Vera Novais is a science journalist in Portugal. She’s a staff writer for Observador and a freelancer for international news media. Vera writes about any science topic but usually works on life sciences, health, astrophysics and scientific policy. Her favourite assignments are related to debunking misinformation about science, health and nutrition. Vera Novais is the President of the Portuguese science communication association SciComPt, and she often collaborates with the World Federation of Science Journalists. Vera sees as her mission to help fellow science journalists and to contribute to the improvement of science journalism and science communication.
Contributor: Vera Novais
Mala Rao: ‘The eco-anxious should have access to information on how to contribute to climate action’
Mala Rao is Professor and Senior Clinical Fellow, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, and Medical Adviser, NHS England Workforce Race Equality Strategy and Implementation Team. How can climate change have an impact on mental health? Mala Rao: There are several direct and indirect pathways by which the climate crisis impacts ...
Climate anxiety and young people
Young people are worried about climate change. Negative emotions can disrupt rest, which in turn can affect their mental health. However, climate anxiety can also drive young people to act. There is no way to prevent young people, even children, from knowing what is happening with the world. It's on the news, it's discussed in ...
Katariina Salmela-Aro: ‘Climate anxiety is like a silver lining, it’s a driving force to do something’
Katariina Salmela-Aro is Academy Professor in the Department of Education and Supervisor for Doctoral Programme in Cognition, Learning, Instruction and Communication at the University of Helsinki, Finland. I view the concepts of climate anxiety and eco-anxiety as interchangeable. Are we talking about the same thing? Katariina Salmela-Aro: I would say that they are quite similar. ...
Dr. Bernardo Mateiro Gomes: “Don’t trust anyone who says that he or she knows everything and has no doubt”
Interview with Dr. Bernardo Mateiro Gomes, Public Health Doctor and Public Health Specific Training Advisor with an interest in Infectious Diseases, Mental Health and One Health. When you counter science or health misinformation, do you see yourself as a fact checker or more as a promoter of quality information? Bernardo Mateiro Gomes: I prefer to ...
Quality information given by experts is like a vaccine against falsehoods
Scientists and experts should be available to communicate with the media, or their spot will be taken by false experts. But providing more information to the audience can also have a negative side effect: overconfidence.
Joana Gonçalves de Sá: “Mitigate the misinformation pandemic by ‘vaccinating’ the susceptible individuals first.”
Joana Gonçalves de Sá is an Invited Associate Professor at the Physics Department of Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, and was the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant to study human behaviour using the online spread of ’fake news’ as a model system. Disinformation and misinformation are not a new problem, so why did ...
A scientist’s opinion : Interview with Susanne Kuger about School & Covid-19
Interview with Susanne Kuger, head of the Department of Social Monitoring and Methodology at the German Youth Institute. She is a psychologist by training, with a special interest in cognitive and applied developmental psychology. Susanne Kuger is a fellow in the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research, jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and ...
A scientist’s opinion : Interview with Lisa Ferland about School & Covid-19
Interview with Lisa Ferland, epidemiologist and part of the COVID-19 surveillance and response team as an Interim Surveillance Expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). She comes from the US but lives in Sweden. In addition to her academic background in public health, statistics and information science, Lisa has written a ...
