Here’s some science journalism tracking today that samples the next generation’s output, and it is rather promising. Rob Irion, director of the Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz, sends along this year’s Science Notes. It’s a collection of the program’s ten students’ feature-length work, plus art from a somewhat affiliated science illustration program at UCSC (and which, alas, is facing a possible budgetary axe). As many experienced science reporters have noticed, the program there gets its grads regularly into the biz. Its alums make for a cohesive community of “slugs” scattered all over – and moving in packs at major meetings and workshops. The package is polished and includes multimedia accompaniments such as videos and podcasts. Seriously worth a look. Rob informs us that he plans to send it to high school science teachers throughout California. Good idea – the students write on local material, which necessarily mandates a lot of profiles of scientists at work rather than news features on big achievements (and no expozays of scurrilous behavior). High schoolers from this will learn a great deal about what life as a scientist entails.
As usual, and typical of most new science journalists throughout the US for the last ten years or so, the class this year has been mostly women. I once called it the estrogentrification of science writing (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) You can go look at it and pick through the interactive cover-cum-table of contents opening page yourself. Or, to follow a form sometimes used on this site, and to introduce some bylines we will probably be seeing more:
Notable headlines (several include sidebars) :
Amber Dance – Physicists Shine Some Light on the Brain ;
Jane Liaw – Are Living Foods Getting a Raw Deal? ; (The Tracker loves a quote from a researcher on the supposed nutritional superiority of raw food: “It’s a lot of crap.” And yes the piece is nicely balanced anyway.
Erin Digitale – The Empathetic Internet ;
Madolyn Bowman Rogers – The Forest Laboratory ;
Massie Santos Ballon – Small Things Considered ; (microscale mechanics) ;
Roberta Kwok – Cracking the Earthquake Code ; (a good look at the rocky worlds of science and of small business) ;
Rachel Tompa – Oil on the Rocks ; (on oil spills, which the Tracker has long felt are way oversold by enviro-writers as enviro-calamities, each and every one. Still do but this article is a learning experience.)
Hayley Rutger – Dry Fields with Great Yields ; (on genetic engineering crops for drought resistance) ;
Alissa Poh – My Cell Phone Rings in A Minor ; (on perfect pitch, and the writer has it) ;
John C. Cannon – Fossils of Our Genetic Past ; (retroviruses that stuck with us) ;
-CP
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