Association of British Science Writers

***PLEASE SEND APPLICATIONS TO BARBIE DRILLSMA - at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - INSTEAD OF TO VIOLA ****
 
 
Dear friends!
 
This is a call for the EUSJA study trip to Girona, Spain, 25 - 28 October, 2010.
 
The trip is organized by Catalan association (ACCC) and University of Girona (Cathedra of scientific culture and digital communications - http://c4d.udg.edu, http://www.udg.edu).

To see the draft program please click this link.
 
The rules are as usual: the participants have to take care for their travel costs to Girona, the host organization will cover accommodation (three nights), meals and transfers inside the country.
 
Please send your applications VIA NATIONAL ASSOCIATION to Merce Piqueras (ACCC) - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - by 15th of September 2010.  

(PLEASE CONTACT BARBIE DRILLSMA DIRECT WITH APPLICATIONS, SEE BELOW)

Please, write name, position in media, e-mail.
 
Total number of participants is 20. Each association may send at least one candidate. If you have more applicants, please write, who is first and who will be in a waiting list.
 
If you have any further questions, please ask Merce or me. 
With kind regards,
 
Viola Egikova.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
****PLEASE SEND APPLICATIONS TO BARBIE DRILLSMA - at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - INSTEAD OF TO VIOLA ****

We are happy to invite 1-2 representatives (members) of the
Association of British Science Writers to participate in the press
study tour “Healthy Future” and hope you will assist to distribute the
invitation.

The press study tour takes place 20 – 21 September with arrival the 19
and departure the 22. The press study tour is financed by Enterprise
Estonia, www.investinestonia.com/enterprise-estonia and is organised
by the Estonian Genome Foundation, www.genomics.ee

A detailed program for the press study tour will be forwarded to any
e-mail adress you may prefer.

The press study tour presides the 9th ScanBalt Forum entitled “Healthy
Future” taking place in Tallinn 22-24 September (see
www.scanbaltforum.eu ).

The intentions of the press study tour are to give an insight into the
Biotech sector in Estonia. The Government of Estonia January 2010
released a new ambitious strategy which means that the sector the
coming years is expected to strengthen its importance for the Estonian
economy and increase collaboration around the Baltic Sea Region.
During the press study tour you will have the opportunity to meet and
discuss with the key drivers and personalities behind this
development.

In addition, the EU flagship project “ScanBalt Health Region” will
exclusively launch its strategy during the press study tour. This
ambitious initiative as part of the EU Baltic Sea Region strategy aims
to promote a better life for the citizens and a more effective health
care sector together with strengthening regional development based on
health economy. Read more about ScanBalt Health Region at
http://www.scanbalt.org/projects/scanbalt+health+region

The press study tour covers economy class flight and accommodation and
all bookings will be taken care of by the organiser. Upon confirmation
of your participation we will connect you with the person responsible
for the bookings.

You register by replying to this e-mail latest 15th of August.

We are looking forward to see you in Tartu & Tallinn!

Kind regards

Peter Frank
General Secretary
ScanBalt
Arne Jacobsens Alle 15, 2
2300 Copenhagen (DK)
Mob 0045 27141078
www.scanbalt.org

See calendar for ScanBalt BioRegion at www.scanbalt.org/calendar

Science journalist Simon Singh won Health Campaigner of the Year, and Sense About Science took Health Charity of the Year, in the MJA 2010 Awards.

Sense About Science and Singh have been campaigning to reform England’s libel laws to protect medical and scientific discussions since Singh was sued by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) for his criticism in the Guardian of its claim that chiropractic was effective against childhood ailments like asthma or ear infections. (The BCA recently withdrew the suit.) The MJA has signed up in support of Sense About Science’s campaign.

In accepting the Award Tracey Brown of Sense About Science said, ‘Medical and science reporters must be free to ask awkward questions without ending up in court. That is why we welcome the libel reform bill soon to go before Parliament and will continue campaigning to make sure it offers real change in English libel law.’

The GP and television media doc, Pixie Mckenna, of the TV programme Embarrassing Bodies, presented the awards at a ceremony at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on July 15. 

