2002 AAAS SCIENCE JOURNALISM AWARDS

A broadcast program on 18 Ways to Make a Baby, an expose' on burning coal fires, and feature coverage of research that makes connections between birdsongs and neurodegenerative disease, are among the winners of the 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Awards, sponsored by The Whitaker Foundation.

Six reporters were named to receive AAAS Science Journalism Awards this year, recognizing exemplary communications efforts, completed between July 1, 2001 and June 30, 2002, on behalf of large and small newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online media outlets.

With scientists and journalists as judges, this award is a double honor and doubly humbling, said NASW member Peter N. Spotts, science and technology correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston and this years winner for smaller newspapers.

The 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Award recipients will each receive a $2,500 cash award and plaque during a reception at the 2003 AAAS Annual Meeting in Denver in February.

Andrew Revkin

Peter N. Spotts

Michael Specter

Sarah Holt

Bari Scott

Alan Boyle

Newspapers with a circulation of more than 100,000

Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times was honored for three articles: U.S. Sees Problems in Climate Change (June 3, 2002); Sunken Fires Menace Land and Climate (Jan. 15, 2002); and The Devil is in the Details (July 3, 2001). Fires are burning in thousands of underground coal seams from Pennsylvania to Mongolia, releasing toxic gases, adding millions of tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and baking the earth until vegetation shrivels and the land sinks, Revkin wrote in his expose' on burning coal fires.

Revkin, who had previously received the AAAS award for 1984 magazine coverage of the theory of nuclear winter, said that recognition helps to encourage more comprehensive environmental reporting: Particularly when covering something as complicated and multifaceted as the changing climate, he said, this award is the kind of feedback every writer craves-confirmation by peers and experts that youre getting things right.

Newspapers with a circulation of less than 100,000

Peter N. Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor received an award for articles titled If You Smash It, They Will Come (Aug. 23, 2001); Fish or Famine (Sept. 6, 2001); and Out of Africa . . . Come Fascinating Fossils (Nov. 15, 2001). Dreams of a 20-mile-long particle collider for probing the subatomic world inspired one of the articles, while the others covered controversial marine reserves and Africas emerging role as a hotbed of significant new dinosaur discoveries. Sharply drawn, compelling descriptions are a hallmark of work by Spotts, who described a marine reserve, for example, as 151-square nautical miles of crystalline water brush-stroked with the brilliant hues of tropical fish and lush coral.

Magazines

Michael Specter of the New Yorker earned the AAAS Science Journalism Award for magazine entries with his 10-page story on the evolution of what is known about learning and the brain, titled Rethinking the Brain (July 23, 2001). Specters piece opens with researcher Fernando Nottebohms fixation on the melodies of songbirds, a pivotal event in neuroscience history. Nottebohms obsession with how birds learn to sing set off a chain of discoveries that have fundamentally altered the way scientists think about the brain, Specter explained in a piece that effectively draws readers behind the scenes of scientific investigation. It has also opened a tantalizing, if tentative, new route toward treating degenerative conditions.

Television

Sarah Holt of WGBH/NOVA won the television award from AAAS for her piece titled 18 Ways to Make a Baby (Oct. 9, 2001), which investigated reproductive technologies since the development of in vitro fertilization and the birth in 1978 of Louise Brown, the first human baby conceived outside the womb. Through interviews with parents and medical professionals, and amazing clinical footage, Holt explains that one in six couples struggle with infertility issues, and she makes such complex terms as intracytoplasmic sperm injection understandable while also covering some of the troubling questions raised by designer baby initiatives and older mothers. Theres, like, 18 different ways to make a baby now, one of her subjects says. And, you know, that makes us rethink, `What is a family?'

Radio

Bari Scott of SoundVision Productions (for broadcast over National Public Radio) received the award for a series called The DNA Files (November 2001). Hosted by John Hockenberry, the series pointed out that what were learning from the DNA, in organisms as diverse as bears, barnacles, and bacteria, is telling us not only intimate details about these life-forms, but about all of life. The fascinating review chronicled what is known thus far about DNA in a lively format that covered an array of uses for DNA-based knowledge-from forensics to the identific-ation of rogue bears, and from genetic fingerprinting of threatened creatures to the development of pollutant-degrading microbes.

Online

Alan Boyle of MSNBC.com earned the AAAS prize for online entries with an article titled Genetic Genealogy: How Science Is Filling Out Family Trees (Jan. 16, 2002). By examining the emerging practice of genetic genealogy, the quest to track down family roots, Boyles piece revealed the mystery and excitement of DNA analysis-a topic perhaps not usually associated with high drama. Boyle walked readers through DNA-testing technologies by telling a first-person story of his own quest to learn the truth about his family beyond his great-grandfather, who fled Irelands County Clare during the depths of Irelands potato famine in 1847.

The online awards category helps to promote best practices in the emerging field of Internet-based science journalism, Boyle noted. Im humbled and grateful to be in such august company, he added. I hope this recognition will encourage online journalists-including myself-to go beyond `shovelware and tell tales of wonder that are made for the Web.

The AAAS Science Journalism Awards program, established in 1945, helps to foster the publics understanding and appreciation of science by promoting best practices in journalism, noted Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science.

Since their inception nearly six decades ago, the awards have honored more than 300 individuals for their achievements in science journalism. The awards recognize outstanding reporting for a general audience and honor individuals (rather than institutions, publishers or employers) for their coverage of the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. To ensure the utmost objectivity and the highest possible standards of integrity, all entries are assessed by independent screening and judging panels.

(Source: AAAS news release)