Council for the Advancement of Science Writing

horticulture greenhouses, University of Florida

ScienceWriters2013 scouting report: Lively science amid palms and pines

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New Horizons in Science at ScienceWriters 2013

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archived social media coverage of New Horizons 2012 at storify.com

New Horizons 2012 science stories told in posts and pictures

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The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing is committed to improving the quality of science news reaching the public. Comprised of a panel of distinguished journalists and scientists, CASW develops and funds programs to help reporters and writers produce accurate and informative stories about developments in science, technology, medicine and the environment.

CASW P.O. Box 910
Hedgesville, WV 25427
304-754-6786

In Focus

2013 Cohn Prize open to digital media; nominations accepted through July 31

CASW honors extraordinary writing on medical science with the annual Victor Cohn prize. Nominations for the next prize, to be given in October at ScienceWriters2013 [1], will be accepted through July 31. Please check the Cohn award page on this site for information about shipping last-minute nomination packages on July 30. This year, work published in digital media more…

CASW News

ScienceWriters2013 scouting report: Lively science amid palms and pines

I’d just landed from Boston, fleeing the long New England winter, and all my hosts in Gainesville could do was apologize about the weather. Weather? Right. A cloud more…

Rosalind Reid to succeed Ben Patrusky as Executive Director of CASW

.... New officers elected; Patrusky to retire after more than 38 years of service to CASW The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, which presents the nation’s more…

Barbara K. Trevett, 1944-2013

CASW mourns the passing on March 12, 2013 of Barbara K. Trevett, a member of its National Advisory group and a staunch advocate on behalf of all practitioners more…

New edition of science writing career guide now available

Prompted by the enormous changes that continue to ripple through and transform the media landscape, CASW has produced and posted a thoroughly new and timely edition of its more…

“Live scribing” captures shared experience of 2012 talks

/Live drawing by Perrin Ireland, who attended ScienceWriters2012 [1] as a CASW traveling fellow, added a novel dimension to both the New Horizons and NASW sessions. We asked more…

New Horizons 2012 science stories told in posts and pictures

CASW’s New Horizons in Science 2012 is sure to be remembered for lab coats, lemurs, zombies—and Sandy, the Frankenstorm that sideswiped our meeting. There was also some remarkable new science. Officially, 517 more…

News & Numbers

"News & Numbers"—a guidebook for reporting statistical claims and controversies in health and other fields—is now available in a third, updated edition. CASW played a major role in more…

CASW News

CASW Periscope

Obedient Media: Press release sees missing link in space. Hmm, a weak metaphor. Cliche too. Most use it anyway.

One cannot blame press agents too much for slipping in a lure such as "missing link" into an astrophysics news release on the formation of a big messy galaxy from the collision of two more orderly ones. A good enough reason is to grab the attention of reporters who might do some more reporting. What the more…
Knight Science Journalism Tracker
The New York Times Magazine: Enhancing female desire, and tending the garden within.

This Sunday's *New York Times Magazine* will feature a medical story on the cover for the second week in a row. (And the week before, the cover story was an environmental whodunit.) This time, it's "Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That [1]," about work to develop a drug to increase female desire. And last week's more…
Knight Science Journalism Tracker
Strapped Texas cancer centre built pricey office suite for president’s wife – UPDATED

The financially stressed MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, seems to have invested at least US$1.5 million in capital funds in a new ‘corporate’ office suite that will be home to Lynda Chin, the wife of MD Anderson president Ronald DePinho. The revelations come in an article published today in /The Cancer Letter/ [1]. Cancer Letter The /Letter more…
The Great Beyond (Nature Magazine News Blog)
Quake off eastern Russia may be biggest-ever deep temblor

An extraordinarily deep earthquake shook Russia’s Far East this morning. The magnitude-8.3 quake took place nearly 610 kilometres below Earth’s surface, according to preliminary estimates [1] from the US Geological Survey. Normally rocks at this depth are too hot to rupture quickly in a quake; instead, they deform slowly, like hot wax flowing rather than cold wax shattering. more…
The Great Beyond (Nature Magazine News Blog)
Rooting out bad science

Big scandals grab headlines, but journalists can do more to expose misconduct Declan Fahy http://www.cjr.org more…
Columbia Journalism Review, The Observatory
Under the bridge

Climate Desk tracks down its 'most pernicious' troll Curtis Brainard more…
Columbia Journalism Review, The Observatory