Coverage of the ScienceWriters 2009 meetings
ScienceWriters 2009, combining the annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers and the New Horizons in Science meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, was in Austin, Texas, Oct. 16-20, 2009. This page contains reports from many of the sessions. NASW Freelance Travel Fellows reported on NASW sessions while NASW Graduate Student Travel Fellows reported on many of the CASW sessions.
Climate change and the carbon cycle: Surprises from the new "dismal science"
Kevin Gurney, an associate professor at Purdue University, showed high-resolution animated graphics of the past, present and future of climate change at CASW's 2009 New Horizons in Science briefing at the University of Texas at Austin. Unfortunately, his pictures suggest that carbon emissions may soon look a lot worse.
Doc talks whistle blowing and future genome-based drug treatments
Self-described as a science writer and the Bush Administration's worst nightmare, physician Bruce M. Psaty told CASW conference attendees what it is like to blow the whistle on the Federal Drug Administration's drug approval process.
Determining soldiers' vulnerability to PTSD and anxiety disorders
Imagine a team of researchers in the U.S. able to remotely track a deployed soldier's reactions to combat stress in Iraq with the accuracy to determine susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the ability to administer quick preventative treatments. That is just one of the potential implications of Michael Telch and his team's research at the University of Texas at Austin in collaboration with 184 volunteer soldiers from Fort Hood.
Tapping into rich veins of information
Unmask plagiarism in PubMed by flagging similar texts. Assess disease risk by finding repeated DNA segments. These are just two applications for new analytical tools from the lab of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center computational biologist Harold "Skip" Garner.
October 26, 2009 4:57 PM — Continue readingIf you build it, will they come?
So you finally got around to building a website to showcase your science writing business. Only it just sits there — nobody ever visits or calls. What to do?
What does your stuff say about you?
You have entered a college student's room. As your eyes scan from left to right, you are shocked to see a neatly made bed, folded laundry, and books not only in the bookcase, but alphabetically arranged. Even the slippers — slippers! — have been placed at a right angle to the bed. Ah, but there it is, sitting in a corner, a beautiful, bright blue bong inside a plastic crate.
Everyone game for first power pitch
No one showed up in their pajamas — though one West Coast writer had suggested it — as about 100 participants arrived at 7 a.m. CDT (5 a.m. PDT) Saturday, Oct. 17, to sign up for the NASW's first-ever Power Pitch with Top Editors.
History, genes and the course of human evolution
England's Queen Victoria, we know, changed the course of European history through her long, eventful reign. But she did so in different ways, including through her significant genetic contributions to European royalty, said John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison addressing attendees of the 2009 CASW New Horizons in Science Briefing.
More than writing: Freelancing as a business
You have a product. You have clients. Your goal is to rake in the highest revenue for the lowest cost in the most time-efficient way you can. So how to succeed?
Pitching science to non-science magazines
In this economy, science writers are looking for new outlets to write for. This was apparent as an overflow crowd heard editors talk on what they're looking for in potential writers at the session "Pitching Science to Non-Science Magazines" at ScienceWriters 2009 in Austin.
Investigative reporting is not for the impatient
Investigative reporting requires patience, perseverance, occasional travel and an employer willing to give you the time and resources required to uncover information that someone, somewhere, really doesn't want you to have, according to panelists at a session on investigative journalism at ScienceWriters 2009.
Technological haiku
I expected the ScienceWriters 2009 workshop moderated by Robin Lloyd and Christie Nicholson, social media mavenettes working for Scientific American, entitled "Social Media — Why, Where and How," to cover the whole Social Media scene for me so that I'd perhaps see some value to it all. Social media was defined by Lloyd as places where "you receive, consolidate, share information." Regrettably the well publicized social media websites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn were barely mentioned. This session was a sales job for Twitter.
