Last July, amid tapas and cocktails at a Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) conference mixer in Barcelona, I was served something far less appetizing: the news that for five days, unbeknownst to me, a radio frequency identification device (RFID) hidden in my name tag had been reporting my conference attendance habits to organizers. Ditto for the rest of the conference's nearly 5,000 participants, many of whom were science journalists.
Dec. 7, 2008NASW news
Congratulations to Richard Robinson, this year's winner of the Diane McGurgan Service Award. Richard, currently chair of NASW's actively engaged freelance committee, embodies the enthusiasm and spirit of the McGurgan Award. A member since 1996, Richard has contributed steadfastly to the listservs, shepherded the development of the Words' Worth compensation database, and has lobbied tirelessly on behalf of his fellow freelancers.
Nov. 20, 2008Convened at 5:41 p.m. by Robert Lee Hotz, president, who started by saying: "I'm not one to bury the lede." He then announced that Diane McGurgan will be retiring in June 2009 and called it a "sad but wonderful moment." He talked of Diane as "the heart, the soul, the memory, the sharp tongue and the all-embracing warm hug of this organization."
Oct. 11, 2008The winners of the 2008 Science in Society Journalism Awards, sponsored by the National Association of Science Writers are: Liza Mundy for her book "Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men and Women and the World" (Knopf), Beth Whitehouse for her Newsday series "The Match," and Stephen Lyons and Llewellyn M. Smith for their docudrama "Forgotten Genius," which appeared on PBS's NOVA television series.
Sep. 18, 2008Joe Palca, science correspondent for National Public Radio, has been named to receive the 2008 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting for his outstanding, insightful coverage of a wide range of medical topics.
Sep. 12, 2008