June 1998 Newsletter

We're throwing the first electronic edition of the NCSWA newsletter in bits and bytes through the wires to land on your computer doorstep. Because there's no "outside" and "inside" to the newsletter anymore, our format will change just a bit. But we'll be ever succinct, informative and helpful.

UPCOMING EVENT:

NCSWA members, sign up now for the fabulous evening at the uh ... .let's see... .where is the next meeting? Oh, yeah. At the amazing Memory Show at the Exploratorium in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 17th. The night is planned as follows:

	6:00-7:30 -- Gather in the Memory exhibit for informal tours with University of California, Berkeley, psychologist Art Shimamura and artists.
	7:30-9:00 - Have dinner and hear Art Shimamura talk about aging and memory (NCSWAns favorite topic), and any other memory topics we can remember to bring up.
	9:00 - We may revisit the exhibition. There will be an informal gathering of memory people, along with Osher Fellow Lewis Hyde, who's giving a lecture that evening.

Babaloo Catering will provide hors d'oeuvres during the schmoozing hour, and Cuban-Caribbean tapas of all sorts -- including seafood, meat, and vegetarian -- for dinner. The cost: $20.

RESERVE NOW:  You must revert to snail mail to make a reservation, so send in your checks (made out to NCSWA) by June 12 to Bob Sanders, 1512 Holly St., Berkeley, CA 94703. Include the following information:

Name:________________________________________

Guest(s):______________________________________

Total number of dinners. __________

TOTAL ENCLOSED: $_________($20 per person, $15 for students)

Phone:______________________________

Plus any news or announcements, or suggestions for our next speaker or meeting place.

DIRECTIONS: The Exploratorium is located in the landmark Palace of Fine Arts building in San Francisco's Marina district, off highway 101 near the Golden Gate Bridge. Free parking is available.

By public transportation: From Fisherman's Wharf take the #30 Stockton bus. From other locations, Muni buses #22, 28, 41, 43, 45, and many Golden Gate Transit buses stop nearby.

Unfortunately,  not enough people signed up for us to reserve our own personal NCSWA Tactile Dome tour. Those of you who are still interested, you'll have to call the Exploratorium (415-561-0362) and make a reservation for yourself. The last tour on June 17th is at 4 p.m. It takes about an hour. It costs $12.

ABOUT THE MEMORY EXHIBIT:   The Exploratorium's Memory exhibit explores the biological, psychological and cultural aspects of memory, from personal experiences to breakthroughs in cognitive science. It features hands-on exhibits, demonstrations, and artworks. The exhibit comprises several themes: the brain, sense memory, remembering who you are, remembering without thinking, remembering and forgetting (our favorite), and shared memories. For more info, check out http://www.exploratorium.com.

ABOUT DR. ART SHIMAMURA: He's a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research involves the study of human memory and cognition from a neuropsychological perspective. His primary focus is on the study of memory disorders in neurological patients. He is also involved in investigations of how the normal aging process affects memory and cognition. Dr. Shimamura is the author or co-author of over 60 journal articles and book chapters and is currently associate editor of the Psychological Bulletin and scientific advisor for the San Francisco Exploratorium.

EXTRA SPECIAL EVENT

Set aside Sunday, June 28, for an 11 am tour of the Mystery Spot outside Santa Cruz, followed by a no-host lunch at a local cafe or pub and a talk by Art Shimamura about his analysis of the famous illusion. Space is limited, so if you want to attend drop Blake Edgar a note at bedgar@calacademy.org. Expect to pay $4 per person for the tour, plus lunch. Details to follow.

LAST TIME: Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and head of the international Supernova Cosmology Project, told us how he and his team used their observations of distant supernovas to figure out that the universe will expand forever. We all left with our minds boggled, because between his enthusiasm for the subject and his ease at walking us through the process, we understood. The stars outside at 10:30 p.m. just didn't look the same.

NEWS ABOUT NCSWAns

George Musser has left Mercury magazine to join Scientific American, temporarily at the San Francisco office but beginning this summer in the Gran Manzana. He tells us that when he moved to San Francisco, he vowed never to return to the East Coast. At least he can look forward to decent bagels and trains that run on time. His successor at Mercury -- the membership magazine of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, a professional and educational organization based in San Francisco -- will be James White, an astronomer and science writer formerly at Middle Tennessee State University. George can always be reached at gmusser@nasw.org.

Karen Watson left the University of California, Davis, to take a job as science producer at Discovery Channel Online in Bethesda, Maryland. She's looking for writers, especially those who want to do multimedia reporting: that is, moving beyond text alone into thinking about telling stories in video, photos, graphics, audio, interactivity and -- not to be forgotten -- text. Among other projects, she will produce an upcoming multimedia series undertaken by NCSWA prez Jane Stevens, who's joining an Australian expedition aboard the research icebreaker Aurora Australis this summer. About 50 scientists will be exploring the Antarctic winter sea ice ecosystem for eight weeks, beginning in July.

NEW MEMBERS: A hearty NCSWA welcome goes out to Nancy Mayer, Colleen Turrell, Linda Berris, Evelyn Strauss, Sue Wallace, Julie Appleby, Jan Ambrosini, W. Wayt Gibbs, Christopher Besey, Jonathan Kamin, Cynthia Corwin, and Rebecca Palmer.

REMINDERS:

Job Announcements: If you're in the market for a job, be sure to check out NCSWA's jobline for job postings. (Jobline is available only to NCSWA members.)  For more information, email jobs coordinator Sheila Stavish at 72066.1061@compuserve.com, or call her at 415-548-9787.

Dues: Now that we're sending the newsletter out electronically, we'll be distributing dues notices through the Internet too. When it's time for you to re-up, Jeffery Kahn will contact you by email (or snail mail if you are not yet online) as a reminder to mail him your annual $20.

If you have any suggestions for the newsletter, for upcoming meetings, or any news, please email Jane Stevens at jesteven@dcn.davis.ca.us.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE SPEAKERS: Any suggestions for our future speakers? If so send them to Lynn Yarris, our program chair.