Science in the media

• Steve Jones (e.g. The Language of the Genes) on "HYPE": is he right to blame scientists rather than media (both could gain from hype).
• Prometheus: "I caused mortals to stop foreseeing doom. I placed them in blind hopes." (quoted in Wilson, 1979).
• What makes people gullible re: science + medicine?
• Real scientific explanations often seem simple and elegant to those that discover them, because they already know the background. e.g. formation of vesicles is simple & elegant process, but existance of cellular and molecular biology itself is counter to common sense.
• Alties exploitation of this: invent incredible problem and provide a simple & elegant cure.
• Joke from Radio 4 re: walking apples. Joke seems absurd, but many real aspects of science are absurd to the layman.
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1564369,00.html
• A lot of readers of science columns already have knowledge of science so dumbing down looses more readers than it gains.