The National Association of Science Writers (NASW) will again sponsor several exciting programs for student journalists during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, February 16-20. We are re-sending this note to remind you of the available programs.
Featured news
Ever heard of the Dyna-Soar? The US Air Force gave that name to a planned space-capable hypersonic glider that never got past the mockup stage. After six years and about $660 million in development costs, the project was canceled in 1963. Rob Pyle reports this story and other little-known aspects of space history in Amazing Stories of the Space Age: True Tales of Nazis in Orbit, Soldiers on the Moon, Orphaned Martian Robots, and Other Fascinating Accounts From the Annals of Spaceflight.
Thanks to generous support from foundations, media organizations, and individual donors, the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists is excited to offer travel fellowships for professional and student attendees from the U.S. and abroad. Apply by March 15, 2017
For 100 years, most scientists have contended that nuclear reactions can occur only in high-energy physics experiments and in large nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactions, however, also can occur in bench top experiments, Steven B. Krivit reports. In his three-book series, Explorations in Nuclear Research, Krivit describes the emergence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), a new field of science that bridges chemistry and physics, which he distinguishes from, as he says, the erroneous idea of "cold fusion."
The proposal to amend the constitution to allow any NASW member to serve as an officer did not pass. But the NASW Board is setting up a new ad hoc advisory committee to propose paths forward.
After traveling 9.5 years and 3 billion miles, the New Horizons spacecraft neared its closest approach to Pluto. It sent to Earth the now-famous full global view showing a huge heart-shaped area on Pluto’s surface: a giant sheet of molecular nitrogen ice. “New Horizons had just transformed Pluto from a pixilated blob — as seen by the best telescope ever built — to a spectacular world full of diversity and complexity,” Nancy Atkinson writes in Incredible Stories From Space.
Two dozen print and electronic journalists from across the Southeast got a glimpse of what’s coming next in the climate story during Measure Globally, Respond Locally, a mini-conference held August 15 and 16 in Asheville, N.C.
In this second, updated edition of Human Genetics: The Basics Ricki Lewis provides a concise overview of what genes are and how they function. Consideration of genes has made the practice of medicine both more precise and more personal, she says, describing benefits of genetic research to the understanding and treatment of both rare and common disorders that include cystic fibrosis, cancer, and cardiovascular and infectious disease. Genetic testing teamed with information science, she notes, now makes it possible to diagnose some inherited diseases in minutes. In wrapping up each chapter, Lewis presents dilemmas that may arise from genetic research, information, applications, and technologies.