science reporting
clock | August 29, 2008While everyone else has been focused on politics this week, several science bloggers posted some amazing posts about, gasp, science! Check these out - amazing weekend reading (and potential anthology entries!):
Neurophilosophy: Wilder Penfield, Neural Cartographer:
The patient lies on the operating table, with the right side of his body raised slightly. The anaesthetist sterilizes his scalp and injects it with Nupercaine to produce analgesia - the patient will remain fully conscious throughout the procedure. Behind the surgical drapes, three large incisions are made in his scalp. A large…
clock | August 29, 2008
Science in the Triangle is a community service provided by the Museum of Life + Science, in partnership with Blue Pane Studio. There, in one place, you can find news and information about science events and research in the Triangle area of North Carolina.
clock | August 21, 2008The Scientist just won the Azbee Award for Magazine of the Year, awarded by American Society of Business Publications Editors. Congratulations!
clock | August 21, 2008Sure, we've done the high-brow lectures and geek-out tours, but what really gets the old SCONC juices flowing is mingling, meeting new faces and trading some business cards.
Please join us to hob-nob (and maybe find a job) with science writers, museum people, educators and webbies who share an interest in connecting North Carolina's science with the general public and the wider world.
Science Communicators of North Carolina
August mixer
5:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 21
Tyler's Tap Room, American Tobacco Campus, Durham
clock | August 5, 2008Last week, most of the attention of the media, Old and New, revolved around the question if it is McCain supporters or Obama supporters who are more likely to think that Britney Spears is teh hawt (dunno what the answer is, but I recall seeing some statistics about the overwhelming lead by the Red States in porn consumption, TV watching, numbers of adult establishments and number of visits to such establishments per capita, and this may or may not correlate with the perception of Britney Spears as attractive to certain subsets of the male population).
But her name has also been mentioned a…
clock | July 26, 2008Discussed at these sites, among others:
Chart junk-ies
When bar charts go bad
World's Most Expensive Places to Have Sex.
Catch the flaw(s).
Click here to see large.
Go under the fold to see small:
clock | July 20, 2008Titles of blog posts have to be short, but I could expand it to something like this:
"Depending on the medium and the context, many scientists can be and often are excellent communicators"
That is what I understood to be the main take-home message of "Sizzle". If you check out all the other blog reviews, even those that are the harshest do not state the opposite, i.e., that the movie pushes the stereotype of scientists as dull, stuffy communicators. Though, some of the commenters on those blog posts - people who could not have seen the movie themselves yet - imply that this was the case.
So…
clock | July 14, 2008Yes, I am one of many SciBlings and other bloggers who got offered to pre-screen Randy Olson's new movie "Sizzle" (check the Front Page of scienceblogs.com for links to all the others). I was reluctant at first, but in the end I gave in and agreed to preview a copy. Why was I reluctant? As a scientist, I need to start my piece with a bunch of neatly organized caveats, so here are the reasons why I thought I would not be a good person to review the movie:
- I am just not a good movie critic. Of the thousands of movies I have seen in my life, I disliked perhaps three. I am terribly…
clock | July 14, 2008Interactions with the Mass Media (pdf):
Our analysis shows that interactions between scientists and journalists are more frequent and smooth than previously thought. This five-country survey also suggests that the scientists most involved in these interactions tend to be scientifically productive, have leadership roles, and--although they consider concerns as well as perceived benefits--that they perceive the interactions to have more positive than negative outcomes. Despite minor variations in the assessment of media contacts across the five countries, the basic patterns are surprisingly…
clock | July 12, 2008Triggered by noticing who was very obviously missing from the most recent Dawkins' book that collects the best essays in modern science writing, Larry has been writing recently about other people who are excellent science writers. I have been a fan, for a long time, of the writings by Richard Lewontin, Niles Eldredge, David Raup, Jacques Monod and Steven Vogel. I am afraid I did not read enough by Eugenie Scott and should also check out Brent Dalrymple, Helena Curtis and David Suzuki.
