Author: Luca Segantini

I moved to Brussels from my native Milan in 2000. Best decision in my life. 4 children and a lovely wife, Valeria. More on us on www.segantini.net. I worked for 15 year for two global medical associations, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT). Now I consult for a variety of organisations, working as a digital nomad.

How to identify bad science

Most of us don’t have the deep understanding of science that is needed to discriminate between good and bad science. This applies to journalists too, which are also too frequently biased by the need to “sensationalise”, which boosts sales. So, it’s a deadly combination of uneducated readers that always look for the big and exceptional, and journalists that are often incompetent or under pressure to meet their audience’s interests.

The figure below gives an easy guide to help us distinguish what should just be junked from interesting reports of gound-breaking advances.

bad science

Giornali di un altro pianeta

Tratto da: http://www.francescocosta.net/2014/04/25/giornali-di-un-altro-pianeta/

di Francesco Costa

Sono stato qualche giorno in Inghilterra. Ho letto il Guardian di carta. Non ho scoperto niente di nuovo, figuriamoci, né per me né per gli altri, ma ne approfitto per mettere queste cose per iscritto, così da avere qualcosa a portata di mano quando capita che qualcuno mi chieda “esempi concreti” relativamente alla mediocrità della stampa italiana rispetto a quella degli altri grandi paesi occidentali. Parliamo in questo caso del Guardian di un giorno a caso: della copia che mi è rimasta nello zaino, per essere precisi (e sì, in Inghilterra ci sono i tabloid: ma non credo che i grandi quotidiani italiani vogliano essere paragonati al Sun – o pensino di fare il mestiere del Sun – bensì proprio al Guardian o al Times). Continue reading “Giornali di un altro pianeta” →

Why No One Goes to Naples

From the New York Times: http://ift.tt/1rimM0O

turistiSpring is here. In southern Italy, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the weather is balmy. Orange blossom fragrances mingle with wafts of jasmine. The food is good, the wine is inexpensive, the locals are friendly and beauty is all around. But where are the tourists?

The Amalfi Coast, south of Naples, is still a magnet for wealthy Russians and romantic Americans. Yet Naples itself is a tourist wasteland, and the rest of southern Italy is largely vacationer-free.

Only 13 percent of tourists who come to Italy go to the Mezzogiorno, as the south is known. The rest head for the center and north of Italy, or other Mediterranean countries altogether. German airports sent 223 flights to Spain’s Balearic Islands in one week last summer, and only 17 to southern Italy. Continue reading “Why No One Goes to Naples” →