A surprise Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to GP Ann McPherson (shortlisted for the Health Champion of the Year and also one of those who behind the shortlisted website healthtalkonline.com), for her ‘unique and extraordinary contribution to medical story-telling in both fact and fiction’. Dr McPherson is author of the popular novel, Diary of a Teenage Health Freak and was prompted to set up the health website that documents patients’ experiences of a wide range of medical conditions by her personal experience of having breast cancer.

The winners of the 2010 ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland were announced at an evening reception in London on Friday.  The winners were:

Best news item

John Travis, Europe News Editor, Science Magazine, for ‘Scientists Decry "Flawed" and "Horrifying" Nationality Tests: Scientists are greeting with surprise and dismay a project to use DNA and isotope analysis of tissue from asylum seekers to evaluate their nationality and help decide who can enter the United Kingdom.’ Published in Science.

Best feature

The judges were unanimous in deciding to make two awards in this category as there was no way of separating these two excellent entries:

Robin McKie, Science Editor, The Observer, for ‘Breathing lessons: This is what Emma Lake has to take every day to stay alive. But now a team of British scientists is on the verge of a evolutionary treatment that could extend her life by decades.’ Published in The Observer Magazine.

Helen Pearson, Chief Features Editor, Nature, for ‘One gene, twenty years: When the cystic fibrosis gene was found in 1989, therapy seemed around the corner.  Two decades on, biologists still have a long way to go.’ Published in Nature. NB: Helen Pearson could not be present at the ceremony and her award was collected on her behalf by Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature

Best scripted/edited programme (podcast, radio, TV or online video)

Nick Jordan, Producer/Director, Adam Rutherford, Presenter, Jacqueline Smith, Series Producer, BBC (team entry), for ‘The Cell’ a BBC Scotland Production broadcast on BBC4.

Best investigative journalism

Peter Aldhous, San Francisco Bureau Chief, New Scientist, for ‘How My Genome Was Hacked: If a New Scientist reporter’s DNA is vulnerable, so is yours.’ Published in New Scientist.

Best newcomer

Helen Thomson, Biomedical news editor, New Scientist. NB: Helen Thomson could not be present at the ceremony and her award was collected on her behalf by Jeremy Webb, Editor in Chief of New Scientist.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Geoff Watts, Broadcaster and Journalist, most recently presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Leading Edge

Now in its eighth year, the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Summer School, based at City University in London, attracted record numbers of participants this weekend. Between July 9th and 11th over 140 journalists, film makers, researchers and NGOs chose to spend the hottest days of the year learning the latest tricks of the trade, and the oldest tricks in the books.

Much of the weekend focused on computer and internet tools of various kinds, whether this was searching for information on the internet, requesting it from governments, or processing and analysing it with packages such as Microsoft Excel and Access. For light relief, there
were also glorious tales of derring-do in journalism from Julian Assange (Wikileaks), David Leigh (The Guardian) and Andrew Jennings. The stories ranged from super injunctions by Trafigura and tussles with lawyers Carter Ruck, to racketeering within FIFA.

The launch of a blog by PepsiCo on the ScienceBlogs network polarised both bloggers and readers. The criticism lead to the blog’s eventual removal, but not before severe damage was dealt to the network’s cadre of bloggers and its reputation.

On 7 July, ScienceBlogs, a popular network of science bloggers owned by Seed magazine, launched Food Frontiers, a nutrition blog by PepsiCo. The announcement caused uproar in some quarters of the ScienceBlogs community, with many star bloggers choosing to leave the network and others adopting a cautious approach.

Some members of the science blogging community insist that it was not fair to allow PepsiCo to buy a place on a network where other bloggers have had to earn their place on reputation.

Invitation to Space and R&D, 15 July 2010, 6pm - 9pm

Organised by the Research and Development Society and hosted by the Institute of Physics, London.

With Professor Richard Holdaway FREng, Director Space Science & Technology, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Matthew Stuttard, Head of Space Science and Exploration, EADS Astrium.

The UK is a leading player in space science and industry - we may not have sent astronauts to play golf on the moon, but UK-based companies and academic researchers have provided the knowledge and the technology to send missions to other planets, study the far reaches of the universe and improve the understanding of our own Earth. Many services essential for modern living are aided by satellites built, designed or developed in the UK.

