✍️Science Writing News Roundup #235
Get ready to write your book: 5 tips on becoming an author + Expert tips to avoid misleading audiences with numbers.
Diverse Voices in Science Journalism Announces 2025 Interns: Annika Inampudi is ready to branch out from healthcare reporting and explore topics like artificial intelligence and environmental sciences. Nazeefa Ahmed wants to develop her science writing skills in a professional newsroom. The two students are eager to take on those challenges and others as the 2025 recipients of the AAAS Diverse Voices in Science Journalism Internship. (Image via AAAS: Annika Inampudi (left) and Nazeefa Ahmed.)
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📒Articles
Mongabay mourns the loss of Ochieng’ Ogodo, their East Africa Editor. A pioneer in African science and environmental journalism, Ogodo brought nearly three decades of experience to Mongabay, where he quickly built a strong editorial team, expanded coverage of critical regional issues, and gave voice to underreported stories.
How science journalists can reach a more bipartisan audience. Last month, New York Times political writer Ezra Klein posted an interview with top Democratic pollster David Shor, head of data science at Blue Rose Research, whose forecasts have highlighted important political patterns during a time when conventional wisdom has often failed.
It’s not too late to stop Trump and the tech broligarchy from controlling our lives, but we must act now: In her final piece for the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr reveals what happened when she returned last week to give the opening speech at technology conference Ted, where she gave her first – life-changing – talk six years ago.
Data Don’ts: Expert Tips to Avoid Misleading Audiences With Numbers. Even the most diligent data and investigative reporters can sometimes let numbers get the best of them. Avoiding miscalculation and inaccuracy is paramount, but so too is presenting numbers to your readers judiciously, in a way that they can best understand the story the data is telling.
Get ready to write your book: 5 tips on becoming an author. A page a day equals a book a year.
A Day in the Life of Julian Nowogrodzki: Julian Nowogrodzki is an independent science editor and reporter in Boston, Massachusetts. They report on public health and the life sciences and edit across many beats, from AI to deep-sea mining to neuroscience.
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👩💻Resources
Vetting Scientific Sources: When everyone has access to public platforms, it can be hard to determine who’s actually an expert on a subject. Just because a possible source is vocal in the news or on social media doesn’t mean that they have the right expertise for your story. Here are some tips for vetting and finding relevant scientific sources.
How to tap into the "hidden" SciComm job market: There may be more opportunities than you think.
CPJ Safety Advisory: Traveling to the US. A stated policy goal of the Trump administration is to significantly change U.S. travel and immigration policies. Foreign nationals whose countries do not meet U.S. vetting standards may be barred entry. Journalists will not be exempt and should anticipate potential restrictions or questioning when traveling to or from the United States.
How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border: Customs and Border Protection has broad authority to search travelers’ devices when they cross into the United States. Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.
Know Your Rights: What to Do if You or a Loved One is Detained. This resource is designed to help immigrants and their families better understand what to do when someone is detained by immigration officials.
ICE’s recent detention data: What journalists need to understand. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detained population flatlined in April, but there’s more to the numbers than meets the eye. It’s time to level up our understanding of detention data.
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🌿Opportunities
Call for mentors: NASW Perlman Virtual Mentoring Program, summer 2025: This summer, the Education Committee of the National Association of Science Writers plans to offer its popular virtual mentoring program for graduate and undergraduate students. NASW invites volunteer mentors to sign up by May 1, 2025. A call for student applicants will happen in mid-May.
More opportunities and calls for pitches 👉 Bonus content for monthly supporters.
🌏News
National Science Foundation cancels research grants related to misinformation and disinformation. Hundreds of grants, fellowships, and awards were terminated because they are no longer “aligned with NSF priorities.”
Hiroko Tabuchi from The New York Times Wins Stokes Award for Energy & Environment Writing. Tabuchi wrote a series for the Times about “forever chemicals,” and the negative effects they may have on farms, children and the nation as a whole, which Tabuchi reveals the EPA knew about.
KSJ Announces 2025-26 Fellowship Class: In August, eleven award-winning journalists will join KSJ at MIT to learn from the world’s top scientists and storytellers. Congratulations to Yvette Cabrera, Leslye Pritz Davis, Liza Lin, Smriti Mallapaty, Sarah McBride, Paula Moura, Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Sara Reardon, Stephen Robert Miller, Christian von Preysing-Barry, and Samira Hamza!
🎧Videos & Podcasts
🧪Events
Science Friday and the Future of Science Reporting (April 29, 2025)
DCSWA Professional Development Day 2025 (May 3, 2025)
Science Under Siege | by Professor Michael E. Mann (University of Southampton, UK - May 7, 2025)
EMBL Science and Society Conference: In science we trust? EMBL Heidelberg, Germany (June 16 - 17, 2025)
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⌛️Jobs
Editor at EJR-Quartz, European Space Agency (ESA) (The Netherlands)
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