse.
A step beyond these online personal depots and blogs are group sites organized around a particular research program—what I call the clear literature. While they are run for the benefit of the scientists who contribute to them, the public can read and learn from them too.
With all these different ways to sleuth out information, you can drink your fill of knowledge. Whether you want to gain an edge or just amaze your friends, the Internet is your ally. Truly the Web is turning into a public version of that great library I once enjoyed.
PS: Of course, you won't start digging behind the news unless you see the news first. And for that, I recommend my list of the top ten Web sites for current geology news. It includes broadcasters, newspapers and a couple of Web-only sites.
