Featured news
Emily Falk—What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice and Change
Exercise or watch TV? How do we make everyday choices? Do our choices serve our big-picture goals? In What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice and Change, Emily Falk explores the brain systems at work in making—and improving—our daily decisions. Her studies at UPenn’s Annenberg School draw on functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural underpinnings of what we do and why we do it.
NASW joins Student Press Law Center in condemning detention of student
On April 7, 2025, NASW joined the Student Press Law Center and other free speech and journalism organizations in a letter condemning the detention of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, reportedly based on opinions expressed in a student newspaper op-ed.
Jennie Erin Smith—Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure
A news report on a family of 6000 people with a high frequency of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease caused by a genetic mutation drew Jennie Erin Smith to Colombia in 2017. To research and write Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure, Smith spent 7 years immersed in experiences of these family members & their doctors, genetic studies, an experimental drug trial & more.
David B. Williams—Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature
Every urban environment includes rocks, plants, animals, and habitats, including front and back yards and empty lots. These topics reward a writer’s attention, David B. Williams asserts in Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature. He explores urban stalactites, seals and sea lions, a winter-active fungus known locally as “hair ice,” & more. Illustrations by Elizabeth Person.
Murray Carpenter—Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick
Sugar-sweetened beverages boost rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, Murray Carpenter asserts. In Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick, he focuses on the world’s largest soda manufacturer, calling for greater consumer awareness of sodas’ nutritional risks and the strategies corporations use to hide those risks.
Virtual event: Media training your experts
Join the NASW Institutional Communicators Committee (formerly PIO Committee) at noon Eastern on April 17 to hear from Kenna Hughes-Castleberry (University of Colorado Boulder), who will share her expertise on media training for scientists.
Networking social: Freelancer meetup
As much as we've enjoyed and learned from the array of fascinating NASW SciWriBizChat and SciWriSkillsChat speakers this year, our greatest source of knowledge and connections is often each other. So, the NASW Freelance Committee virtual meetup on May 1 will be an open networking social with small group breakouts.
Community Wellness Check-in
In response to the many mental health and career challenges that science communicators are currently facing, NASW is hosting a series of unstructured, very informal socials where you can share in a safe space. Drop in and visit for as long as you can, when you can during the hour. All NASW members are invited. These socials will not be recorded.