Tabitha M. Powledge comments on recent news reports about the microbiome, that community of bacteria that lives in and on our bodies. One report suggested showers wash away bacteria that keep us smelling good; the other suggested a link between dental hygiene and bad pregnancy outcomes: "Whether flossing can prevent premature birth … has yet to be demonstrated," Powledge writes. Also, the fatal flaw in a study on the personality traits of "cat people" and "dog people."
Science writing news
SciDev.Net Director Nick Ishmael Perkins observes World Press Freedom Day by reflecting on how science writing is affected by censorship — and self-censorship, a "common practice among science journalists. If you anticipate that your attempts to cover a story might result in alienation, or reprimand, from the expert sources you depend on or the media outlet that pays you, then you may have to make a judgement call about that problem relative to society's need to know."
Later this summer, NASW members will have the opportunity to elect board members for the upcoming two-year term. Candidate statements and voting option details (online or in person) will follow in the summer issue of ScienceWriters as well as right here on nasw.org. Read more to meet the candidates. Congratulations and thank you to all of the candidates, board members cycling off, and the Nominating Committee.
Ply your drinking buddies with info distilled from Proof, Adam Rogers’ spirited report on the history and science of booze.
A Toronto newspaper pays $10,000 for photos of the city's mayor holding a crack pipe. A popular web site pays for a tape of an NBA team owner's racist rant. Poynter's Al Tompkins worries that those purchases could reflect "the cost of the steady, slow decline of journalism credibility. Audiences say they believe less of what journalists report. So to get the public to believe us, must we amp up the evidence, even if it means paying a drug dealer for a set up photo?"
Former Washingtonian editor Jack Limpert discusses the new reality of writing for a living — too few markets that pay well: "Maybe being a good writer increasingly will have to be an avocation – you'll need to earn real money doing something other than writing unless you marry well. It's hard to see how and where the digital world is going to support good article and book writing. Most of the writers I know in digital journalism jobs have to write short and often."
The New Journalism icon offers tips including "a technique that I call 'the offstage narrator.' He's just off the stage. His mind is the general mindset of the people through whose eyes you begin to see. I've done it with stock car racers, during a trial run with Junior Johnson, making a wild swing around the curve. 'Great smokin' blue gumballs! God almighty dog! There goes Junior Johnson!' Well, nobody said that. It's the atmosphere, it's the offstage narrator."
Remember the big announcement in March about new data supposedly proving that the universe expanded rapidly after the Big Bang? Well, the celebration may have been premature, Tabitha M. Powledge writes, noting that a rumor about alternative explanations for the results "has prompted several physicists to go public with objections they say they have harbored since the findings were released in March." Also, do three new studies point to a magic bullet against aging?
The Associated Press recently instituted word-count limits, and Karen Fratti thinks it's about time. In a smartphone era when attention spans are shorter than ever, brevity is a virtue, Fratti writes: "I think a lot of us are writing too much to seem more serious and in-depth so as not to appear too beholden to the ‘clickiness' of the Internet. Yes, we can do serious journalism on mobile and digital-first platforms. But it can also be concise."