I DONT WANT TO SEE THE PICTURES - SCIENCE WRITING AND THE VISIBILITY OF ANIMAL-EXPERIMENTS

The use of animals in research and development is one of the areas of science (human reproductive research and technology is perhaps another ) where the fact that current practices are sanctioned in legislation does not prevent them from being controversial. This article examines the visibility of this issue in terms of the way science writers and s cientific research papers report research that involves animals. Three journals with a scientific readership (Nature, Science, and New Scien tist) and two journals with a mixed scientist/nonscientist readership (The Economist and The Times Higher Education Supplement) were examine d. I have looked at the frequency of reports, the amount of experiment al detail given, and the use of language, illustrations, and humor. Co mmon features of these reports are the paucity of detail about the pro cedures carried out on the animals, their welfare and living condition s, and the numbers of animals used. However, there are significant dif ferences between the journals with a ''scientist'' readership and thos e with a ''mixed'' readership in their readiness to debate the moral i ssue involved in human uses of animals. From these data the conclusion can be drawn that public debate might be improved by increasing the v isibility of the animals themselves in reports of research involving t heir use.