The Science Media Centre is not restricted to reacting to the headlines, and has helped scientists to more proactively set the agenda by bringing new science or evidence to journalists. This comes from our regular briefings, which take a variety of forms and cover a wide range of topics. Many are background briefings introducing journalists to the best experts and science on controversial issues like nuclear waste, nanotechnology, emerging diseases, or animal research, for example. They may also be news briefings where the SMC works with scientists to give the national media a new story on developments within science, whether it’s a report on climate change, a paper on stem cells being published in a leading journal, or science funding cuts in the latest budget. In addition, the SMC encourages leading experts to ‘speak out’ to the media about developments they believe may pose a threat to scientific research – not something science has been renowned for.
We hosted some of the experts involved in informing and advising on the NHS Test and Trace App – which … read more
A new study to be published in the Lancet Microbe assessed the sensitivity and specificity of a 90-minute COVID-19 test … read more
This week, Cochrane published an updated special collection of systematic and rapid reviews focused on a range of public health … read more
Improving livestock to boost food production for a growing global population is a long-standing aim. For the first time, scientists … read more
This briefing covered the latest report from the largest community coronavirus testing programme, REACT. The report includes swab tests carried … read more
The largest global study to date has mapped trends in vaccine confidence across 149 countries between 2015-2019, published in the … read more
As hospitals around the world are faced with an influx of patients with covid-19, there is an urgent need for … read more
As leading health officials sound the alarm over growing infection rates, the SMC brought together two of the leading experts … read more
Journalists heard from the co-chairs and commissioners of the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing … read more
The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital with severe disease is currently thankfully much lower than it was during the … read more
A meta-analysis of seven randomised controlled trials which looked at whether corticosteroids are effective in reducing deaths among people most … read more
Three new national studies will receive £8.4 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health … read more
The vast majority of reported COVID-19 cases in children are mild or asymptomatic, but occasionally children can become ill enough … read more
The performing arts has been badly affected during the coronavirus pandemic with live musical performances cancelled because singing was identified … read more
The Department for Health and Social Care and the Office for National Statistics made an announcement this morning about the … read more
The REACT-2 programme led by scientists at Imperial College London is a series of studies assessing a number of antibody … read more
The Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT-1) programme is the largest research project looking at viral spread across England. Part … read more
A modelling paper published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health looked at scenarios of how well test & trace … read more
Journalist’s had the chance to hear from some of the authors of a new preprint who have modelled various quarantine … read more
People from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities are nearly twice as like to die from COVID-19 as white … read more
