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 Inés Gutierrez SAN FRANCISCO—For quite some time, the words “the future is now” have been chasing us. Our collective imagination envisions a tomorrow filled with holograms, interactive media and 3D images. But when we look around, we realize that day may not come soon. However, one thing has visibly changed: digital content is more... 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 Leah Rosenbaum SAN FRANCISCO—Every day, it seems, reporters cover a new stem cell treatment. But how are journalists supposed to distinguish the real stem cell treatments from the fake? While there have been bona fide advances in the past two decades, stem cells also have become associated with shoddy clinics and treatments that may... 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 Sergio Villagrán SAN FRANCISCO—Latin America is well represented at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2017. With 78 registrants from 12 countries, the tenth edition of the world’s most important event in science journalism has featured the largest Latin American gathering in the meeting’s history. But this good news also brings many shared challenges.... 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
