Science correspondent Joe Palca has won numerous awards, co-authored a book and worked at NPR for over 20 years. His ongoing series “Joe’s Big Idea” shies away from the latest science news headlines and focuses on people making new discoveries or inventions. Palca’s project is his way of showing the scientific process where results aren’t always immediate, and at time, there are none at all.
Joe's Big Idea counters what he refers to as the “news treadmill” that constantly spews out the latest scientific study or breakthrough. His series features a chemist who developed an iPhone app that scans for eye cancer to a Southern Californian rocker turned aerospace engineer who who led a team to the surface of Mars. Palca is changing the breaking news equation and telling scientists’ stories differently.
Having worked as a scientist before writing about it, Palca works to make science digestible for all audiences. Where is science headed? What can we glean about new advances in science? What are we gaining, or losing, by the media’s current approach to science reporting?
Guest:
Joe Palca, Science Correspondent, NPR