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
Extensive news coverage of scientific sessions, journalism panels, and field trips at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017 will appear on this page within the next two weeks, thanks to reporting from an international group of science writing students attending the meeting on full fellowships. The reports, both news stories and multimedia presentations, will... Read More
By Margarida Marques SAN FRANCISCO—The use of animals in research prompts as wide a range of opinions and emotions among researchers as it does for the public. This makes the topic tricky for journalists to cover if researchers are reluctant to discuss how they use laboratory animals—or if reporters elect to leave animals out of... Read More
By Félix Reskala SAN FRANCISCO—There is a problem in science: Scientists often can’t reproduce the results of their colleagues. More than 50% of researchers feel this poses a major problem for the field, according to a survey last year in Nature. To address what this issue means for science journalists, prominent editors and scientists convened... 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 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
