Student science writers from around the world have created a set of 52 stories from the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017, spanning most of the meeting’s sessions and creating a valuable reference archive for journalists in the U.S. and abroad. The reports, along with bios of the authors, are online at the WCSJ2017 Student... Read More
By Amelia Jaycen SAN FRANCISCO—Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel Prize–winning astrophysicist and cosmologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has spent a lot of his time ascertaining how quickly the universe is expanding. But he is also concerned with some down-to-earth issues, like the state of human interactions. As he watched public discussions unfold in the last... Read More
By Carolyn M. Wilke SAN FRANCISCO—Is fact-checking the future of journalism? That question, at once disturbing for our society and promising for the increased role science journalists might play in combating fake news, drove a panel discussion among four experts on 30 October at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017. The panelists, all experienced... Read More
SAN FRANCISCO—Science podcasts are more popular than ever. Producing them takes time, technical savvy, and a deep passion to engage listeners with material that is both informative and fun. How does one start a science podcast and build a dedicated audience? Those topics drew an enthusiastic crowd on 27 October at the World Conference of... Read More
By Liz Kimbrough SAN FRANCISCO—When South African student journalist Sibusiso Biyela sat down to write about the launch of the MeerKAT telescope in both English and Zulu, he thought it would be simple. The English version rolled out smoothly. But when he began to translate into Zulu, his native language, he found he would have... Read More
By Kimberly Hickok SAN FRANCISCO—Women have made great strides in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But in non-Western countries, huge gender gaps remain in both representation and opportunity. That reality drove a vigorous discussion during a special luncheon sponsored by 23andMe and Johnson & Johnson Innovation on 27 October at the World... Read More
By Sebastián Rodríguez SAN FRANCISCO—Science can bring us together in unexpected ways. Charles Darwin, for instance, figured out that we are all related to a common ancestor; James Watson and Francis Crick discovered that all organisms share the same genetic language, DNA. Today, a particle accelerator is playing the same role for scientists in the... Read More
By Leah Rosenbaum SAN FRANCISCO—When the next big disease outbreak comes around, science journalists will have a key role to play in keeping the public informed. Two public health experts and a global health journalist reflected on that role during a panel called “The Challenges of Covering Infectious Disease Outbreaks,” held on 27 October at... Read More
By Setsen Altan-Ochir SAN FRANCISCO—With little overlap in their approaches, the writers agreed on one thing: If you have a subject you are passionate about and would love to spend several years delving into that subject regardless of the outcome, write that book. On 28 October at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017, three... Read More
By Ellen Rykers SAN FRANCISCO—The tip of bone sticking out of the dusty Patagonian earth was a tantalising hint: dinosaur fossil. Paleontologist Diego Pol and his team began to dig—unaware that they were about to unearth the largest dinosaur bone ever found. This giant bone was just one of a series of sensational South American... Read More
By Kelsey Harper SAN FRANCISCO—“There’s no sitting on the sidelines today,” announces German science journalist Kai Kupferschmidt as conference attendees shuffle into the room with matching looks of vague confusion. He herds them to the front of the room, where two groups of chairs face each other. The seats are separated by an aisle 3.96... Read More
