Fighting Global Misinformation, Ditching Plastic Bottles, and Hunting with an Octopus

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the United Nations General Assembly, host Rachel Feltman interviews Melissa Fleming, the U.N.’s undersecretary-general for global communications, on how misinformation and distrust in science are impacting global well-being. Plus, we note caveats to a major social media study and explain how food packaging can be harmful to the environment and human health. Recommended reading: Why It’s So Hard to Recycle Plastic https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-its-so-hard-to-recycle-plastic/ How Deadly Is Mpox, What Vaccines Are Effective, and Other Questions Answered https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-deadly-is-mpox-what-vaccines-are-effective-and-other-questions-answered/ 61 Unexpected ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found in Food Packaging https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/61-unexpected-pfas-forever-chemicals-found-in-food-packaging/ E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Melissa Fleming, undersecretary-general for global communications at the United Nations. Our show is edited by Anaissa Ruiz Tejada with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.
0:05.8	Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years. Yacold also
0:11.5	partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for
0:16.6	gut health, an investigator-led research program. To learn more about Yachtold, visit yacult.co.com.j, that's y-A-K-U-L-T-C-O-J-P.
0:28.3	When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.
0:44.2	Happy Monday, listeners, and happy autumn. I hope you're enjoying some lovely crisp sweater weather wherever you are right now. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel
0:48.7	Feldman. You're listening to our weekly science news roundup. But before we get into some of the science stories you might have missed last week,
0:57.1	we've actually got a special little segment to share with you.
0:59.6	So let's just dive right in.
1:04.2	The Scientific American Multimedia Team spent part of last week at the General Assembly of the United Nations.
1:09.8	We were hanging out to hear updates
1:11.4	on the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And I got to chat with UN Undersecretary General for
1:17.0	Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, who shared her thoughts on how misinformation and
1:21.4	distrust in science are impacting global well-being, plus what we can do about it. Here's our
1:26.5	conversation. Melissa, thanks so much for taking the time to chat. It's great can do about it. Here's our conversation.
1:30.7	Melissa, thanks so much for taking the time to chat. It's great to be with you.
1:35.5	What's your sense of how public trust of science has changed in recent years?
1:42.8	Well, I think with the rise of social media and the potential for anyone to claim to know science or to communicate science, it's really in trouble because science can be
1:49.7	uncomfortable, especially when it relates to a global pandemic and you're having to give guidelines
1:55.5	to people who don't want to receive it or around climate, for example, and actions that people are afraid to take.
2:03.3	So it's easier for certain actors to say, hashtag climate scam and climate change isn't real
2:11.4	than it is for a scientist to say, yes, man-made climate change is real.
	...

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