March 25, 2019
On October 12, 2014, Scott Huler (’15) stepped into a canoe in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine months later, he stepped out of one in the small North Carolina town of Bath, near where the Pamlico River empties into the Atlantic. In between, he had hiked and paddled hundreds of miles of Carolina Backcountry in an attempt to retrace the steps taken by explorer John Lawson some 300 years earlier. Huler, who made the ambitious trek as a 2014-15 Knight Science Journalism Project fellow, has now turned that adventure into a book: A Delicious Country, published this month by University of North Carolina Press.
During the original trek, Lawson — a naturalist and writer — produced a rich catalogue of the flora, fauna, geography, and people of the little explored Carolina interior. Huler, in his modern-day recreation, did much the same, except in decidedly higher tech fashion: He documented his travels on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, interactive maps, and a blog called “The Lawson Trek.” Several of his blog posts were republished by Scientific American and at the Knight Science Journalism website.
Huler’s observations and encounters have yielded a book that’s being called an “eye-opening journey through the contemporary South.” You can learn more about the book and the project at The Lawson Trek blog, which Huler continues to update.
Chloe Hecketsweiler (’17) has been named France’s “science journalist of the year” in the category of written media, for her participation in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ collaborative investigation of medical implant failures, and for her stories on emerging technologies such as genetic engineering. Hecketsweiler reported on topics including designer babies, human-animal chimeras, and the use of synthetic biology by the food industry.
Valeria Román (‘05) is bringing serious science policy conversations to the halls of the Argentine Congress. Late last year, the former fellow organized and moderated a seminar called “Money for Argentine science: how to get information about the budget and understand it” at the Chamber of Deputies building in Buenos Aires. (The Chamber is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress, analogous to the U.S. House of Representatives.) Román organized the seminar as a member of the Argentine Network of Science Journalism. She says the seminar gave journalists, professors, and students an opportunity to learn about the evolution of Argentina’s science, technology, and innovation budget. The video of the seminar is now available here.
Jason Palmer (’14) has been named the host of The Economist’s new flagship, daily podcast, The Intelligence. Palmer will be supported by a team of eight editors and producers, and a global network of correspondents. The Economist’s Deputy Editor Tom Standage describes the show’s format this way: “Each 20-minute episode will kick off with a news segment, followed by a feature, and finally include a jolly segment that is spun around an unusual fact or statistic.”
Here’s what other alumni are writing: a compendium from Federico Kukso (’16).
Pablo Correa (’13): “Surgery with robots was not a good idea in cancer patients,” El Espectador (in Spanish).
Valeria Román (’05): “Who are the 5 Argentine scientists who are changing the health of humans and the planet,” Infobae (in Spanish).
Iván Carrillo (’17): “The next big earthquake: How vulnerable are we?,” Tangible/El Universal (in Spanish).
Mićo Tatalović (’18): “Serbia is rethinking science — but the reforms could cost hundreds of jobs,” Nature.
Jane Qiu (’18): “China creating national medical ethics committee to oversee high-risk clinical trials,” STAT.
Rod McCullom (’16): “Google Searches Could Predict Heroin Overdoses,” Scientific American.
Courtney Humphries (’16): “How Amazon Prime will change the way our cities look,” Boston Globe.
Federico Kukso (’16): “The hidden side of the Periodic Table of the Elements,” Tangible/El Universal (in Spanish).
Giovana Girardi (’15): “,” Estadao (in Portuguese).
Dan Falk (’12): “How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science,” Quanta.
Sascha Karberg (’09): “Depression: therapy by algorithm,” Horizons.
Teresa Firmino (’09): “Once upon a time a star exploded regularly in Andromeda,” Publico (in Portuguese).
Herton Escobar (’07): “Bolsonaro’s first moves have Brazilian scientists worried,” Science.
Jeff Tollefson (’05): “Tropical Africa could be a key to solving methane mystery,” Nature.
Clive Thompson (’03): “Our Ears Are Unlocking an Era of Aural Data,” Wired.
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