Narrowing My Focus

In this post, I will post a three questions from my previous blog post that I feel are most important to answer before starting on Project 3.

Melki, Serge, "The narrow streets of Barcelone." 03/06/09 via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution License.

Question 1: Outside of the scientific experts and researchers, what notable people are getting involved in this controversy?

Because of the scientific nature of this controversy, I feel that it is important to understand the scope of the controversy outside of the scientific community. While it is no surprise to me that scientific experts and researchers are taking part in the conversation about this controversy, I am interested to see what types of people without scientific backgrounds are taking an interest in this affair. This will help me understand the broader scope of this controversy.

Question 2: Did this study remain confined to the scientific community at first, or did it immediately become a part of mainstream media?

This question relates to my first question in that it is again looking particularly at this controversy from a nonscientific perspective. This question interest me because the controversy did seem to gain some mainstream attention, according to my research for Project 1. By researching this question, I hope to understand exactly how this happened, and if there was a block of time during which the debate was confined to the scientific community.

Question 3: Have similar studies occurred recently that have sparked this sort of debate?

When I was conducting my research for Project 1, I narrowed my focus to one particular study that recently occurred in China. However, this question is aimed at understanding more of the context surrounding this study. I think it will be interesting to learn if there are other studies that have occurred, which have sparked similar debates. If this study is the only one of its kind, it would give me a different perspective on the controversy as a whole.