On Monday I hosted the July cafe scientifique at the Royal Institution as usual. This month we were talking about science journalism and science. We had two panel speakers, Mark Henderson of the Times, and Gareth Mitchell from BBC radio. (We also had Alex Mansfield, someone I worked with at the beginning of the year on the Letter to Darwin radio programme, in the audience.)

It was a nice discussion, the journalists arguing that accuracy of reporting was the only way to maintain a reputation and hence sales. But it was revealed that, as in politics, the number of science degrees was exceedingly low in journalism. I'm biassed of course, but wouldn't it be nice if those who set policy or communicated on a topic actually had some background in the area?

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