When a study is retracted, “it can be hard to make its effects go away,” says Sheldon Tobe, a kidney-disease specialist at the University of Toronto. And that’s more important today than ever because retractions of scientific studies are surging. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
Science writing news
Canids galore: Where did dogs come from? Bad news for bulldogs. Pleiotropy, pre-adaptation, and the domestication of silver foxes. Silver Fox, blogging geology. It's Sand Dune Week!
By all accounts, WCSJ2011 was an impressive feat, marking the first iteration of the conference hosted by an Arab nation. But behind the scenes, political problems caused extensive debate and several disruptions. The inclusion of U.S.-Israeli journalist Anna Wexler on a panel caused divisions within the Arab Science Journalists Association (ASJA), a co-sponsor of the conference. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
Neutrinos continue to be faster than light. Perhaps. A flood of stem-cell blogging: At the American Heart Association meeting, one small trial yields positive results, another doesn't, and the media fumble coverage. Stem-cell pioneer Geron shuts down its tiny clinical trial and flees the field. Some bloggers mourn, while others jump for joy.
The digital media age serves up uncertainty as well as opportunity. One solution to the anemic job pool for science writers is to grow beyond journalism into entrepreneurship, specifically into digital publishing. Training for this kind of career growth is exactly what the Knight Digital Media Center offers in its intensive, weeklong workshop called Independent Journalist. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
By the time WCSJ2011 opened in late June, organizers felt entitled to breathe a sigh of relief. The biennial international conference had come together despite a last-minute relocation from conflict-ridden Cairo, Egypt, to Doha, Qatar, and the attendees had arrived mostly without incident. All seemed well. Until about the third day. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
Three sessions from our recent Flagstaff conference were caught on video and are now available for viewing on our conference reports page. They are: "Straight to the Source: Helping Scientists Speak Directly to the Press," "How to Sell That Story You Can't Let Go," and "Science News, Spot News, or Both? Managing and Covering Science Protests." Also available is an audio recording of "Writing about Science for Non-Science Publications."
More untrustworthy social science research, only this time outright fraud. That database of naughty docs has been restored to public view, thanks to journalism organizations. The government appears to have taken it down after pressure by one of them, a neurosurgeon with 16 malpractice complaints.
We often want to know the history of something (cars, relationships, pets) before we invest in it. Learning about the past helps us understand how things, people, and ideas got to where they are today. But often the history or story behind an idea gets left out of science writing. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
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