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NCSWHATNCSWA Newsletter, November 2006Editor: Robin Mejia, mejia@nasw.org DECEMBER 13 NCSWA HOLIDAY DINNER: SAVE THE DATE! Come celebrate with your colleagues at NCSWA’s annual NCSWA Holiday dinner! On December 13, we’ll meet for food, drink and merriment at Sinbad's, on the water in San Francisco. Come hear what your fellow NCSWA members have been up to this year -- trips to India and Kenya -- and mingle with national press in town for the AGU meeting. A full announcement with RSVP info is coming soon. UPCOMING DEADLINES The American Geophysical Meeting is just around the corner – December 11-15 in San Francisco. Journalists can register online until December 1 or onsite at the meeting: Press registration for the AAAS meeting is now open. The country’s largest general science meeting, AAAS will be in San Francisco this year, from February 15-19, and NCSWA will be hosting an AAAS press extravaganza Saturday night. AAAS encourages advance registration: The deadline for the Kaiser Media Internships in Health Reporting is December 1. Established in 1994, this is an intensive 12-week summer internship for young minority journalists interested in specializing in health reporting: The Metcalfe Institute for Marine and Environmental Science Reporting annual workshop for journalists will be held June 10-15 at the Metcalfe Institute of Rhode Island. Applications are due January 29, 2007. For more info: The Association of Health Care Journalists Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism early bird deadline is December 8, but entries will be accepted until January 10, 2007: The Investigative Reporters and Editors 2006 awards deadline is January 8, 2007: SINCE YOU LAST HEARD FROM US.... NCSWHAT is coming back after a hiatus. NCSWA never paused, though. If we didn't see you at any of these recent events, hope to catch you at our upcoming dinner. MARK CARR EXPLAINS THE SCIENCE BEHIND CALIFORNIA'S MARINE RESERVE NETWORK Next year, California will ban fishing in nearly 100 square miles of ocean water in an unprecedented effort to restore fish and other wildlife populations to the state’s shores. On October 21, 35 NCSWAns headed to Santa Cruz to hear UCSC biologist Mark Carr explain how California’s marine scientists came together to propose a network designed to support the life cycles of threatened species, and how the State’s Fish and Game board made a final decision that Carr and other researchers believe is supported by solid science. After the talk, Carr took the group out to the tide pools at Natural Bridges State Park, which will soon be part of a protected reserve. NCSWA member Ted Weinstein photographed members checking out limpets and anemones: OCTOBER DINNER HIGHLIGHTS HOW DRUG COMPANIES INFLUENCE DRUG TRIALS AND EXPAND DISEASE DEFINITIONS On October 10, about 50 NCSWAns heard a penetrating talk on an array of strategies used by drug companies to market their products to physicians, medical students and consumers. After dinner at Berkeley's Pyramid Ale House, UCSF professor Lisa Bero shared results from a just-published paper, drawing on rarely available internal pharmaceutical company documents. Bero showed how one drug manufacturer hired companies to create continuing medical education programs urging expanded use of their drug and sponsored medical advisory boards and consultant meetings to promote expanded uses, paying panel moderators and participants in the process. She also discussed studies she and others have carried out showing that the only predictor of positive clinical trial outcomes is whether or not the study is funded by the drug maker. She described many built-in design flaws that skew findings and shared her deep concern that marketing and advocacy in the guise of research undermines the research foundation for drug prescription decisions and erodes both the integrity of medical education and public trust in the research enterprise. Her after-dinner talk stimulated questions and concerns from NCSWAns whose wits were hardly hampered by Pyramid’s hearty ale. WAYNE LANIER GOES MICROBE HUNTING IN THE SAN FRANCISCO SALT FLATS In August, a group of NCSWAns were treated to a biologist-guided field trip to the salt flats of San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. Retired UCSF professor and geneticist Wayne Lanier has been studying the microbial communities of these ever-changing and largely unknown ecosystems that ring the bay. With gorgeous views of the city and across the bay, we walked out past the old power plant at Heron’s Head and collected water samples from some its ponds. Over lunch, Wayne pulled out some of his tough little field microscopes so we could get a look at some of the live microbes and discuss how these hidden ecologies change sometimes on a daily or even hourly time frame. After lunch, we were treated to a kite photography demonstration by Cris Benton, an architecture professor at UC Berkeley. Cris has been documenting some of Wayne’s study sites with a kite-mounted, radio-controlled camera system of his own design. In a nice twist, the scientists documented the science writers in their blog, which includes some aerial group photos of NCWAns enjoying a beautiful summer afternoon: NCSWANS INVADE THE CHABOT SPACE & SCIENCE CENTER FOR A NIGHT Also in August, about 30 NCSWAns spent a starry Saturday night visiting Oakland's Chabot Space & Science Center (http://www.chabotspace.org/). After dinner in the cafeteria, members wandered exhibits about the solar system and space exploration and watched a planetarium show, "The Sky Tonight," projected onto a 70-foot-wide dome. The show oriented audience members to simulated constellations and demonstrated, by time-lapsing the relative positions of stars throughout the seasons, such phenomena as why the stationary North Star guides navigators. The evening ended with members viewing the heavens through Chabot's telescopes--nicknamed "Nellie," "Rachel" and "Leah"--while astronomer Conrad Jung answered questions. Dawn Levy of NCSWA and Judyth Collin of Chabot organized the event, for which Chabot waived all fees. NEWS ABOUT MEMBERS John Moir's book, Return of the Condor: The Race to Save Our Largest Bird from Extinction was published by The Lyons Press in October. "Moir deftly chronicles the efforts of the dedicated biologists at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who work to save the California condor from extinction" says Publisher's Weekly. For more information, go to http://returnofthecondor.com Another local author, NCSWA president Suzanne Bohan, won a bronze award in the 2006 National Health Information Awards, in