This spring, NASW awarded over $15,000 to 13 enterprising science writers in the fourth round of our Career Grants program. Read on to learn about their projects and this mid-career fellowship program.
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They are saying obesity is the scourge of the nation. It must be true because it's on television. Body Mass Index and weight-loss drugs. What docs should do about Fat City — and Fat Country. Evidence for the low-carb paleo diet. Evidence against the low-calorie low-fat diet. The Scienceblogging Weekly. Teleportation sets a record: 97 km. Was pornography the first cave art?
The two influenza researchers whose work has triggered a far-reaching debate on the limits of scientific freedom could hardly have handled their publicity more differently. From the Spring 2012 ScienceWriters.
Science and politics and homosexuality. Should science writers boycott North Carolina? Current science says that same-sex marriage is good for public health and adds data to the old conjecture that rabid gay-bashing cloaks same-sex attraction. The gay caveman is exhumed. The Open Notebook presents quotes on quoting. Did dinosaur farts cause Mesozoic global warming? We don't know, but they certainly cause hot air in the media.
One of the disputed H5N1 flu virus papers is now out; the other is on the way. Two swell explainers explain that and much more. But wait, there's more in other H5N1 blog posts too. What does childhood bad behavior portend? How to read science news. Why sex robots won't eliminate sex trafficking. Twitter is terrible at prediction. NEJM 200th birthday, a medical timeline, and how the journal invented science journalism's schedule. Plus Atul Gawande's horrifically beautiful history of surgery,
Post-shibboleths and spambots, catch up on blog posts, Storify pages, and slidecasts of the conference, which was supported in part by an NASW Idea Grant. The Open Notebook has a post linking to early coverage, and the conference site has coverage by University of Wisconsin students. Check the #sciencedenial and #denialconf hashtags, and read about the spam attacks.
Science Friday alert: Laura Newman on Warren Buffett's faulty choices about his prostate cancer. XNAs and the future of synthetic genetics: Potential applications for good and otherwise. H5N1 flu virus: The dispute about whether to publish goes on and on and on. Honk honk: Announcing the Golden Goose Awards for scientific achievement. SWINY's Bioethics Boot Camp is now at YouTube.
Science Writing in the Age of Denial is partly funded by an NASW Idea Grant. If you're not there, you can follow the proceedings online via tbe Twitter hashtags #sciencedenial and #denialconf, the @sciencedenial Twitter user, or the conference web site, where you can review the schedule and speaker biographies.
Once more, retractions in the news. Was Einstein's wife his unacknowledged co-author? Trashing conventional wisdom about cardiovascular disease. Fish oil may not be a panacea after all. Gum disease may not cause heart disease.