Evaluation of New York Times Stories

In this post, I am going to evaluate science-related New York Times stories.

Dsarokin, "New York Times" 24 November, 2007. Public Domain.

For the science related article, “The Bugs Sharing Your Home,” there isn’t necessarily a main character; however the central characters in the story are arthropods. This article focuses on all of the different types of arthropods that can be regularly found in homes, having lived there for years without being noticed!

The specific events in the story take place in houses in Raleigh, N.C., where researchers collected several different arthropods that they could find. This is important to take into consideration because the story mainly focuses on how many arthropods can be found in family homes, not just anywhere.

There is no kind of disagreement or debate happening in this story; in my opinion, it was written as a way to raise awareness that yes, there are bugs everywhere in our houses-where we sleep and eat- but no, these bugs are not harmful pests. For most of our lives they go completely unnoticed. Scientists plan to find out more about bugs in homes in different places and how they are affected by climate and location.

For the health related article that I researched, “Monkeys Built to Mimic Autism-Like Behaviors May Help Humans.” The main characters are, as the title foreshadows, monkeys that have been genetically engineered to exhibit autistic behaviors. They are the center of the entire story because scientists are aiming to test different therapies on the monkeys in order to discover more about the disorder.

I am assuming the specific events in the story take place in China because the researchers are leaders of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai. However, there could be tests taking place all over the world. The setting for the actual research being done is a cage where the genetically engineered monkeys are observed and videotaped.

There is a debate over whether or not testing genetically engineered monkeys is worth the extreme expenses and time consumption. Some scientists believe it would be more beneficial to continue testing mice and observing more closely than to go through the troubles of testing monkeys. Other scientists believe that monkeys would help them better understand the disorder, thus making a possible cure or therapy more attainable.