Shock Physics, Full Pockets:
Spokane Highlights

CASW/NSWA Party and Field Trip Photo Galleries
NSWA Events Page

A handful of spent memory cards and a hard drive full of audio

Hello, NSWA members, I am Sally James, a freelance writer, and I’ve been pulling people’s business cards out of my pockets for weeks since I came back from Spokane. One card from Biosphere II in Arizona. One card from Purdue. And one folded up in the bottom of my pack from a Stanford grad who works for Reuters.

Here are some memories.  Think of it as a consumer guide to these recent conferences, and help for you in planning whether to attend next year at Stanford University.

 

Sally – Feeding raw apple slices to the bears at the Washington State University lab, where their hibernation may answer key questions about cardiovascular diseases for humans.  Cut to my adrenalin overdose at the microphone leading a workshop on Saturday. Standing beside a 40-foot-long gun inside a physics lab. Cut to researcher Patricia Kuhl, M.D., describing evidence of a mother’s emotions shaping the physical development of her infant’s brain. Last, the orange-red sky of the dying day at the Terra Blanca winery.

NASW Meeting Coverage
Using the above link, you can read descriptions of the writing workshops in the NASW conference. Our chapter here, the Northwest Science Writers Association, is a regional affiliate of NASW. You can belong here, without belonging there. But many of us value the national organization. The coverage at this link includes the session I moderated - Wrestling Giant Topics. In exchange for moderating and thinking up the workshop, I received free registration. Any of you who want free registration can begin thinking of ideas. They are usually due around April of the conference year.

Saving more money, Sally - This conference in Spokane cost me less because I shared my hotel room, and because I registered very early. My room cost was $35 for each night. With my registration fee waived, and most meals covered by the conference, it did not cost all that much to attend both the NASW and the CASW conferences.  It is worth planning ahead, if you wish to combine conferences at Stanford next year with visiting an old friend or family in the Bay area.

Alan Boyle, of MSNBC, and NSWA president, explains that if you play your cards right, you can nosh away at the evening events, including Saturday's reception at the Museum of American Arts and Culture, our now-legendary rockabilly party and the big NASW/CASW awards banquet. The banquet, held amid swanky surroundings at the Davenport Hotel, brought together the cream of the crop in science journalism—and gave us all something to celebrate.

Even if you can’t afford the NASW workshop, the CASW New Horizons briefing is free, and that part of the event offers great networking opportunities as well as a preview of future science stories worth covering. I took in the session about Maya temples and muon detectors and turned that into a nice little posting for my blog, Cosmic Log.

There’s also the traditional field trip to an academic setting. This year, we took in the eerily beautiful channeled scablands and Palouse Falls, on the way to tours at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The capper was a trip to the Terra Blanca winery for a session that was big on food, drink and sunsets. What better way to rub elbows with a smarter set of journalists and scientists?

Michael Bradbury, our chapter’s program chair and a netcaster in Seattle writes:
I walked away from my first CASW meeting with full pockets, a handful of spent memory cards and a hard drive full of audio. CASW provided a whirlwind opportunity for a netcaster, like myself. It was an opportunity to interview leading scientists in cutting-edge fields doing groundbreaking research. And, my job was to capture as much digital sound as I could.

“Capture” is definitely the right word. It was no easy task to round up sound in a hotel conference environment. Besides the loud rooms, clinking glasses and silverware, hotel sound systems vary widely. And, so do the levels of understanding of those operating the boards. It was always a race to get the right combination of cables and adapters properly installed before the speaker took the podium.

Because I was so involved in getting the sounds of CASW I’m sure I missed out on much of the hallway networking that seemed to be so popular. I raced from session to session while many folks strolled leisurely and traded business cards.

But I did get to have a great conversation with Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot. He talked about his forthcoming memoir and his place as one of two living scientists that high school students can name. Dr. James Watson is the other. Too bad my audio equipment was packed away by that point. The memory of that conversation will have to suffice.

Now I find myself with over a dozen hours of audio from the conference and all I have to do is refine and cut it for use in upcoming podcasts. Stay tuned to REALscience for more from CASW.

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Party Pics

Each year, the CASW/NASW fall meeting includes a party, typically hosted by the local science writers’ group. In the Northwest, that’s NSWA. The October 20, 2007 party, dubbed “Sleepless in Spokane,” featured The Dusty 45s, one of Seattle’s top roots and rockabilly bands, complete with flaming trumpet.

CASW and NASW also traditionally features field trips. NSWA members joined their colleagues in touring Washington State University’s bear center, the only research facility in the world with adult grizzly bears. Dr. Charles Robbins, Director of the Bear Research, Education and Conservation Program, and his colleagues study the bears’ diet, hibernation, and behavior. Journalists got to meet the bears muzzle-to-face in October, right before the bears will begin their hibernation.

Other field trips included Washington State’s Institute for Shock Physics.

CASW/NSWA Party Photo Gallery
NASW Field Trip Photo Gallery