Tabitha M. Powledge weighs in about "humaniqueness" and other ideas that surfaced in a discussion of scientific ideas whose time has passed: "Here’s an idea we can all get behind: Dump that left-brain/right-brain hogwash. Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore points out there is no basis for that beloved misapprehension. Despite the fact that some activities originate in certain brain locales, the two brain hemispheres are normally in constant communication."
Science writing news
Last summer, 807 participants from 77 countries met in Helsinki, Finland, to attend the 8th World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ). Over the course of five days, more than 50 sessions, workshops, and plenary talks together with social events ranging from cocktails aboard an Ice Breaker to traditional Finnish dancing on an open-air stage took place. From the Fall 2013 ScienceWriters.
It's good business for writers to do speeches, says Joanna Penn, author of Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts: "Speaking enables you to connect directly with people, and they are more likely to become fans of your creative work through seeing your face and hearing your voice. If people listen to you and see you in action, they get to know you better. They can ask you questions and you can demonstrate your knowledge."
Northwestern University's Knight Lab offers an online course in data journalism, "a syllabus of sorts to make sense of the endless articles, tutorials, videos, tools and other resources for learning the digital skills a new journalist needs to succeed." It starts with philosophical underpinnings and proceeds through Internet basics, web design fundamentals, using version control, setting up a personal web site, and getting started with web programming using jQuery.
Each summer, the American Association for the Advancement of Science places science, engineering, and math students in media jobs. One recent fellow, Anna Haensch, writes about the differences between science and journalism: "What I thought would be a summer spent in leisurely scientific inquiry turned out to be spent in inquiry of a more metaphysical nature. This was indeed an enriching pursuit, but not in the way that I had initially thought."
Caleb Hannan thought he was writing a story about an innovative golf club. He ended up writing about its inventor's personal history, including a false resume and sex change. Then his subject committed suicide, the story was published, and Hannan's ethics were quickly called into question. Paige Williams has a roundup. More from Marc Tracy, Mallory Ortberg, and Josh Levin.
Their comments on a cancer patient's social media have now drawn criticism from ombudsmen for both Bill Keller's New York Times and Emma Gilbey Keller's Guardian, and other critics, such as NPR's Linda Holmes: "[Bill] Keller's writing about Adams is full of little code words that downplay the significance of [Adams's] writing." Also: Megan Garber, Christie Aschwanden.
There's a recount on that report that 90% of the cells in your body are not human. Tabitha M. Powledge writes that a new report says the ratio may actually be much lower: "I am a bit mournful about this development. The idea of 10 microbes to every human cell is so much cooler than only 3 to 1. I am wondering if I will have to find a new favorite statistic." Also, Twitter as a gauge of scientific impact, and Vitamin E for slowing Alzheimer's.
Mathew Ingram predicts that Twitter and other stream-based social media sites are in danger because their users are becoming overloaded. Sure, you can prune your "following" list, but "it’s like cleaning out the garage or indexing your photos; you know that you should do it, but it just seems so daunting that you never get around to it." Also, Paige Brown reviews a study on building relationships through Twitter. Rule one: Reply and engage.