Life is hard when you're cutting edge. Coming up with a good topic and title for a Science 2.0 article is not easy. Today I tried to conceive of a unique and insightful piece about a little-talked about topic. Specifically, the topic of the last space shuttle flight, which just occurred today.
But what title could really capture this epic yet unreported event? 'The Day America Cried'? Or maybe 'The Day America Shrugged', or perhaps 'The Day America Clicked on FB for, like, the 50th Time Today' might work better. But perhaps that issue itself is too niche. In the end, I abandonded that topic in favor of a new article. But what to write about?
A good headline should tease and lure the reader in. Here is the top 11 headlines that I rejected.
11) Time to Rebuild Apollo From Shuttle Parts
10) The Science Behind Transformers 1&3 but Not 2
9) Tomato Cosmetics: What I Don't Know
8) Since Saying the Higgs Works for Tommaso...
7) Running From the Scientist in Your Living Room
6) Rethinking Atomic Quantum Squid Sex Survival Biology
5) SciAm Announces 55 New Rival Bloggers So I'm Not Providing a Link
4) The Evolution of Evolution Theories
3.14) Counting, Science & Metahumor
2) Supercomputing Using Monotremes
And the winner, of course, is what I actually used.
Until next week,
Alex
Tuesdays at The Satellite Diaries and Friday at The Daytime Astronomer (twitter @skyday)
