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This post was published on 14/08/08 in Science.

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  1. Comment by Lee Rudolph, 15/08/08, 11:53:

    “But controlling the spread of diseases with equations? That takes a combination of nerdiness and hubris that I’ve not seen on any menu.”

    Blame it on the author of the MITACS press release, http://www.mitacs.ca/ CMS/ asset/ 143_2008-8-12-8-46-37_AfricaSummerSchool_FINAL_August12,2008. pdf , whose lede ends “how to control the spread of infectious diseases using equations and formulas”, and on whoever it was at Canada Press that rewrote the press release into something even more hubristic.

    The word “control” *does* appear inside quotation marks attributed to a mathematician in the press release: “The goal of this workshop is to equip these math students with the research skills so that they will be in a position to play integral roles in the control of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.” Rather less hubristic, eh?

    But, as they say in the trade, the reason mathematicians aren’t allowed to write their own press releases is that they’d rather be correct than interesting.

    The pity is that so many journalists, including far too many of those whose beats are science, technology, and medicine, would rather (try to) be interesting than (strive to be) correct.

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