Examples of Disclosure Articles

Disclosure article

The scientific dissemination is the interpretation of scientific knowledge in such a way as to make it accessible even to people who do not have a deep training in the subject to be transmitted.

The divulgation deals not only with the latest discoveries and advances in the various scientific disciplines, but also of the theories that have been in force for centuries, such as the theory of evolution, or the various natural laws.

Scientific dissemination can be done through television, radio or written media such as magazines and books. Popular magazines can be specialized in an area of ​​science (for example, history) or include various disciplines, such as Popular Science magazine or Muy Interesting.
Both books and popular magazines differ from academic publications in their language, that it is accessible to people who are not specialists or have scientific training.

On the other hand, popular articles are not usually as rigorous in citing sources and explaining the experiments carried out. This is because, unlike academic publications, they are not directed at other scientists who may want to continue research.

To explain scientific discoveries or theories, popular articles may use visual materials such as photographs, explanatory charts, and tables.

The academic articles they usually include an abstract that summarizes their content. Similarly, popular articles make a brief summary in the cap (like a newspaper article) or in the first paragraph of the article.

Scientific dissemination is usually directed at adults. However, there are also some publications for children.

Some scientific institutions have their own means of dissemination, such as bulletins, programs and news.

The title of these disclosures often takes an attractive form, highlighting mysteries, discoveries and advances.

Examples of popular articles

1. Mysterious star loses its shine

The Tabby star is known in the scientific community as KIC 8462852. This mysterious star, located in the constellation of the Swan, has surprised astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with its strange behavior.

As early as 2015 a team of astronomers announced that the star had experienced a series of brief events of attenuation, not periodic but random, while it was being monitored by the Kepler space telescope of The NASA. However, these attenuations in its brightness could never be explained.

Currently astronomers Josh Simon and Ben Montet from Caltech showed that in addition to rapid changes in brightness without apparent explanation, the star has also been slowly and steadily darkening over the four years you've been observing it Kepler.

In total, the star's brightness has gradually decreased to 14% from 1890 to 1989.

“The constant brightness change on KIC 8462852 is quite amazing. Our high-precision measurements over more than four years show that the star actually gets weaker over time. This is unprecedented and we don't see anything quite like it in the Kepler data, ”explains Montet.

1. The inventors of molecular machines win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists Jean Pierre Sauvage, from the University of Strasbourg (France), James Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University (USA) and Bernard L. Feringa, from the University of Groningen (Holland) for “the design and synthesis of molecular machines”, The smallest machines in the world (1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), as published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

These investigations imply a significant advance for chemistry since it has been possible to control the movements of molecular systems. This will also allow the development of new materials, sensors and new energy storage systems.

1. Popular article for children: Life on Earth

There are thousands of organisms in the soil! Many of them are too small and can hardly be seen with the naked eye. However, its functions are very important to sustain life that emerges from the earth. For example, the roots of plants, worms and rodents build channels that allow the circulation of air, water, gases and all the nutrients they carry.

1. The importance of adolescence for the development of intelligence

A work published by the Wellcome Trust Center of the University of London argues that adolescence is of key importance for intellectual development in adult life. The study involved 33 women and 14 men who took verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests, in addition to undergoing a series of brain scans. Four years later the same subjects underwent further tests.

The results obtained indicated changes in the Intellectual Coefficient (IQ) in 39 percent of individuals and changes in intellectual performance in 21 percent.

An increase in verbal IQ could be related to an increase in the density of a part of the cerebral cortex related to speech.