When it comes to what's written in the press, science and medical correspondents may attract most attention, but spare a thought for the humble subeditor. He or she has to come up with a suitable headline to attract the casual browser, often working with complex and sensitive material way outside their specialist knowledge.

Science certainly gets its fair share of arresting headlines. ‘Scientists break new ground with bionic tongue’ (Scotsman, 20 May). Hopefully not literally. ‘Six hit by E coli’ (Scotsman, 13 August) suggests unsuspected cricketing prowess in the bacterial world.

A good headline can also tempt one to pursue the quirkier bywaters of science. ‘Passive smoking can kill your cat’ revealed The Times (1 August). ‘Carrots to turn purple’ warned the Sun (16 May). Who knew that carrots used to be purple or white until the dastardly Dutch bred them in their national colours? The Daily Telegraph tempted us with ‘Hoovering at home “doesn't make you fit”’, though it failed to say whether hoovering anywhere else would be more effective.

It's not just the tabloids that go in for the eye-catching headline. ‘Killer bugs rampage through NHS’ was the alarming vision conjured up by The Times on its front page (11 May). It also chipped in with ‘Stone Age woman ate like a wolf’, based on the likely meat content of her diet rather than her table manners.

Sometimes headlines can vividly illustrate the uncertainty at the heart of modern science. ‘Phone shields “safer”’ said The Times on 11 May. ‘Mobile shields “useless”’ countered the Daily Express, referring to the same report.

‘More families shun MMR’, declared the Daily Mail (17 May). The Times on the same day put it somewhat differently: ‘Parents begin to put trust in MMR’.

Some headlines are just plain smart. The Guardian came up with ‘Phytopharm favours curry’ (24 August), about a drugs firm working with extracts from turmeric. The Times Higher Education Supplement may have been trying too hard with ‘RSVP - and bring a bottle-nosed dolphin’, about an archaeological study suggesting Anglo-Saxon hunters wiped out dolphin populations in the Humber in order to put dolphin steaks on the tables of the Anglo-Saxon elite. But top marks to the Huntingdon and St Ives Evening News, which rightly celebrated the election of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s Allan Bradley to the Royal Society with: ‘Lord of the genes gets a ring from the Fellowship’. Priceless.

See also

• Be prepared: Article about interactions with the media.