John Bohannon
John Bohannon is a biologist and science journalist based at Harvard University. He writes for Science, Discover Magazine, and Wired Magazine, and frequently reports on the intersections of science and war. After embedding in southern Afghanistan in 2010, he was the first journalist to convince the US military to voluntarily release civilian casualty data.[1] He received a Reuters environmental journalism award in 2006 for his reporting on the water crisis in Gaza.[2] He was also involved in some controversy over an article he wrote critiquing the Lancet survey of Iraq War Casualties.[3]
At Science Magazine, Bohannon also adopts the "Gonzo Scientist" persona, where he "takes a look at the intersections among science, culture, and art -- and, in true gonzo style, doesn't shrink from making himself a part of the story. The stories include original art and accompanying multimedia features."[4] As the Gonzo Scientist, Bohannon's research on whether humans can tell the difference between pate and dog food led to Stephen Colbert eating cat food on the Colbert Report.[5]
Bohannon created the Dance Your PhD competition, in which scientists from all around the world interpret their doctoral dissertations in dance form. Slate Magazine ran a profile on Bohannon and the competition in 2011.[6] He performed with the Black Label Movement dance troupe at TEDx Brussels in November 2011, where he satirized Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal by modestly proposing that Powerpoint software be replaced by live dancers.[7] Bohannon then went on to perform with Black Label Movement at TED 2012 in Long Beach.[8]
He discussed his life and career in an interview with Peter Shea in 2010.[9]
In September 2013, he submitted a fake scientific article to every fee-charging open-access publisher, revealing that less than 40% were living up to their promise of rigorously peer-reviewing what is published.[10]This approach was criticized by many commentators, who complained that his sting only targeted one type of open-access journal and no subscription-based journals, damaging the reputation of the open access movement. [11][12][13][14]
References
- ↑ "Afghan Civilian Casualties Database Appears in Unexpected Place". Science | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour. PBS. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ Kathy Wren (2011-03-10). "News Release - "SCIENCE Exclusive: Civilian Casualties Rising in Afghanistan Conflict"" (Press release). AAAS. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- ↑ "Science/AAAS | Collections: Online Extras | The Gonzo Scientist". Sciencemag.org. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ "Stephen's Fancy Feast - The Colbert Report - 2009-11-05 - Video Clip". Colbertnation.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ Haglund, David (2011-10-20). "Dance Your Ph.D.: winners of the annual interpretive dance contest for scientists.". Slate.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ John Bohannon (2011-11-30). "TED Blog | Dance vs. powerpoint, a modest proposal". Blog.ted.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ "John Bohannon + Black Label Movement | Profile on". Ted.com. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ↑ http://ias.umn.edu/2010/04/22/bohannon-john/
- ↑ "Who does Peer Review?".
- ↑ Michael Eisen. "I confess, I wrote the Arsenic DNA paper".
- ↑ Martin Eve. "Flawed sting operation singles out open access journals".
- ↑ Peter Suber. "New "sting" of weak open-access journals.".
- ↑ Shieber, Stuart. "Lessons from the faux journal investigation". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 20 October 2013.