Science writing news

The winners of the 2013 Science in Society Journalism Awards, sponsored by the National Association of Science Writers, are: In the Book category, David Quammen; in the Science Reporting category, Douglas Fox; in the Longform category, Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne; in the Science Reporting for a Local or Regional Audience category, Hillary Rosner; and in the Commentary or Opinion category, Christie Aschwanden.

When the Wisconsin legislative joint finance committee inserted a motion into the proposed state budget that would have banned the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from maintaining its offices on campus — and would forbid any university employee from working with the center — the university and journalists pushed back, and won. Deborah Blum tells the story in the Summer 2013 ScienceWriters.

Health journalists John Fauber, a medical investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Joanne Silberner, a freelance multimedia journalist and former National Public Radio correspondent, are the recipients of the 2013 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.

In Astronomy 101, Carolyn Collins Petersen brings the seemingly out-of-reach down to earth, providing basic facts and a contemporary perspective on discoveries about dark matter, the big bang, extraterrestrial life, and more.

“I didn't find the idea for my book. It fell into my life like a ton of bricks,” Katy Butler relates. In Knocking on Heaven's Door, Butler describes her parents’ experiences with disability and terminal illness, and explores high-tech and other treatment at the end of life.

Are we doing the right thing by recruiting students into science journalism, which is undergoing all the upheavals that are hitting journalism as a whole? Will they find jobs or good freelance opportunities? Michael Balter of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Journalism Program discusses this question in the Summer 2013 ScienceWriters.

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