PLoS ONE News and Blog Round-Up: 2010 in Review

This year PLoS ONE had a lot of interesting research covered in the media.  In fact, we had over 300 research articles receive substantial coverage from all over the world.  So I thought on the eve of the New Year, it might be nice to list a sampling of some of the most widely covered papers.  From new dinosaur discoveries to social networks predicting outbreaks, it was hard to choose but I narrowed it down to 25.  Starting from the most recently published papers and working backward, here is the list of some of 2010’s most extensively covered papers.

Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome by Ted J. Kaptchuk et al., had over 265 articles written on the paper. Some of that media coverage came from: The New York Times, TIME, NPR and Bloomberg.

The paper, Experimental ‘Jet Lag’ Inhibits Adult Neurogenesis and Produces Long-Term Cognitive Deficits in Female Hamsters, received media coverage from: Science 2.0, Time, The Globe and Mail, The Times of India, The Daily Mail, The Mercury News and AFP.

Key Steps in Developing a Cognitive Vaccine against Traumatic Flashbacks: Visuospatial Tetris versus Verbal Pub Quiz by Emily A Holmes et al., received media attention from: CNN, New Scientist, Not Exactly Rocket Science, LA Times, TIME, Network World, ABC News and PC Magazine.

Cannibalism in Tyrannosaurus rex by Nicholas R. Longrich, John R. Horner, Gregory M. Erickson and Philip J. Currie was covered by: CNN, Times of India, CTV, Herald Sun, Science Blog, Sify, LA Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg, The Guardian, AOLs, io9, Discovery News, Dinosaur Tracking, Into Oblivion and New Scientist.

Viewing Pictures of a Romantic Partner Reduces Experimental Pain: Involvement of Neural Reward Systems by Jarred Younger and colleagues, received coverage from: USA Today, TIME, CNN, Scientific American Observations, LA Times, Seattle PI, AOL News, Hindustan Times, BBC, The Press Association, WebMD, Scope, Visit Bulgaria, Disease of the Week, The Guardian and The MedGuru.

Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline received coverage from: PBS NewsHour, New York Times, The Telegraph, The Baltimore Sun, TIME, The New Yorker, New Scientist, Discover (blog), NPR, Science Blogs, CBS, Ars Technica, and Popular Science.

Scott Sampson and colleagues recently published their paper on two new horned dinosaurs found in southern Utah.  They received coverage from: CNN, The Guardian, National Geographic, Sify, RedOrbit, ABC 4, ScienceBlog, BBC , AFP, Mongabay, and Christian Science Monitor.

Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler’s manuscript, Social Network Sensors for Early Detection of Contagious Outbreaks received coverage from: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Los Angeles Times, MIT Technology Review, KPBS, Wired, Business Week and Science Now.

Homocysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial by David Smith et al., received worldwide coverage – with over 300 articles written on the paper. Some of the media outlets that covered the story included: CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, Xinhua, Time(blog), Times of India, Tehran Times, The Guardian, CTV, Seattle Times, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Telegraph and Reuters.

Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry Agroecosystems by John P. Reganold et al., was covered by Scientific American, USA Today, Technocrati, LA Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Science Friday.

Our PLoS ONE: Marine Biodiversity and Biogeography – Regional Comparisons of Global Issues collection which also received worldwide media attention.

A Sinister Bias for Calling Fouls in Soccer by Alexander Kranjec et al., during the month of the World Cup, was a big hit with the media. It was covered by C6-H12-O6, Dormivigilia, Duncan Hull, Research-digest blog, New York Times, Telegraph, U.S. News & World Report and a number of other places in many languages.

Quantifying the Performance of Individual Players in a Team Activity by Duch et al., was covered by Washington Post, National Geographic, Chicago Sun-Times, Forbes and MSNBC.

Choosing Organic Pesticides over Synthetic Pesticides May Not Effectively Mitigate Environmental Risk in Soybeans by Bahlai et al., was covered at CBC, GuelphNow, Alberta Express, Nutritional Blogma, Sify news, Phased and Journal Watch Online.

First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands by Pinhasi et al., received widespread coverage and it is impossible to collect all of the hundreds of links to all the articles and blog posts, so here is a more-or-less representative sample: Scientific American, National Geographic, Discovery News, Discover – 80beats, The Great Beyond, CNN and Huffington Post.

The article An Environment-Wide Association Study (EWAS) on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus by Patel et al., was covered in Diabetes.co.uk, Health Newstrack, The Money Times and San Jose Mercury News.

Ancient Nursery Area for the Extinct Giant Shark Megalodon from the Miocene of Panama by Pimiento, Ehret, MacFadden and Hubbell, was covered at Laelaps, Discovery News, Not Exactly Rocket Science and Toronto Sun.

First Person Experience of Body Transfer in Virtual Reality by Slater et al., was covered by ScienceNews, LiveScience, Discovery News, CBS News and New Scientist.

Bee Threat Elicits Alarm Call in African Elephants by King et al., was covered in Science NOW, Wired, TreeHugger, BBC, Disney Parks blog, Thaindian News and Vancouver Sun.

Raltegravir Is a Potent Inhibitor of XMRV, a Virus Implicated in Prostate Cancer and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Singh et al., was covered by Virology blog, Scientific American blog, Salt Lake Tribune and Xinhua.

Laetoli Footprints Preserve Earliest Direct Evidence of Human-Like Bipedal Biomechanics by Raichlen et al. was reported at Washington Post, Scientific American blog, BusinessWeek, Laelaps and Wired Science.

The Alzheimer’s Disease-Associated Amyloid β-Protein Is an Antimicrobial Peptide by Soscia et al, was covered by New York Times Health Feed, Business Week, Suite101, Scientist Live, Alzheimer’s Reading Room and Neurophilosophy.

The article Optimal Waist-to-Hip Ratios in Women Activate Neural Reward Centers in Men by Steven M. Platek and Devendra Singh was irresistible to the media. It was covered widely, some outlets included Herald Sun, Times of India, Telegraph, New York Daily News and ZME Science.

The article Analysis of the Putative Remains of a European Patron Saint–St. Birgitta received coverage from: Register, Gene Expression, Monsters and Critics, A Very Remote Period Indeed and ScienceBlog.

The Extent of the Preserved Feathers on the Four-Winged Dinosaur Microraptor gui under Ultraviolet Light by David Hone et al., was covered by The Open Source Paleontologist, Dinochick Blogs, Smithsonian’s Dinosaur Tracking and Dracovenator.

Images from top to bottom: PLoS ONE e15267,  e13706, e12948, e11871, e10984, e10564, e9769 and e8986