How often do you read news and come across an article that is making outrageous and ground-breaking claims?
The answer is: almost everyday. There are stories that are covered in almost every newspaper available in th UK and there are some that only make it to obscure and down right stupid papers such as Daily Mail.
When I read one of those articles I always wonder, is that really what the research has found? Has the article author read the original empirical paper and came to the right conclusions? If I can, and time allowing of course, I will find the paper it mentions and read it for myself. Often I do not have access or time to do it though.
For such situations there is a resource I could not recommend highly enough, the NHS Behind the Headlines team: http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx
They describe in everyday language the science behind the huge news stories. 
It is well worth a read.
