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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

Reporting science controversies in China and ‘Oumuamua alien spacecraft claims

08 Nov 2018 James Dacey

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Chinese science journalist Xiaoxue Chen tells the story behind a much talked about science news service in China. Despite being only three years old, the Intellectual already has over a million followers on the microblogging site Weibo.com and over 900,000 followers on the social networking site WeChat. It has also won various awards including “Best Investigative Reporting” 2017 from the Chinese tech giant Tencent. Chen explains to Physics World journalist James Dacey why the Intellectual does not shy away from controversial stories – an approach that is not often seen in China.

Later in the episode, Dacey is joined by Physics World’s general physics editor Hamish Johnston to discuss the week’s news from the Physics World website. One of the more eye-catching stories is the suggestion by serious scientists at Harvard University that the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua could be a “light-sail” created by an alien civilization. There’s also a round-up of some of the medical and environmental news making the headlines this week.

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