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 Sergio Villagrán BERKELEY, California—On 13 November, a letter signed by more than 15,000 researchers, titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” appeared in the journal BioScience. Coming 25 years after the first such warning from the scientific community, the letter notes how little we have done to stop the negative environmental trends... Read More
By Setsen Altan-Ochir SAN FRANCISCO—You might be 97% human and 3%… tapeworm. At least that’s what researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub learned when they sequenced one man’s DNA. Biochemist Joe DeRisi of the University of California, San Francisco, co-president of the Biohub, recounted this parasitic tale during a conversation with New York Times columnist... Read More
By Omnia Gohar SAN FRANCISCO—“Big data,” so central to modern physics and astronomy, offers the potential to revolutionize medicine as well. Vast archives of biomedical information could already include the data needed to diagnose and treat many diseases, said computational health scientist Atul Butte of the University of California, San Francisco, on 26 October at... Read More
By Kimber Price SAN FRANCISCO—In any given field of biomedicine, researchers publish thousands of journal articles each year. How can a healthcare journalist keep up? She can’t. But given the most comprehensive databases and the most malleable search tools, any journalist can home in on the information most relevant to their needs. And for... Read More
By Michelle Morelos SAN FRANCISCO—Knowing an opponent’s movements can give players an advantage in the game. That saying is especially apt for science journalists who cover the public and media manipulations from giant food and beverage corporations. On 29 October at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017, experts shared key ways to identify the... Read More
By Michelle Morelos SAN FRANCISCO—Just like us, marine species need safe places to call home. But the world’s oceans are no longer as safe. Climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing are the major problems faced by life in the sea. Are there actions humans can now take to turn the tide and lift the gloom?... Read More