the category of disease prevention, for a book she co-authored with her husband, Glenn Thompson. The book is called 50 Simple Ways To Live A Longer Life: Everyday Techniques From The Forefront Of Science (Sourcebooks, 2005). To see a few of their tips, check out: www.50simpleways.com/ Julie Jervis has a book out as well, The World Beneath Their Wings: A New Millennium of Female Aviators. Her book talk, which discusses the challenges and accomplishments of the 15 contemporary aviators she profiled, is currently a popular feature of the Santa Clara County Library's youth in technology program. Julie has also been invited to talk at the 2007 Women in Aviation International Conference in Orlando next February. For more information, visit www.inflightusa.com New member Jennifer Yeh is the co-author of a new college textbook Conceptual Integrated Science (Addison Wesley, 2006). Yeh also wrote Endangered Species: Must They Disappear? (Information Plus reference series 2002, 2004). Rob Irion has left the freelance world behind, mostly, to direct the Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz. Please be kind to his ten graduate students when you see them. Rob's predecessor, program founder John Wilkes, is enjoying his richly deserved retirement with his two boys in Santa Cruz. In March, Debra Jacob took a position as Director of Communications Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). She's responsible for researching and writing about PEER's new earthquake research, publishing a website and other promotional materials, promoting PEER at trade shows and conferences, and working closely with media, government and research organizations in the community. In June, Robin Mejia saw her age posted on Romenesko, when she won a Livingston Award for Young Journalists. The Livingstons, which are awarded to journalists under the age of 35, are the largest all-media, general-reporting prizes in the country. Robin, now 33, won the national reporting award for her CNN Presents documentary Reasonable Doubt: Can Crime Labs be Trusted?, which looked at how problems in forensics labs have led to wrongful convictions. Bob Sanders spent the summer on Hawaii's Big Island, sitting in for Keck Observatory PIO Laura Kinoshita while she was on maternity leave. Bob writes that "the observatory, with the world's two biggest telescopes, is a hopping place, with the country's best astronomers coming through daily and always eager to talk about their research. The 13,790-foot summit of Mauna Kea at sunset is breathtaking; the 33-foot mirrors are awesome; the science rivals the Hubble Space Telescope. And the rest of the island ain't bad either -- I explored it all. Laura came back, however, so my two-month Hawaii adventure is only a fond memory." Physics chanteuse Lynda Williams will be performing her science songs at the American Geophysical Union meeting this December, and she is writing a planetarium show on astrobiology for January 2007. Williams also earned tenure at Santa Rosa Community College where, we assume, she lectures as well as sings. NEW MEMBERS Ex-physicist Kristin Abkemeier is a freelance writer. She’s also at work on a series of oil painting s that explore the textures that result from the supposition of sinusoidal waves. Cyndi Atherton is an atmospheric scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Technical writer and editor Diana Burke also works at LLNL. Writer and editor Robynne Boyd works at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. James Brice is a senior editor at Diagnostic Imaging magazine. Jessica Brown works as an ocean science outreach specialist for SeaWeb/COMPASS. Eileen Campbell is the owner of Farallon Media. Epidemiologist Deborah Chausow is a freelance science writer and editor who specializes in public health and environmental issues. Erika Check is a senior reporter for Nature. Cristina Deptula works as a science and technology journalist. Tim DeRoche is an independent executive producer. Kerry Dolan is a senior editor at Forbes Magazine. Research writer Margaret Gentzel works for the State of California Department of Water Resources. Brittany Grayson is a UCSC science writing student who has a BS in ecology, evolutionary and population biology from Purdue Univeristy. Thomas Hayden freelances from San Francisco. Sonja Shin Hodgkins is a freelance TV news reporter. Mary I. Huang is a medical writer for Axis Healthcare Communications. Marriage and family therapist Diane Kern works at Insight Center. Robin LeWinter is medical writer for Apothecom Associates LLC. Sybil Lockhart is a freelance writer. Cameron McCrady is a principal at Transpare Communications. Hugh McDonald didn’t tell us much about himself. Robert McNally is an IT publications editor for Kaiser Permanente. Graduate student Kaspar Mossman is attending the University of California, Berkeley. Richard A. Palfin, Ph.D., is the CEO of Palfin & Associates, Inc. Amy Petersen is a medical editor at the University of California, San Francisco who holds degrees in German, poetry, and comparative literature. Before heading west, she taught at the University of Iowa. Charles Plain is a science writer for NASA. Bruce Rappaport is an instructor for Community Resources for Science. Czerne Reid was writes for The (Columbia, North Carolina) State. We think she works remotely, since we’ve seen her at NCSWA dinners. Czerne also sings; her solo recording project is titled 'Birdsong.' Aditi Risbud graduated from the UCSC Science Communication program in 2006 (following a 2005 PhD in materials science from UCSB) and is now a science writing intern at Stanford University. Jomy Roberts does science writing and technology marketing for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Fereshteh Samsami is a student. Massie Santos Ballon writes a science column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Megha Satyanarayana is a freelance writer. Kayvon Sharghi is the founder and director for www.findingyourscience.org. Ben Shouse is a reporter at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Debra Summers is senior publications manager at the Trust for Public Land. Sharon Tellyer is a medical writer. Steve Tokar is the communications manager for the Northern California Institute for Research and Education. Katie Weber is a science writer for University of Wisconsin, Madison. Claudia Willen is an editor for the International AIDS Society. She’s also a photographer. Marla Wilson is the owner of Printed Page Productions. Lisa Winer is a freelance writer and editor. Jennifer Yeh of San Francisco has a new textbook out, as we noted above.
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