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Erik Vance: Suggestible You

Our brains are willing to bend a few rules or even cheat to make our expectations match reality, Erik Vance writes in Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal. This behavior affects our response to medications, surgery, acupuncture, placebos, hypnosis, and other traditional and alternative treatments. It helps account for false memories. It also enables us to take an active role in healing ourselves, Vance asserts, reporting findings from his readings and interviews of researchers at the NIH and other universities, Christian Science practitioners, New Age healers, and even a witch doctor in Mexico.

Results of October 29 membership votes

Thank you to the 700 members who took the time to participate in the recent votes on the NASW bylaws. The final vote, shown below, is that the general housekeeping updates to the bylaws overwhelmingly passed. The proposed Article IV amendment, which would have allowed any NASW member to be an officer, did not pass. The most important takeaway, however, is not which option prevailed, but how close the margin was.

Ransom Stephens: The Left Brain Speaks, The Right Brain Laughs

This book’s title, The Left Brain Speaks, The Right Brain Laughs, serves as a glaring example of oversimplification, its author, Ransom Stephens, asserts. The brain’s left and right lobes compete, collaborate, and provide more redundancy than scientists thought until recently, he says. He explores how the brain works in commonplace and quirky ways, examining what goes on when we have “eureka” moments, immerse ourselves in the lives of fictional characters, and know when something’s “right.” Stephens focuses on creativity throughout. “We only get a few decades of awareness,” he asserts. “We should put our heads to work.”

Catch up on ScienceWriters2016

The annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing ends today in San Antonio, Texas, and our conference travel fellows have been filing reports on many of the panels and other sessions. You can read their coverage now on our past events page. Watch that page for more updates as they become available, and start making plans now for the World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco next October.

Byline Counting project: Data and solutions

How to increase your social media reach when you’re a one-person shop

Managing social media in a small or solo business can be challenging but there are strategies and tips to make things easier, according to panelists in "How to increase your social media reach when you’re a one-person shop."

Reaching "the front page of the Internet": A science writer’s guide to using Reddit

Reddit has a reputation. But for all its potential unsavoriness, Reddit is a powerful social media platform — one capable of reaching thousands of potential readers.

Reporters, PIOs tell how to ask and answer the tough questions

Like the insurance company commercials that note "If you’re a parrot, you repeat things" and "If you’re a mom, you call at the worst time," it is obvious that "If you’re a science writer, you ask questions" and "If you’re a science PIO, you answer questions." But what if the questions are about research misconduct, questionable studies, plagiarism or other negative or controversial aspects of the science and technology communicated by NASW members?

Hit the streets: How to bring non-scientists into science stories

While expert sources are necessary to add credibility and nuance (and, ideally, personality) to the writer’s interpretation of a scientific concept, they might not effectively tell the whole story. Non-scientists — a young stroke survivor, a bereaved parent, a victim of water contamination — can provide more context and emotional depth. They put a face to the data, illustrating how people are being affected.

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