Here is the article that I chose to fact check.
This article talks about researchers creating models using jellyfish species that are 1 centimeter in diameter, small enough to fit under a microscope, and observing it’s entire nervous system at once. It talks about the human brain in comparison to the lack of brain in jellyfish, and the nerves they have instead. The team raised a batch of C. hemisphaerica with a genetic modification, which glows green when in contact with calcium. The glowing protein would only light up in active neurons. The neural activity looked like flashing. They noticed patterns during typical feeding behaviors.
My steps in verification followed the notes we took on the first Break the Fake assignment.
First I checked “SNOPES.COM”, and though I tried multiple different searches, nothing came up.
Next I did a google search with “Fake” at the end. This showed me multiple other sites sharing the same scientific discovery.
I checked the photo of the jellyfish by coying the image link and pasting it in “tineye.com” and found that the first photo, found on November 28th, was the same as the others.
I did a search of “LIVESCIENCE” on Wikipedia, and found this:
That showed me that it was a real site, it has been around since 2004, though they shut down and re-launched in 2007. It also told me though that the article needed additional citations for verification.
My last step was checking the author of the article. At the bottom of the article, I found this:
This showed me that Nicoletta Lanese was on twitter, so I did a search for “Twitter Nicoletta Lanese” and found that the account was verified, as it had the little checkmark next to the name.
Though a few of my verification sources and methods turned up empty handed, it seemed like there were multiple other sites that covered this discovery, so my call is that this article is true.