Don't be fed by the trolls

[NHE]

Internet trolls are ruining science for everyone, study finds
http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-t ... 6579413121

TROLLS be warned. You're ruining science. And science is proving it.

A study released yesterday claims that every time you write "yawn, slow news day" or "THIS IS NOT NEWS" or "we should stop wasting tax payer dollars on these so-called 'scientists' because we all know they're just pointy headed communists", you're ruining the perception of whether these concepts should be studied in the first place.

In other words, if you're an anti-science troll, you're winning.

Researchers from the University of Wisconson-Madison analysed comments on blogs about nanotechnology – manipulating matter at an atomic and molecular level.

Nanotechnology has already been used to create more than 1300 consumer products. But the study found that name-calling in otherwise balanced reporting skewed the perceptions of the risks posed by fiddling on a molecular scale.

That translates into a danger of trolls being able to alter public perception of all sciences, researchers say.