{"id":364872,"date":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364872\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","slug":"hundreds-of-scientists-back-all-ireland-service-to-tackle-misinformation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364872\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of scientists back all-Ireland service to tackle misinformation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists in Ireland fear misinformation and AI-generated content<\/a> will undermine knowledge and understanding among the public and politicians. <\/p>\n

These issues, and climate change, dominate their concerns as they face the challenge of communicating important scientific issues in the immediate future. They were highlighted in a survey of 350 scientists and researchers who have joined the all-Ireland Science Media Centre, a non-profit organisation set up to provide free expert analysis for news outlets. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo when stories break, evidence and expertise are part of the conversation from the very beginning and not correcting after the fact,\u201d said chairwoman Claire Mac Evilly. <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s is the eighth Science Media Centre after the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, Taiwan and Korea. <\/p>\n

The original in the UK formed after the furore around research, later discredited, linking the MMR vaccine to autism, and the so-called Frankenstein food controversy that blew up over genetically modified seeds. Scientists found they were trying to provide explanations after misinterpretations had already taken a firm hold in public and political debate. <\/p>\n

Funded by universities and research institutes, the centre holds a database of experts who volunteer to provide rapid reaction, in-depth analysis or previews of upcoming issues depending on the subject and circumstances. <\/p>\n

The all-Ireland centre, which has run on a pilot basis for the past two years, has now been formally established and given a base at Airfield Estate farm and gardens in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Dr Sin\u00e9ad Waters of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at University of Galway<\/a>, told a gathering to mark its launch that scientists were often reluctant to talk to media and feared being misquoted by non-expert journalists but the Science Media Centre removed those concerns.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Deliberate attempt\u2019 to undermine science over Lough Neagh crisis, minister warnsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She converted to the idea when asked for input into a row that erupted in Britain last year over the use of feed additives that reduced greenhouse gas emissions from cows. <\/p>\n

Once word got out that a co-op that supplied large supermarket chains was going to trial the additive, the reaction was instantly negative. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was videos on Twitter [now X]<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> of people pouring milk down the sink and saying I\u2019m not going to touch this because this feed additive causes male infertility,\u201d Waters said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said [Microsoft founder] Bill Gates was behind this. There was a huge amount of misinformation circulating.\u201d <\/p>\n

The row dissipated after multiple news outlets carried explainers gathered by the Science Media Centre to debunk the wilder theories. <\/p>\n

The experts who signed up to the all-Ireland centre told a survey on joining they believed a similar service was needed on the island. <\/p>\n

A quarter of them said they believed scientific issues were reported poorly in Irish media while just over half said coverage was \u201caverage\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists in Ireland fear misinformation and AI-generated content will undermine knowledge and understanding among the public and politicians.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,6116,6606,5761,606],"class_list":["post-364872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-tiktok","tag-twitter","tag-university-of-galway","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}