Science Writers in New York (SWINY)

The SWINY Posterous Site

March 21: How to write science that's literature

How to Write Science that’s Literature

 

We may never know anything about 96 percent of the universe.

How does a science writer turn this into a compelling story – and earn rave reviews?

 

Learn how with Richard Panek, author of 

The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality 

 

Monday, March 21, 6-8 pm

 

 

 

Richard Panek specializes in cosmology – tough, hard-to-do, and hard-to-understand science. Yet his prize-winning writing has been called  “elegant,” with a  “compelling narrative of science at its best,” told with clarity, ease, and verve.  

 

He will describe the ingredients and approaches he uses – to help you write poetically and imaginatively, yet accurately.

 

Mr. Panek’s wonderful new book, The 4% Universe, is about the completely unknown parts of the universe – which do not include planets, stars, or the 125 billion known galaxies.   

 

As Mr. Panek has put it, “The rest – 96 percent of the universe – is…who knows?”

 

In a review of The 4% Universe, Carl Zimmer noted that Mr. Panek “succeeds because he recognizes that he’s writing not just about red shifts and supernovae, but about people.”  Very interesting people, working together in compelling ways.  If you enjoyed hearing physicist Michael Turner at CASW in  New  Haven last November, there’s no question that you’ll enjoy hearing what Richard Panek has to say. 

 

Mr. Panek’s previous books include Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens, and The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes. 

 

He has won a Guggenheim fellowship for science writing, and frequently writes about astronomy and cosmology for The New York Times, Discover, and many other publications.  He lives in New York with his wife, the novelist Meg Wolitzer, and their two sons. 

 

THE DETAILS:

 

                                                          When:      Monday, March 21

                                                                           6:00 – 6:30 pm – Socializing and networking.

                                                                           6:30 – 8:00 pm – Author’s talk and Q & A.

                                                                           Mr. Panek will sign books for purchase

 

                                                         Where:      3 Park Avenue (corner of 34th St)

                                                                           22nd Floor, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

 

                                                       Sign-up:      http://swiny.pandaform.com/pub/arpnau/new

 

                                                            Cost:      $5 SWINY members, $10 non-members*

 

                                                                           *Join SWINY ($25 at www.swiny.org) and pay the member’s rate.

 

Oct. 18: Fall Social at Windfall Bar and Restaurant

After a summer of record heat, tornadoes and bed bugs who couldn’t use a drink?

 

Please join Science Writers in New York (SWINY) for an evening of networking/socializing/fun on Monday, October 18, from 6 – 8 PM at Windfall Bar and Restaurant at 23 W. 39th St. (between 5th & 6th Avenues).

Chat with other writers, editors and PIOs. Reconnect with your colleagues and meet new ones. There is no cover charge, but we ask that you buy at least one drink to support our friends at Windfall. Everyone is welcome. Please forward this message to colleagues or friends that you think might be interested in attending.

RSVP here  http://swiny.pandaform.com/pub/clfiyc/new

Questions? Email David Levine, davidlevine51@gmail.com

How do you get there? Windfall is one block south of Bryant Park between 5th and 6th Aves. Take the 7/B/D/F/V to 42nd St./6th Ave.

Sept. 28: Epigenetics and Cancer: The Next Evolution in Cancer Therapeutics

Epigenetics—the study of inherited and acquired modifications in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the DNA itself—appears to be the next major trend in cancer research. It follows hard on the heels of the development of biological therapies in the 1980s and targeted therapies in the 1990s.


Scientists have known that cancer cells alter gene expression in healthy cells to promote their growth and survival, and to develop resistance to chemotherapy, radiation and targeted drugs. The next evolution in cancer therapy has been fueled in the lab as scientists begin to understand and influence the epigenetic controls of cancer-promoting gene expression. Now, researchers are evaluating epigenetic modifiers as new therapeutics in themselves, and as drugs to restore or extend the benefits of other cancer treatments.


Please join Science Writers in New York as we present a roundtable discussion of this new frontier in cancer therapeutics with leading researchers in the field.


When:
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.


Where:

New York Academy of Sciences
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street, 40th floor


Cost:
Admission is free for 2010 dues-paid SWINY members. $5 for non-members

RSVP by Friday, September 24, 2010 (link)


Moderator

Joe Bonner
Co-Chair of SWINY and Director of Communications and Public Affairs, The Rockefeller University


Panelists
Jean-Pierre Issa, M.D.
Co-Director, Center for Cancer Epigenetics, Institute of Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Professor, Department of Leukemia, Chief, Section of Translational Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX


Stephen B. Baylin, M.D.
Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University; leader of the American Association of Cancer Research Stand Up to Cancer Epigenetics “Dream Team”


Edward A. Sausville, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Director for Clinical Research, Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland

Science Writers in New York thanks Syndax for support of this event.

June 28: Join Science Writers in New York for a discussion of the new DSM-5

Is sex addiction a mental disorder? What about internet addiction and binge eating? Are children with sensory problems mentally ill?

