David Perlman is retiring from journalism. He's been a science writer through it all: The discovery of Lucy, Dolly the Sheep, the identification of exoplanets, the AIDS epidemic. He has a clip of his first story about AIDS on his office wall. It's maybe 12 or 15 inches long and was published in June 1981, around the start of the global scourge.
Science writing news
People with low health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized, have chronic illnesses, and not seek treatment than those who better understand and use health information obtained from health care providers and the media. Health literacy is a relatively new and still evolving focus of scientific study, according to NASW member Robert A. Logan and Elliot R. Siegel, editors of Health Literacy: New Directions in Research, Theory and Practice. Topics of likely interest to NASW members addressed in the book include how people receive health information, use of social media as a tool for health promotion, and communication skills of health professionals.
Allegations of sexual harassment or assault by powerful men generate daily news headlines. In Advance Copy, Mark Pendergrast discusses how he jumps into the fray with his newest book, The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment. Pendergrast asks: Did false memories, uncritical reporting, and the lure of potential large financial settlements contribute to Sandusky’s conviction as a serial child molester? “Weigh the evidence,” Pendergrast urges. “Then form your own conclusions.”
In January, an invitation to speak at a public-health workshop in Ethiopia arrived in Emily Caldwell's email inbox. The presentation topic was vaguely described as "health communication." Caldwell was thrilled to accept.
The NASW Grants Committee is now accepting applications for 2017-2018 Peggy Girshman Idea Grants for projects from $1,000 to $25,000. Applications are due on December 15, 2017. Read more for application instructions and helpful hints.
The Grand Canyon in Arizona occupies about triple the area of the world’s ten smallest countries. Land used for farmland worldwide would fill an area about 10,000 times that of the Grand Canyon. In Magnitude: The Scale of the Universe, Kimberly Arcand and NASW member Megan Watzke show how scientists reliably distinguish large from small, fast from slow, hot from cold, far from near, and much more. Using everyday experiences and extensive color illustrations, Arcand and Watzke explain how orders of magnitude enable us to make sense of the world around us.
Science writer Brian Vastag is taking part in an intense experiment aimed at finding out if and how an infection may have disrupted his nervous system, leaving him with myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS.
“Once I started looking, I found jellyfish stories everywhere,” Juli Berwald writes in Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone. “I spent hours reading about their shape, how they swim, what they eat, whether they think, how they reproduce, how they sting, how they glow.” Berwald traveled the globe to observe and swim with jellyfish, and talk with scientists working with them. Her odyssey — an instructive guide to researching and writing a book — provides a first-hand look at the lives of the historically understudied jellyfish, and perspective on the likely future of our oceans.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT