This piece in Agence Science Presse appears to be about the future of science journalism. If Google Translate is right, my place in that future appears to be in some type of shrubbery.
Perhaps someone who hasn’t forgotten quite so much of his or her high school French will understand what’s going on here.
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"Celebrated curiosity monger"
Carl Zimmer writes about science regularly for the New York Times and magazines such as Discover, where he is a contributing editor and columnist.
He is the author of twelve books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is blog at carlzimmer dot com .
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May 6th, 2009 at 1:57 am
We want… a SHRUBBERY!!
sorry I just had to.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Google translate is not always spot on.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:09 am
It is the third part of a interesting series on science journalism, and the translation is not that bad (nettles and all). And, as far as I understand, they say the journalism will disappear, but only as we know it. You’re quoted as the avant-garde of the future. You won’t lose your job.
I will 8-(
Marco Ferrari
May 6th, 2009 at 7:28 am
Hes talking about the way traditional investigative journalism (Woodward & Bernstein are the pair or ‘tandem” he refers to ) and the way you (CZ) used to describe science phenomena in pre internet days, are being replaced by multi-sided blog-comments type discussions on every issue. He uses one of ure blog-comments threads as an example of this new wave.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:04 am
WE WANT A … dang … Oded beat me to it!
It seems to me that as science becomes more and more specialized, the need for good science journalism can only increase.
May 6th, 2009 at 9:31 am
On fait une bonne soupe, ici, avec les ourties…
I would know…
More on the topic, I agree with what Eastwood says. There’s always space (and need) for good science journalism.
I guess that, rather than reading you on dead trees, we’ll read you on our Kindle/iPhone/Whatevertron…
I wouldn’t mind paying a subscription fee to an electronically accessible science journal.
I don’t now because I don’t have the time to read it. And I get Science and Nature delivered to the office door anyway… But back home, once have some toddlers able to read? Definitely.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I only have high-school French too, but it’s still sort of functional. I would translate that as “will perhaps have been thrown into the nettles”. Apparently that’s a French idiom but its meaning is pretty clear: something is thrown from a moving cart to the side of the road, and it lands in a place where it’s hard to get it out of.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I translate the passage, “No, journalism will not disappear, but in 30 years, helped by the indifference of journalists toward the changes in their medium, these three processes will have made so much progress that the model of journalism we cherish—from Watergate up to pre-Internet Carl Zimmer—may have been tossed into the weeds.”
The thing that astonishes me is how long the reporter thinks the process will take.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:55 am
But as to the translation: “The model of journalism that we cherish – from the Watergate duo to the pre-Internet Carl Zimmer – will have perhaps been tossed out the window.” Also, I hate to pour cold water on Sig. Ferrari, but the article concludes by suggesting that, a generation from now, “the science bloggers who, thirty years earlier, had scooped Carl Zimmer will seem like a very small vanguard.”
May 6th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Be grateful it isn’t German. You’re a room, there.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Since I’m a science journalist and a teacher in Quebec, I have reed this piece and the relfexion I have about it is this: ok, some scientifics bloging may publish more quickly then Zimmer or any other journalist. But do they have as much readers then the NYT does? Do they draw the agenda of the other medias of the country as the NYT does? I think we’re note quite there at this time. The science journalist play a role quite different from the one of the scientific who blog, on paper or on the Web.
May 7th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
s/nettles/wolves
May 8th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Nettles are non-woody and are therefore herbs not shrubs. Sorry. Had to get that off my chest.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Having grown up in East Texas where we have “stinging” nettles growing wild… It’s a kind of grassy herb that you don’t want to walk into while wearing shorts. Trust me, you don’t want to be “caught” in the nettles. Of course, the traditional thing to do in East Texas if you do find yourself being stung by nettles is to, and I kid you not, is to pee on yourself. It stops the stinging. lol!
January 17th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
http://www.nebsports.com/2008/01/31/nebraska-spring-game-to-be-played-april-19th/