Join Science Writers in New York on Monday, June 28, for a discussion of the new DSM-5

(the manual that defines mental illness)

The Most Anticipated Event in the Mental Health Field


These questions are among the many that will be answered with the publication of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in May 2013. Although it will not be published for almost three years the release of the long-awaited draft of the fifth edition caused heated debates over a new set of possible psychiatric disorders and the proposed merger of autism and Asperger’s disorder into a single “spectrum” category.

On Monday, June 28, SWINY is pleased to host a panel of experts to discuss the upcoming changes and revisions for DSM-5 and their implications for clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers to make decisions about mental health. Our panel includes:

Jennifer Jo Brout, Ed.M., Psy.D., is a psychologist dedicated to furthering knowledge about Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD) and its application to mental health. She earned an Ed.M. in School Psychology from Columbia University and a Psy.D. in School/Clinical Psychology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She spearheads evidenced-based research projects in order to address various aspects of sensory processing/regulatory disorders, and founded a Duke University program that focuses on research into sensory processing and emotion regulation.

Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR, Executive Director of the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Miller has been investigating, analyzing and explaining sensory processing disorders to other scientists, professionals, and parents for over 30 years. She is the author of Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Director of the Sensory Therapies and Research (STAR) Center as well as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Rocky Mountain University and Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Denver, School of Medicine.

Due to Dr. Miller's mobilization of the research community, SPD now appears in two diagnostic manuals: the ICDL's Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and The Diagnostic Classification: Zero to Three. Her application has led to consideration of SPD for inclusion in the 2013 revision of DSM-5.  She has been featured on NBC's Today Show and ABC's 20/20, in The New York Times and numerous other popular and professional publications. Dr. Miller is the author of more than 60 articles and/or chapters in scientific and professional journals, magazines, and textbooks and is a frequent presenter or speaker at conferences and workshops worldwide. 

She is also the author of nine norm-referenced standardized scales published by The Psychological Corporation (Pearson, Inc.) including the Leiter International Performance Scale – Revised, and the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers.  She received the Martin Luther King Jr. award from the State of Colorado in 2005 for three decades of service to the group of children who are disenfranchised because they have disabilities.


http://www.spdfoundation.net


David Shaffer, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych., Columbia University Medical Center (Irving Philips Professor of Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). He is past president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and current President of the International Academy of Suicide Research.

Dr. Shaffer participated in DSM-III and -IIIR and was co-chair of the DSM-IV Child and Adolescent Work Group. He chairs the ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Work Group and is the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 Task Force Representative to the ICD-11 Work Group on Mental and Behavioral Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

Dr. Shaffer obtained his medical training in London at University College Hospital and trained in pediatric neurology at Yale University.  During his pediatric psychiatry training, Dr. Shaffer conducted the first epidemiologic study of suicides under age 15 in England and Wales and identified the frequency of aggressive and anxious behavior and the importance of imitation in youth suicide. This was the first step in what became an influential career studying and illuminating adolescent suicide. This continued in the U.S. when he assumed the chairmanship of the Division of Child Psychiatry at Columbia University in 1977, retiring in 2008 after 31 years. His research there helped lead to the development of the Columbia TeenScreen Program as a technique for suicide prevention. His current research focuses on the events and moods immediately prior to initiating a suicide attempt.

Dr. Shaffer received the American Suicide Foundation’s Award for Research in Suicide in 1989, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Andy Shih, Ph.D., is Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Autism Speaks, which is dedicated to increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders and funding research into the causes, prevention and treatments for autism. Dr. Shih works closely with members of Autism Speakers’ Board, Scientific Advisory Committee, senior staff and volunteer leadership to develop and implement the organization's research program. He oversees the etiology portfolio, which includes investments in genetics, environmental sciences, and epidemiology research. He also leads the international advocacy and scientific development efforts for Autism Speaks.

Dr. Shih had served as an industry consultant and was a member of the faculty at Yeshiva University and New York University Medical Center. He earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from New York University Medical Center. His research background includes published studies in gene identification and characterization, virus-cell interaction, and cell-cycle regulation. He was instrumental in the cloning of a family of small GTPases involved in cell-cycle control and nuclear transport, and holds three patents on nucleic acids-based diagnostics and therapeutics.

http://www.autismspeaks.org

When:
Monday, June 28
6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Networking and registration
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Program

Where:
4 West 43rd Street (Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)

Admission:
With advance payment using PayPal:

  • $5 for 2010 dues paid SWINY members
  • $10 for nonmembers
  • $5 Students with current ID

At the door without pre-registration:
  • $10 SWINY members
  • $15 nonmembers
  • $10 Students with current ID

RSVP by Monday, June 21 (links to PayPal are available on the confirmation screen after you have entered your RSVP information).

