"Large Magma Reservoir Get Bigger" writing about science

Yellowstone Article on Nature

This article from the Journal Nature explores a new revelation in science this week, that the super-volcano located beneath Yellowstone National Park is actually double the size than previously thought. I think that this article is a good one to look at the understand how journalists write about science, as I am planning on trying to write a science article in the coming weeks.

This first thing I think that is important to writing about science is making sure that the reader understands everything that is talked about. That may mean trying to explain complex topics on a more basic level than the scientists may be doing. The article does a good job at keeping concepts simple. When explaining the danger of earthquakes, for instance, the author does a good job about explaining the geologic forces involved in the moving of tectonic plates without it sounding to complex.

Another important part of writing a good science article is making it relatable. This article does that by using analogy to explain certain things. For instance, when talking about the massive magma tunnels under the ground, it relates it to a sponge. The magma flows through pockets that resemble the hollow parts of a sponge.

One more piece that is important for science articles is talking about the future of the research, and what exactly is left to be discovered. This article does a good job at explaining just how much there is to learn about this volcano, and how little knowledge of it we actually have.