On October 29, during the membership meeting, NASW members will be voting on amendments to the bylaws, including a set of revisions stemming from periodic review and an amendment proposed last year by 39 petitioners. Members should review the changes and come prepared to vote. If you are unable to attend, you may register your choices on the proposed amendment and bylaw revisions online, by responding to your individual proxy invitation sent on October 13. Student and honorary members are welcome to attend the membership meeting but may not vote. Read more to review the proposed amendments.
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Reality is catching up with science fiction, Rod Pyle reports in Blueprint for a Battlestar: Serious Scientific Explanations Behind Sci-Fi’s Greatest Inventions. Consider force fields: a new type of armor plating applied to tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other kinds of vehicles, Pyle writes, can repel medium-sized munitions. Boeing recently patented a device that will use a high-energy ball of plasma to minimize injury to soldiers in a vehicle hit by an artillery shell, grenade, or Improvised Explosive Device. Pyle discusses the science behind 25 technologies, from Archimedes’ “heat ray” to tools employed in Star Wars and The Matrix. The book includes 75 detailed illustrations.
Star Trek marks its fiftieth anniversary of its debut this year. Celebrated both for its social commentary and futuristic science, the sci-fi series also prompted many of the researchers Mark Lasbury interviewed for The Realization of Star Trek Technologies to study science or pursue a specific research interest. “Current science advances show how forward-thinking and accurate many Star Trek technologies were,” Lasbury writes. In his book, he describes devices and techniques used in the show, the science the show’s writers drew upon to explain how these tools worked, and research that has mimicked these technologies, or aims to do so.
Together with the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, our partners in these ScienceWriters conferences, and DiverseScholar, a former Idea Grant recipient that’s found ongoing support for its project, we are pleased to announce the ScienceWriters2016 travel fellows:
Why do some people succeed in life, while others struggle or fail? In March 1946, scientists recorded the birth of nearly every British baby born in a single week, launching what has become the world’s longest running major study of human development. In The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of Our Ordinary Lives, Helen Pearson reports findings from this and additional studies that have tracked the lives of five generations of children, over 70,000 people throughout the British Isles. The studies richly answer the scientists’ initial questions, and illuminate interventions that can boost every child’s odds of success.
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Articles regarding freelancers and harassment/discrimination
Liz Szabo, whose work as USA Today’s medical reporter combined authoritative breaking-news coverage with dogged investigative journalism, is the recipient of the 2016 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting.
NASW has joined 40 journalism and open government organizations in sending an open letter to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest in response to his recent New York Times letter to the editor touting the Obama administration's transparency.