PHD Comics (Piled Higher and Deeper) #1174

The Science News Cycle

by Jorge ChamPublished: 18 May 2009License: © Jorge Cham

Why it lands

Drawn for science journalism, but every engineering organization runs the same cycle: a careful benchmark becomes "X is 3x faster" in a slide, then a rule nobody remembers the reason for. Follow the arrows and watch each step drop one more condition, until the result reaches your grandma as a reason to wear a tin-foil hat.

Transcript

THE SCIENCE NEWS CYCLE
Start Here
Your Research
Conclusion: A is correlated with B (ρ=0.56), given C, assuming D and under E conditions.
...is translated by...
UNIVERSITY PR OFFICE (YES, YOU HAVE ONE)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SCIENTISTS FIND POTENTIAL LINK BETWEEN A AND B (UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS).
...which is then picked up by...
NEWS WIRE ORGANIZATIONS
A CAUSES B, SAY SCIENTISTS.
...who are read by ...
THE INTERNETS
...then noticed by...
Scientists out to kill us again.
POSTED BY RANDOM DUDE
Comments (377)
OMG! i kneeew itt!! WTH???????
We saw it on a Blog!
A causes B all the time
What will this mean for Obama?
Cable NEWS
...and caught on...
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT "A"... CAN KILL YOU! MORE AT 11...
...eventually making it to...
YOUR GRANDMA
I'M WEARING THIS TO WARD OFF "A"
LOCAL EYEWITLESS NEWS
BREAKING NEWS BREAKING NEWS BREA

Credits

Original: The Science News Cycle — Jorge Cham, PHD Comics (Piled Higher and Deeper)
Image file: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd051809s.gif

The English page shows the original image unmodified. The Japanese page shows an adaptation by wtfe²: the lettering was erased from the art and replaced with a Japanese translation. The adaptation is shared under the same license as the original.