People Like Science, Says The New York Times

Leaping Into The Unknown

BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner plummets toward Earth in a spacesuit during a test skydive. The grand attempt will be a jump from 120,000 feet.Jay Nemeth/Red Bull Content Pool

The New York Times published a little trend piece that argues "social media and science found each other in 2012." Evidence cited: there were scientific or science-related events that broke through to become part of the general public conversation, which includes Twitter and Facebook, like Felix Baumgartner's near-space jump and the Mars rover Curiosity's landing. And, yes, true! But we'd argue that social media is more a reflection of popular culture (with, yes, a slightly nerdy bent), and those events were easy-to-grasp, universally awesome things. Still, great to see more people talking about science. NYTimes