Questions? Contact David Levine at davidlevine51@gmail.com

 

June 22: SWINY & AWIS Present A Window into Science/A Window into Book Authoring - A Conversation with Julie Des Jardins, Author of The Madame Curie Complex

SWINY (Science Writers in New York) 
& 
NY Metro AWIS (Association for Women in Science)

are pleased to co-sponsor

A Window into Science/A Window into Book Authoring:
A Conversation with 
Historian Julie Des Jardins, Author of
The Madame Curie Complex

 

 

 

DATE: June 22
TIME: Doors open at 6 p.m., talk starts at 6:30 sharp
PLACE: 3 Park Avenue (on the southeast corner of 34th St and Park), 22nd Floor*

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What do Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock and industrial psychologist/designer Lillian Gilbreth (the mother in Cheaper by the Dozen) have in common? 

Both women rose to the top of their professions and each landed on a postage stamp. (No small feat!)  But did common traits help them succeed?

To find out, historian and author Julie Des Jardins went looking for women scientists whose professional herstories would provide “great lenses into the gender of science."

 

She focused on Marie Curie's "scientific daughters" – as well as Curie herself.  The recently published result: The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science.  Des Jardins tells how a diverse range of ground-breaking women scientists have pursued their passions since 1900, often in the face of gender-related barriers.

 

Her profiles open a window into diverse 20th century scientific cultures, from the hyper-masculine era of the Manhattan Project, where participating women were virtually invisible, to today’s female-dominated field of primatology. For SWINY, Des Jardins will share highlights of these stories – as well as the complexities of crafting a book-length gallery of unique women scientists.

Join us for a conversation with Julie Des Jardins, Professor of History at Baruch College. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event and Julie will sign autographs after her presentation.

*Headquarters of American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  Lillian Gilbreth was the first woman member of ASME. Light refreshments will be served.

Light refreshments will be served.
Admission is free for SWINY and for AWIS members; $5 for non-members.

(Membership in SWINY is just $20, so join now and waive the entrance fee.)

Click here to RSVP
Click here to pay for the event or to join SWINY.

Feb. 10: Meet the Particle Colliders that Reveal the Inner Workings of the Universe

Meet the Particle Colliders that Reveal the Inner Workings of the Universe

Media tour at Brookhaven Lab with physicists from RHIC and a live feed from the LHC

Science Writers in New York (SWINY) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) invite you to tour BNL’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the world’s largest atom smasher designed exclusively for nuclear physics research. Reporters will also be able to interact via a live feed with physicists across the Atlantic as they gear up for related explorations of the inner workings of the early universe at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Physicists from both facilities will explain how accelerators work and how the two machines complement one another, and elaborate on the different goals of RHIC and the LHC.

WHEN:         

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, starting at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE:            

Brookhaven National Laboratory — on William Floyd Parkway, one-and-a-half miles north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway, Upton, New York.

TRANSPORTATION: 
If at least 10 reporters sign up, Brookhaven Lab will supply a charter bus to leave New York City at 8:30 a.m., promptly, returning to NYC after the event.

RSVP by February 1, 2010 to Karen McNulty Walsh, (631) 344-8350, kmcnulty@bnl.gov, or Kendra Snyder, 631 344-8191, ksnyder@bnl.gov

DETAILS:

RHIC is a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator that collides gold ions moving at nearly the speed of light to recreate the conditions of the early universe and explore the fundamental properties and interactions of matter. Reporters will tour the RHIC control room and two large detectors, STAR and PHENIX, which analyze thousands of particles streaming from these collisions to help scientists get a better understanding of the strong force that holds protons and neutrons — and everything in the universe — together. The group will also interact via live feed with physicists at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics. If we’re lucky, the very first high-energy proton collisions will be taking place at the LHC, now the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Brookhaven played a pivotal role in the design and construction of one of LHC’s large detectors, known as ATLAS, and serves as the host laboratory for the U.S. ATLAS collaboration. During the tour, we’ll also visit the RHIC/ATLAS computing facility (RACF), which stores, distributes, and analyzes vast amounts of data from both facilities. 

How My Blog Landed Me a Book Deal /via @Copyblogger

First, let’s get one thing out of the way. A blog alone, no matter how popular, isn’t enough to score you a book contract. It’s not quite that simple.

In other words, it doesn’t quite work the way it does on television.

“Did you hear that Random House gave me a million dollars for a book based on my blog?” chirps the hipster starlet as she emerges from a crowded Starbucks, caramel macchiato in hand. “And we’re working on the movie rights. Hey, let’s go for a ride in my Jag.”

But you already knew that real life is more complicated than a sit-com. So let’s talk about the critical role a blog does play in securing a book deal.

Here’s how it went down for me.

via copyblogger.com

In the few social media events that we've organized, the question that often comes up is, "How can I make money doing this?" Larry Brooks, author of the forthcoming book The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling, describes his "blog-to-book deal."

Journalistic ethics: endangered or just changing? /via @stevebaker

More and more journalists are on our own now, either by choice or necessity. And when we look around for revenue opportunities, fewer come from the advertising-based models we're accustomed to. The way things are going, loads of retail, service and manufacturing companies are producing their own stuff. They're becoming media companies, and many of them need help.
via thenumerati.net

For those who attended the "Ethics in Hard Times" event (or are generally interested in the subject), former BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Baker has a timely blog post on journalistic ethics.