Dispatches from AAAS
Coverage of the AAAS meeting in San Diego, Feb. 18-22, 2010, by student recipients of NASW Travel Fellowships
Every year, NASW's Education Committee comes into contact with many talented and eager students who want to make science journalism their career, despite the many challenges facing them in an ever-changing field.
In these dispatches, you'll meet ten of the best of them.
They are the recipients of the second NASW Travel Fellowships for the AAAS meeting. NASW agreed to help fund ten undergraduate science writing students to attend this year's AAAS meeting in San Diego, to give them a taste of what covering a scientific meeting is all about. They will be paired with an experienced science writing mentor, attend scientific sessions and press conferences, and have the opportunity to mix with journalists and scientists from around the world.
This effort continues a program that started several years ago, originally funded by a grant to AAAS. NASW's Education Committee solicited applications and selected ten undergraduate students, based on their college experience and writing samples.
As part of the fellowship, the students have agreed to cover a scientific session at AAAS and report what they find. Their results will appear in this blog over the next several days.
We hope you will take the time to read the students' stories and to send them feedback, suggestions, congratulations — or even offers to publish their work.
Many thanks to our guest editors for this blog: Kelli Whitlock Burton, Czerne Reid, Jenny Cutraro, Terry Devitt, and the co-chairs of the NASW Education Committee, Jeff Grabmeier and Rob Irion.
If you have questions about the Travel Fellowship program, contact the Education Committee at mentor@nasw.org.
PHOTO: The travel fellowship recipients gathered in San Diego on Feb. 19 to meet each other and discuss the upcoming conference. BACK ROW: Becky Hersher, Harvard College; Elizabeth Storey, University of Tennessee; Sara Cody, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Kathleen Palmer, Williams College; Matt Scult, Brown University. FRONT ROW: David Lavine, University of California, Davis; Marianne English, University of Georgia; Jess McNally, Stanford University; Elizabeth Robinson, Columbia University; Jen DeBerardinis, Smith College.Improving health means going beyond health care
To prevent disease and improve health, public policy should acknowledge issues not traditionally considered part of health care. Those include city planning, business and media, according to scientists who spoke on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 25, 2010 12:51 PM — Continue readingGenetically modified animals have potential for food and medicine, with caution
Nanotechnology and synthetic biology are emerging tools that can help feed a burgeoning world population and stave off food-borne illnesses, stated a group of researchers on 21 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 24, 2010 5:33 PM — Continue readingCan we feed the world without destroying the planet?
With Earth's population expected to reach 9 billion by 2040, the question of how to feed the world has never been more pressing. During a 20 February symposium on global food security at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego, researchers discussed how an increasing population, rising incomes, and a warming, unpredictable climate system are likely to place unprecedented demands on the planet's food systems.
February 24, 2010 1:39 PM — Continue readingScience education standards: A broken system?
Science education standards aren't supposed to be funny, but when Melanie Cooper showed the South Carolina chemistry standards to an audience of scientists and educators at the 2010 AAAS Conference in San Diego, she got a laugh that would be the envy of any stand-up comic.
February 24, 2010 11:49 AM — Continue readingBeyond money: Measuring quality of life for individuals and society
While economic measures are often used to determine standards of living, measurements of well-being better reflect both people's wealth and human-rights situations, stated researchers on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 24, 2010 11:35 AM — Continue readingTherapy explores how music-language connection can help stroke victims
New research suggests that some stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak can be helped by a therapy that connects speech to music, according to a presentation 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 24, 2010 11:21 AM — Continue readingSmall changes in genetic code leads to big differences in organisms
One small variation in a person's genetic code can be the difference between a drug helping treat a disease—or causing a severe and possibly fatal reaction.
That's one reason why it is vital for scientists to learn how people's genetics translates into differences in physical traits or behaviors, such as how they respond to certain drugs, according to researchers presenting 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 24, 2010 10:58 AM — Continue readingFostering a lifelong love of science outside the classroom
How do children learn science outside of the classroom? At a morning symposium on 20 February, titled "Learning Science in Informal Environments," an audience at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego heard about an especially vivid example.
February 24, 2010 9:29 AM — Continue readingSimulations make earthquake hazards less shaky
We may never predict earthquakes, but computer models are putting emergency response plans on much more solid ground. In a talk not far from one of the country's seismic hot spots, seismologist Thomas Jordan of the Southern California Earthquake Center discussed "Understanding Earthquakes Through Large-Scale Simulations" on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
February 24, 2010 8:56 AM — Continue readingBrain imaging in the courtroom: Pretty pictures or hard evidence?
The jury is out on the use of neuroimaging as hard evidence in the American courtroom, concluded a panel of legal and academic experts convened on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego. The panel, composed of California Superior Court judge Luis Rodriguez, litigators Henry Greely and Robert Knaier, and expert witnesses James Brewer and Michael Rafii, presented a mock trial of the hypothetical Will Johnson, accused murderer and victim of a severe brain lesion.
February 24, 2010 8:17 AM — Continue reading
The National Association of Science Writers, Inc.
P.O. Box 7905, Berkeley, CA 94707 | (510) 647-9500
Copyright © 2010 The National Association of Science Writers, Inc. All rights reserved.