Jon Cohen, a contributing correspondent for Science magazine, has been named winner of the 2012 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. The award is made in recognition of his exemplary coverage of a broad range of biomedical topics, but most notably his distinguished and persistent chronicling of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Featured news
The National Association of Science Writers is pleased to announce the results of the recent election for the 2012-2014 Board. Thank you to each of the candidates who ran in the election and to all who voted.
ENCODE says 80% of our noncoding DNA is doing something, but the real story, brought to us by bloggers, is the scientific dispute over whether that figure is a fantasy. Total change is coming to Discover magazine. Officially there will be no changes with star bloggers like Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, Phil Plait, and Sean Carroll, Hah. Finally, the end of Jonah Lehrer.
Tax legislation enacted last February again reduces Social Security taxes for employees and self-employment taxes for writers, artists, photographers, and other freelancers. What’s the savings this year for NASW members? ScienceWriters contributor Julian Block says the amount will vary, depending on how much they receive from salaries or from freelancing. Their savings can be as much as $2,202. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.
The National Academy of Sciences held a colloquium in May, “The Science of Science Communication,” at which dozens of science communication researchers discussed how lay audiences perceive science information. The major goal of this meeting was “to improve the understanding, relations between scientific community and the public,” said NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.
We are pleased to announce that NASW members are eligible to receive free access to Elsevier's ScienceDirect. This resource allows users, including credentialed reporters, to access a large database of full-text articles from over 2,500 scientific and medical journals, including Cell and The Lancet, and 11,000 books. An app is also available so you can access ScienceDirect on your mobile device.
The membership meeting was convened on Oct. 15, 2011, in Flagstaff, Ariz. President Nancy Shute called the meeting to order at 8:10 a.m.
From autism to animal migration, pollution to animal testing, winners of this year's Science in Society Journalism Awards tackled sensitive and controversial topics with reporting and storytelling skill. Read on to learn more about the winning entries.
A party honoring the inventor of an amusement park ride germinated an application for an NASW Idea Grant to fund a day-long workshop of bioethics for science journalists. Joe Bonner discusses the planning process and logistics for the meeting, which took place in March in New York City. Attendees included reporters and editors, PIOs, students, and concerned physicians and scientists. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.