NASW member Christie Aschwanden explains on Last Word on Nothing: "Since becoming an official LWON contributor last June, I’ve written almost 30 posts, about one every 12 days. For this work, I’ve received exactly zero dollars, zero prizes and zero resume-worthy rewards ... And I can honestly say that LWON is the best thing that’s happened in my writing life during the past year ... I can follow my follies and explore ideas that no one else cares about."
Science writing news
Before Buzz Bissinger wrote Friday Night Lights and became famous, he was a Nieman fellow. Two weeks ago he sat down with the current fellows on their last day and talked about what's next: "People say, 'Why’d you begin to write books?' The reason I really began to write books is that after my Nieman year I felt I owed it to myself to go and do something out of the box, and really, really do something different, not simply go back to my paper."
Casey Frechette offers 10 tips for getting good sound and using it effectively on this Poynter Institute post. They include a guide to the types of sound, what kind of equipment to use, and what to do about the ever-present problem of extraneous noise. Frechette writes: "There’s a reason radio has been called the most visual medium. There’s something about sound that puts our imaginations to work, making us more active participants in the story we’re hearing."
First do no harm, except if you're screening for prostate cancer: the prostate-specific antigen test does more harm than good, but patients and docs say "La la la, can't hear you." Teleportation sets a new distance record; next stop, an orbiting satellite. The Heartland Institute cancels future climate-change denialist conferences and makes common cause with the birthers who deny Obama's US citizenship. The solar eclipse, in full photographic glory.
NASW member Charles Q. Choi presents the before-and-after versions of his first NOVA physics blog post side-by-side, with his comments on the changes that were made and the thinking behind them. "The stories you read often seem the sole work of the writer named in the byline." Choi writes. "In reality, stories often go through many incarnations as part of a collaboration between the writer of a story and the editors who represent what their readers want and need."
Spending four years or more in a PhD program is enough to make some budding scientists think about other options. A popular one is science communication, Becky Ham writes in a post on "don't get caught." "Why does science writing sound so good?" she asks. "I think it’s because most scientists want to share their research. And new scientists haven’t given up on the idea that they’re allowed to talk to everyone — not just their peers — about what they’re doing."
It was mostly a good thing when the American Society of Clinical Oncology changed its embargo rules for annual meeting abstracts in 2008. The old "embargoed but freely available" system resulted in widespread leaks. The new one makes everything available at once. But, Brian Reid writes on Embargo Watch, abruptly releasing such a large amount of information has created a new problem: Overload. "The huge number of options creates a disincentive to paw through the data."
Where's the line between fiction and non-fiction? It's been blurred by Mike Daisey’s Apple story on This American Life, John D’Agata’s book "The Lifespan of a Fact," and a Washington Post review of humorist David Sedaris’ essays. On Nieman Storyboard, Paige Williams reviews the rules and the recent move toward greater transparency in the reporting: "Now that trust is fluid, it must be guarded and earned and re-earned, even if you are a god," Williams writes.
When The Double Helix came out in 1968, science books were dull and books by scientists doubly so, Weiner writes in Columbia Journalism Review. The story made this one different, Weiner says. The best science books "will be filled with scenes, and stories ... What’s more, the story will be personal, emotional, even confessional. And it will involve the highest stakes. Watson intends to explain how he scaled the heights, and how he earned contempt along the way."