Multiple events that came to light in late 2013 revealed that the science-writing community is not immune to professional issues of sexual harassment. A ScienceWriters2013 session titled The XX Question served as a forum for a broad range of issues related to professional status and recognition for women in the field. This post is a commentary from “LadyBits” blogger Rose Eveleth on issues raised in the session. From the Winter 2013-14 ScienceWriters.
Science writing news
Murray Carpenter offers a high-energy take on modern caffeine culture in Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us.
Joel Andren's public relations firm PressFriendly has been in business for just a month, but he already has developed some firm ideas about how to (and how not to) get reporters to pick up your pitch. He offers tips like this: "Email is the best way to get ahold of a reporter (with certain exceptions). It works, but it doesn't work immediately. Always leave enough time before your announcement to email the reporter and have one follow-up. One follow-up should suffice."
There are many hopeful contenders for the title of America's Best Journalism School, but the standards for measuring such things are weak at best, Eric Newton writes on the Knight Foundation blog: "The opaque nature of journalism education quality and the lack of general transparency is bad for the next generation of content creators, young people who increasingly struggle to get through college, all too often graduating after six years with a large student loan debt."
What does Arsenic and Old Lace have in common with Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle? They're both examples of Kurt Vonnegut's "Man in Hole" story shape, according to a Nieman Storyboard post. The Slaughterhouse-Five author developed his story-shapes model as a master's thesis at the University of Chicago, but it was rejected. It later found new life in a YouTube video and the Nieman post includes interpretations in both text and graphic form.
Tabitha M. Powledge reviews news about a giant virus found in the 30,000 year-old Siberian permafrost, and asks when the next shoe drops: "I can't help wondering what else is going to turn up as the warming Earth releases creatures from the melting of ice frozen many thousands of years ago." Also, the science behind sequencing the Neanderthal genome and dealing with contaminants, and Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner's critique of the system for funding scientific research.
Your Facebook posts might be set to "friends only" and your Twitter feed may be protected, but what about your LinkedIn activity? Martin Brinkmann has some tips for LinkedIn privacy: "When you make modifications to your profile, follow a company or make recommendations, you will find them listed on your activity feed by default. The fact that you are looking for a job may be revealed on your activity feed for instance, which can cause issues" with your current employer.
In her fourth novel addressing science and medical topics, Permanent Makeup, Terra Ziporyn explores domestic abuse and family relationships.
It's not "Join the conversation" or "Like us on Facebook" or even "Forgot your password?" but another common expression that sums up the Internet experience, Matthew J.X. Malady writes in the New Republic: "If 'Your an idiot!' doesn't ring a bell, then you probably don't use the Internet all that much. (Also: You should count yourself as lucky and be sure to proceed through the remainder of your life exactly as you have up to this point.) You, my friend, are no idiot."