This event will look at the opportunities for UK businesses in space science and the prospects for R&D that this brings. How can the UK ensure it fully exploits its competitive advantage in satellites, robotics and related space technologies?

Register for this free event at http://spaceresearchanddevelopment.eventbrite.com/

Find out more about the R&D Society at http://rdsoc.org

After an all day judging meeting on Wednesday 30^th June the shortlists for the ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland have been decided. The winners in all categories will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday 23 July in London, where an award for lifetime achievement in science journalism will also be made.

ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland 2010 Shortlist

 

Beginning with the coverage of last week’s Nature paper on the genetics of autism, The Guardian is trying out a new way of reporting scientific stories.

Alok Jha explains in his science blog the reasoning for this method of reporting called ‘story trackers’.

Jha points to his unease at the disparity between the way scientific news is distributed and received amongst scientists and how it is reported to the public.

A while ago our member survey revealed that people would be keen on some kind of discount/free ticket arrangement with museums and other venues.

The Natural History Museum is prepared to offer a writer 10 complimentary tickets to cover all their temporary exhibitions (The Deep, Butterfly Jungle and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year) for a year. They can also offer 2 places on large capacity Members events.

Sadly this doesn’t come completely free. What they need is someone to write a 1600 word feature article for their quarterly magazine Evolve (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/become-a-member/magazines/evolve/index.html) on the subject: ‘What Price Oil?’. This would look at the effects of oil exploration on the ocean's biodiversity and how an oil spill can cause sustained damage to food chains and ecosystems. The deadline would be 16 July.

If anyone is interested, please email me as soon as possible at keat [dot] looi [at] gmail [dot] com.

Lord Martin Rees praises the UK's science journalists in the first of this year's BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.

In his first lecture on the 'Scientific Citizen', to be broadcast on Tuesday 1 June, Rees highlights the role that journalists have in reporting the consensus of the scientific community in contentious issues, even if it didn't always turn out to be right.

Fabrication, misquotation, Brits vs. Yanks, the April Fool's Balrog and imaginative pedants. All in a few months' chat on ABSW-L…

Print journalism is in a state of flux, beset by declining circulation and digital innovation. Despite this wider uncertainty, eight months ago The Times launched Eureka - a science magazine aimed squarely at the intelligent layman. So how much of a risk has it been? Antonia Senior, Editor of Eureka, answers:

No prizes for guessing which newspaper this story comes from:

"Simply turning on a light at night for a few seconds to go to the toilet can cause changes that might lead to cancer."

But how will it affect house prices? Are working mothers to blame?

What is it? Audioboo is a social networking service that allows you to upload and share audio files. Think of it an audio version of Twitter but without being limited to 140 characters (unless you speak very, very slowly).

Kat Arney has some ideas for spring...

Spring has sprung, the clocks have lurched us forward into British ‘Summer’ Time and a writer's thoughts turn to the long, glorious evenings ahead. Or, more likely, huddling in a pub to avoid yet another rain shower. So instead of shivering in a pub garden, why not come along to one of these scintillating events?

A point in space

One point was all that Archimedes needed to balance a lever to shift our planet out of orbit, and that’s that. Well no it isn’t. He’d also need a lever long enough. And that’s the problem. If Syd Perkowitz, a professor of physics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia could address Archimedes today, he would allow him only one piece of science fantasy. “What’s it going to be, Archie? Lever or point? Make your mind up, we haven’t got all day.”

Every year dozens of students complete science communication courses – but are there enough science journalism and writing jobs to go round? We asked recent graduate Mico Tatalovic for his experiences in trying to make money from science journalism.

As the end of my science communication course was looming, the main concern I had was to get a job. A year spent as a science media student gets one to appreciate how difficult it is to get your dream career. Competition is tough and I’m not alone.

Paul Rodgers is a journalist for a national newspaper but is also completing a science journalism course, making him ideally placed to examine the state of science journalism. He asks whether the recent report by the group of 'Experts' missed the point:

My first science story for a daily paper was about a researcher who had built a device in his garage for magnetically separating ions. The headline read: 'Local man splits atoms in shed'. I was mortified. I couldn’t believe that a senior sub-editor could make such a schoolboy error. Surely they knew the difference between a garage and a shed?