And of non-modern science writers, I always found Darwin fun to read.
So, who do you like? Carl Sagan,…
clock | July 5, 2008Thursday, July 10
6:00 - 8:00 PM
With support from our friends at Burroughs Wellcome Fund, SCONC (Science Communicators of North Carolina) is hosting an introduction to podcasting (think of it as radio over the Internet). National authority Ryan Irelan of Podcast Free America will lead a two-hour session at Sigma Xi on NC 54 in the Research Triangle Park. (click here for directions) Please RSVP to Ernie Hood no later than Tuesday, July 8, or you might go hungry. (bkthrough AT earthlink DOT net)
clock | June 20, 2008New issue of the Italian Journal of Science Communication is out with some excellent articles (some translated or abstracted from Italian, all in English):
Cultural determinants in the perception of science:
Those studying the public understanding of science and risk perception have held it clear for long: the relation between information and judgment elaboration is not a linear one at all. Among the reasons behind it, on the one hand, data never are totally "bare" and culturally neutral; on the other hand, in formulating a judgment having some value, the analytic component intertwines -…
clock | June 14, 2008You have to act quickly, though:
We've been airing audio comments on our new national public radio
show, The Takeaway (http://www.thetakeaway.org), for the past couple
of weeks. On Monday, we want to highlight your scientificky thoughts
on "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" and "THE HAPPENING".
There's a lot of genetics and plant biology and global warming stuff
there to sink your teeth into. Here's what we're looking for: By
Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern, tell us two things about whichever movie you
saw:
1. ONE-PHRASE CAPSULE REVIEW -- IT'S QUICK AND EASY!
Say, "It was __________". Put an adjective or…
clock | June 2, 2008Go to http://www.slideworld.org, type in a keyword, and it will do a search of slideshows that contain that word. I typed "circadian" and found a lot....
Hat-tip: Ana
clock | June 2, 2008The media monitor:
"Timothy Caulfield has spent years listening to scientists complain that the media does a poor job of explaining science. As research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, he has heard this so often, he says, that he started to believe it too. Finally, he decided to find out for himself.
Caulfield pored over the print media's coverage of genetic discoveries from around the English-speaking world and compiled a list of 627 newspaper articles reporting on 111 different scientific journal articles. Together with a team of coders, all of whom had…
clock | June 2, 2008Another SCONC event:
RENCI to Show the Power of Visual Communications at Lunchtime Bistro:
The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) invites the public to a Renaissance Bistro lunchtime demonstration and lecture from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 26 in the Showcase Dome room at the RENCI engagement center at UNC Chapel Hill.
The Bistro is free and includes lunch on a first-come, first-served basis.
RENCI experts, Eric Knisley, 3D visualization researcher, and Josh Coyle, new media specialist, will demonstrate three-dimensional visualizations and interactive touch screen displays. Attendees…
clock | April 25, 2008Last week in Trieste, immediately after the scienceblogging session at FEST, I helped start a new blog - Via Ginnastica. It will be run by nine room-mates (in an apartment in the Gymnastic Street), all nine graduates of the Science Communications program in Trieste and all now science journalists of one kind or another. They will mix English and Italian language, serious and fun posts. We'll keep watching....
clock | March 22, 2008The new edition (first online edition) of Scope, the MIT Grad Program in Science Writing's student webzine, is out (hat-tip to Tom) with several great articles. Check out, for instance, Words (Just Might) Hurt Me: The Trouble with 'Theory'.
clock | March 19, 2008Should we have a third culture?:
The present problems with science communication are not only a result of mediocre writing skills or the diminished view of popularization the some scientists take. The public, aptly described as "consumers," have not developed much of a taste for science. As important as science has become, for many people it concerns itself with questions that won't pay their bills or put food on the table, and therefore requires little attention. If it's not interesting, why take an interest in it? Such a view is absolutely dismal, but many people have a somewhat narrowed…
clock | March 15, 2008When we see a brain 'light up,' [most of] our brains shut off which explains The functional neuroanatomy of science journalism.