There’s a news story making the rounds today that illustrates perfectly why society needs both scientists and science journalists. Because this great story first appeared in the weekly scientific journal Nature with the headline: Molecular regulation of sexual preference revealed by genetic studies of 5-HT in the brains of male mice, which, we submit, is not likely to make very many people want to read the article, however fascinating it might be.

But a sharp-eyed journalist at CBS News waded through all that science talk and came up with what the headline really should have been all along: Serotonin sex bomb: How to make a mouse bisexual or just really horny. Because, clearly, people, to say nothing of Internet search engines, are much more likely to be interested in stories about “sex bombs” and bisexuals and horniness than they are in stories about “molecular regulation” and 5-HT.

We like to make fun of both scientists and journalists, here, while also respecting the fine and important contributions that both groups make to society. In the case of this particular article, we think the scientists did all the voyeuristic work but Neil Katz at CBS got the story just right, at the end:

“However it shakes out, we can be sure of one thing. The mice had a pretty good time.” Thanks, Neil!