{"id":11507,"date":"2026-02-18T19:38:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11507"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:38:49","slug":"the-science-influencers-going-viral-on-tiktok-to-fight-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/02\/18\/the-science-influencers-going-viral-on-tiktok-to-fight-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"The science influencers going viral on TikTok to fight misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00472-5\">Nature<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of Simon Clark\u2019s most popular TikTok videos begins with him playing the part of a clueless climate contrarian. Adopting the overconfident tone that is common among social-media influencers, he proclaims: \u201cRenewables are a scam!\u201d Cut to the real Clark, who has a PhD in stratospheric dynamics and uses the handle @simonoxfphys, as he dismantles several myths about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00332-2\">renewable energy<\/a>&nbsp;using a deadpan style and a torrent of charts. The video, with almost 180,000 views, is an effort to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-01696-z\">fight misinformation<\/a>&nbsp;by meeting people where they are, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clark started making YouTube videos more than 15 years ago as a master\u2019s student in physics at the University of Oxford, UK. He wanted to help others learn about getting into elite universities and navigating the collegiate system. After he got his PhD from the University of Exeter, UK, he decided to make content creation a full-time career. \u201cThe natural thing in my field was talking about the climate crisis,\u201d he says, \u201cthe physical causes behind it, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-02036-x\">solutions we have to it<\/a>, and increasingly at the moment, why we aren\u2019t&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-01683-4\">implementing those solutions<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00472-5\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nature One of Simon Clark\u2019s most popular TikTok videos begins with him playing the part of a clueless climate contrarian. Adopting the overconfident tone that is common among social-media influencers, he proclaims: \u201cRenewables are a scam!\u201d Cut to the real Clark, who has a PhD in stratospheric dynamics and uses the handle @simonoxfphys, as he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misinformation-disinformation-and-conspiracy-theories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11508,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507\/revisions\/11508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}