Many congratulations to Fiona Fox and her dedicated team of scientists at the Science Media Centre (SMC), which held its 10th anniversary at the Science Museum in London last night.
Several speakers at the event praised the SMC for improving the quality of science journalism in the UK, by working quickly to put journalists in touch with impartial experts when science-based news stories break.
A case in point is recent coverage of the research published by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini from CRIIGEN, which involved feeding rats with GM maize and roundup herbicide.
This had all the potential for becoming another sensational frankenfood, shock-horror story, particularly as the authors chose to publicise their research by issuing embargoed copies of the study direct to the media.
The story received balanced coverage, in the UK, partly due to the efforts of the SMC.
I will leave comment on the quality of the science to the independent experts advising EFSA (assuming that the authors of the research agree to share their data).
However, I do wonder why the authors chose to publish in the way they did and whether their aim was to stimulate a balanced rational debate. What do you think?