October 22, 2009 6:04 PM — Continue reading
Dirty Texas has green potential
Every day, hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in Texas siphon fossil fuel from the ground, sending it on to dozens of refineries and processing plants across the state. Yet it's not enough: The biggest energy hog and carbon emitter in the nation, Texas has to import additional oil to satisfy its fuel needs. "We're the China of America," Michael Webber, a mechanical engineer at the University of Texas, told the 40 attendees at the 2009 CASW New Horizons in Science briefing in Austin. "We're the dirty, industrial heavy lifter."
Quantifying consciousness
Angry red trapezoids kill and eat the carcasses of their green kin. Critters turn blue to signal their desire to mate. Adults gobble their young. Welcome to Polyworld, the purported answer to one of the biggest unsolved problems in science: a theory of consciousness.
Let them eat cake
Recent research in nematodes, mice, and primates has shown that living on a severely reduced diet results in an unexpected benefit: longer lifespan. The constant, low-intensity stress from such diets might actually be helpful, shielding against even worse troubles, such as cancer. The downside is that, to enjoy these boons, an organism must cut its food consumption by a third.
Forecasting the future of science writing
A day-long game at ScienceWriters 2009 allowed NASW members to tackle head-on the question weighing heaviest on the minds of science writers everywhere: What is the future of our field? As a reflection of just how dire a media landscape fraught with so much unprecedented change has become, the game kicked off with the prediction of an exuberant deus ex machina.
Using video in science writing
Why should science reporters who've mastered the use of the printed word bother to "embrace cheap video cameras, YouTube and Final Cut Pro?" The multitalented panel for this workshop session at ScienceWriters 2009 came up with plenty of reasons — ranging, from hooking in additional readers to pleasing Web advertisers to covering topics that are far more compelling when shown than told. But perhaps the best argument was the videos and slide shows created by panel members that were, used as examples.
Download an MP3 audio file of this session.
The secret life of social media: New rules for science writers
Just dipping a toe in the rapidly changing social media stream is often intimidating. Newbies wonder, "Will the information flow drag me under? Are there trolls lurking ahead? Why should I even bother?"
October 21, 2009 5:19 PM — Continue reading
Visualize this: Multimedia for science writers
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what's the value of an entire slide show of compelling images, complete with sound effects, music and narration? In the "Visual Journalism for Science Writers" workshop at ScienceWriters 2009, three multimedia mavens shared their tips for creating informative visuals to stand alone or complement the written word. Then, the workshop panelists guided participants in building their own narrated slideshows.
2009 NASW Business Meeting
The NASW business meeting at ScienceWriters 2009 in Austin began at 8 am on Saturday. Happily, it included both hot coffee and some fresh organizational news.
The secrets of a good interview
The first rule of on-camera interviews: "casting, casting, casting." That bit of advice — from Mary Miller, a writer, producer and webhost at The Exploratorium in San Francisco — was one of several suggestions offered to the audience at "The Art of the Interview — Extreme Edition," organized and moderated by freelance science journalist, Jill U. Adams, at ScienceWriters 2009 in Austin, Texas.
Media law in the Internet age
News organizations are more legally protected on the Internet than in other media, media lawyer Jonathan Hart of Dow Lohnes PLLA told attendees at ScienceWriters 2009 during, "Mini-Law School for Science Writers," an NASW session organized by Peggy Girshman.
Thriving in a time of change
Dan Gillmor is very optimistic about the future of journalism — whether it includes journalists or not. At the opening plenary session of ScienceWriters 2009 Oct. 17 in Austin, Texas, and just a few days away from observing the 10-year anniversary of his first journalist-blog posting, Gillmor talked about mining the great potential he sees in the rapidly morphing ways that people can get and use information.
ScienceWriters 2010: A preview
As Science Writers 2009 draws to a close this week in Austin, Texas, our thoughts are turning to . . . next year. The 2010 annual meetings of the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for Advancement of Science Writing begins Nov. 4, 2010 at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. To get an idea of how next year's events are shaping up, I spent some time in Austin with NASW President Mariette DiChristina and CASW President Cristine Russell.
The National Association of Science Writers, Inc.
P.O. Box 7905, Berkeley, CA 94707 | (510) 647-9500
Copyright © 2009 The National Association of Science Writers, Inc. All rights reserved.