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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.

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.

From ScienceWriters: Mars Curiosity Rover landing goes viral

For seven exhilarating minutes this past August, the newsroom at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory crackled with the human electricity of telepresence. In those moments, hundreds of reporters, jammed elbow-to-elbow, were joined by a global audience drawn directly into the heartbeat of a breaking-news event.

SciWri12 updates and travel info

Questions? A new page has been posted to update attendees traveling to ScienceWriters2012. Please click here for travel, event, and shuttle details. If you missed out on registration for this year's meeting, stay tuned to sciencewriters2012.org or follow #sciwri12 for updates during the meeting.

On science blogs this week: Hell

More meningitis and more deaths — and probably more on the way. The new, industrial-strength, compounding pharmacy. "A spectacular failure of consumer protection." Who should regulate compounding pharmacies? A neurosurgeon claims meningitis took him to heaven. And then, big surprise, he wrote a book about it. A neurologist explains what really happened. NASW meeting next week, @ScienceWriters, #sciwri12. How to write and market science and medical ebooks.

Send us your contracts — please

In order to help freelancers navigate the labyrinth of contracts and legalese — and increase their chance of negotiating reasonable and fair terms — the Freelance Committee is undertaking the task of building a reference contracts database. To help out, please submit your relevant writing contracts or clauses from the last three years.

On science blogs this week: Noble

Hormone therapy in rehab. Again. New hormone therapy data confirm that timing matters. The Nobel Prizes. Chemistry is biology, and biology is physics. Reprogramming stem cells: betcha didn't know it dates to 1962. G protein-coupled receptors: "bio with huge pharma implications." Physics: uhhhh ... But why not the Higgs boson?

First time at a ScienceWriters meeting?

Is this your first ScienceWriters meeting? Do you have experiences to share from previous meetings? NASW Member Michael Newman is once again organizing a chance for first-time meeting attendees to get together and have their questions answered by veterans. Read on to learn more about how you can get your questions answered and meet new colleagues in an informal setting.

Some tips for beginning freelancers

Poynter's Beth Winegarner lists a half-dozen ways for freelancers to build their businesses. Many of them boil down to finding a network and making the most of it: "Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, connecting with fellow freelancers has never been easier. Knowing who’s writing, and who they’re writing for, gives you a good sense of which publications are open to taking freelance work," Winegarner writes. Also, do your homework, and "pitch more than you can write."

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