Mike Emanuele    10/16/16

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing 220 words

The Importance of a public facing science writing piece is to convey an event in the science community to the members outside it. Science writing authors can interpret lab reports of data and discoveries inside the scientific world, into translation for the general public. “Unusual bird-human partnership runs even deeper than scientists thought” by  Elizabeth Pennisi is an exceptional example of public facing science writing. The article discusses the mutual relationship between African honey hunters and the breed of bird “the greater honey guide.” According to the article, the honey hunters make special bird calls, resembling a trill grunt, that in response to the call these birds will guide the hunters to nests. The article continues by providing the results of experimentation and anecdotes from several researchers to support its claim. This helps readers understand the substance of the results.

What the article fails at is connecting the “why is this important to us” idea. It only briefly wrapped it up in a sentence. However, some readers could use their imagination as to what could come of the findings. But, I believe the author could include at least a few ideas within reason considering her resources and time invested into the subject. Otherwise, the piece successfully explains to the reader a science experiment simple enough for large portion of readers to understand it.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/unusual-bird-human-partnership-runs-even-deeper-scientists-thought