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On science blogs this week: The Climate

Hurricane Sandy and the science of weather. There's no way to know if human-caused global warming made Sandy worse--but humans are definitely responsible for the degree of devastation . Links to many Sandy photos. Sandy killed thousands of lab mice and rats but gave life to birders. Sandy, Presidential politics, and suddenly climate change is an election issue at last. The politics of health care and the Nate Silver backlash. Yes, it's yet more on Jonah Lehrer.

Unearthing narrative: Turning topics into compelling stories

Every science writer has probably been experienced the same problem at one point or another: you've stumbled upon a great topic, but it isn't a story. How do you find a good angle and a narrative arc that will help you craft a story that readers won't want to put down?

Wikipedia: The best, most hated resource for science communicators

Moderator Nancy Shute began the “Wikipedia: The best, most hated resource for science communicators" seminar at ScienceWriters2012 by proposing this question to the audience. Dozens of sheepish science writers slowly raised their hands and a nervous giggle filled the room.

Surviving your mid-career crisis

Alan Brown, moderator of the panel, “Surviving your mid-career crisis,” faced a scary question as a feature writer when the demand for long-form began to dwindle: how would he make a living?

Tackling the scientific meeting

Going to meetings can be overwhelming and expensive, but if you’re a science reporter or public information officer, you can’t afford to miss them.

Online ROI: How to measure social media impact

I'm a big advocate of social networking and spend a lot of time convincing scientists that these platforms aren’t mindless time-sucks. But while it’s easy to make the argument for social media, it’s a whole lot harder to quantify the benefits and show that online efforts are actually paying off.

Follow what's happening in Raleigh

Reports are coming in quickly from the ScienceWriters2012 conference in Raleigh, N.C.. You can read the first reports on our conference reports page. They include "Do PIOs need science journalists any more?" and "Writing science ebooks in the real world." More reports will be posted in coming days, along with photos from conference events. Also, it's time to start thinking about ScienceWriters2013.

Once you’ve wrangled the data, how do you tame it?

In his NASW workshop, "Tools for tackling nightmare documents and data," freelancer reporter Tyler Dukes presented an Internet toolkit that can make investigative stories a more feasible prospect. To this end, he presented three online resources that make handling data and documents cheaper and easier: a PDF-file converter, a document sorting program, and a website that allows you to recruit people online to transcribe your interviews and complete other methodical jobs.

Not dead yet: How science journalism is evolving at traditional news organizations

Jobs in science journalism at traditional media organizations are starting to return after their recession-driven decline, but these positions have emerged changed and much busier, said speakers at the ScienceWriters2012 session “Not dead yet: How science journalism is evolving at traditional news organizations” on October 27.

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