Science writing news

Tax legislation enacted last February again reduces Social Security taxes for employees and self-employment taxes for writers, artists, photographers, and other freelancers. What’s the savings this year for NASW members? ScienceWriters contributor Julian Block says the amount will vary, depending on how much they receive from salaries or from freelancing. Their savings can be as much as $2,202. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

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The National Academy of Sciences held a colloquium in May, “The Science of Science Communication,” at which dozens of science communication researchers discussed how lay audiences perceive science information. The major goal of this meeting was “to improve the understanding, relations between scientific community and the public,” said NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

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From autism to animal migration, pollution to animal testing, winners of this year's Science in Society Journalism Awards tackled sensitive and controversial topics with reporting and storytelling skill. Read on to learn more about the winning entries.

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A party honoring the inventor of an amusement park ride germinated an application for an NASW Idea Grant to fund a day-long workshop of bioethics for science journalists. Joe Bonner discusses the planning process and logistics for the meeting, which took place in March in New York City. Attendees included reporters and editors, PIOs, students, and concerned physicians and scientists. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

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Does aggressive science coverage help science? Or does it hinder science by providing ammunition to the science denial movement? Four prominent science journalists discussed that issue and others at April's NASW-sponsored "Science Writing in the Age of Denial" conference. The panel concluded that questions about the conflicts and context of science stories are where journalists can succeed in the new media environment. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

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Registration for ScienceWriters2012 is open now at sciencewriters2012.org. An early-bird discount is available until September 14. Registration closes on October 10.

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The key to countering science denial through journalism is to tell a good story. That's the view of Sean Carroll, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geneticist and vice president for science education at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who spoke at April's NASW-sponsored "Science Writing in the Age of Denial" conference. Carroll discussed narrative theory’s relationship to cognitive psychology. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

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