J460 Science Writing » Jeffrey Maitland

The Canon: Romance novel meets science

Jeffrey Maitland — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:29:47 +0000

“The great [people] of science are supreme artists.” – Martin H. Fischer

Natalie Angier attempts to bring the art of writing and science together in her book The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. She’s written the book to get the general public up to speed on the fundamentals of science, so they can better understand the articles they read in the science section of their daily newspaper.

Unfortunately, Angier falls short of connecting the art and science. In fact, her first chapter alienates part of her audience, including me, by telling a story about the time she chastised her sister for getting her kids interested in theatre and museums. Sure, science should be a very important aspect in every person’s life – but really—really? Considering her insatiable thirst for knowledge, you would think she would be happy for people who want to have a well-rounded knowledge base!
I expected more from Angier, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and science writer for the New York Times.

Angier has written what seems to me to be the romance novel of nonfiction science books. Even though there is some real substance in her book, it is overshadowed by her incessant use of – fluff. Perhaps she added the fluff to soften the blow of hard science, but she went too far. She insisted on adding overly complex analogies and anecdotes to make her point – a point that would have been much clearer if she just explained the concepts clearly and concisely.

The general concept of the book sounded great to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been around hard sciences, and I thought it would be great to get a refresher course. She did an adequate job of explaining fundamental science concepts from a wide range of science fields such as probability, biological structures of organisms, and astronomy. But the distracting side stories made this sole strength, the only true objective of the book, lost on me. I was so annoyed and fed up with hearing personal anecdotes that I lost interest in what I was actually interested in – the science. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

To be fair to Angier, I never felt like this book was directed to me. I feel like this book was meant for an older audience that has long since lost its grade school science roots. It’s almost as if she is defending science against the nonbelievers – the people who see science articles in a periodical and brush it to the side since it’s ever changing.

I hate to end on a sour note, so maybe if you’re looking for a gift for a scientifically curious mind that also likes romance novels, this is perfect.

But if you are like me and would like to brush up on some old science concepts, do yourself a favor: Skip The Canon and pick up a good old science textbook.

–Jeff Maitland

Jeff Maitland

Jeffrey Maitland — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:25:05 +0000

Jeff Maitland is a senior at Indiana University School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation majoring in

Photo taken at NASW meeting

Pubic Health and minoring in Human Sexuality. He has lived in Bloomington since he was 13 and looks forward to spending more time there. Jeff has grown up all around the country but considers Bloomington his home.

Jeff plans on attending graduate school to get is Master’s Degree in Public Health and work in the field of health program implementation and evaluation. He is hoping to focus on sexual and reproductive health programs that help promote healthy, sex-positive lifestyles.

Links to Jeff’s articles

Scientists Look Beyond Binge Drinking to Extreme Drinking

Jeffrey Maitland — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:54:56 +0000

Binge drinking. Drunkenness. Benders.

These are terms we have all heard around Indiana University, but researchers from the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) want to add another word to our vocabulary for drinking in excess, “extreme drinking.”

Adding extreme drinking to research studies will broaden the scope of research on alcohol consumption to include social and behavioral issues involved with drinking heavily, according Marjana Martinic, vice president for public health at the ICAP, a non-profit organization that promotes understanding of alcohol in society and works to reduce alcohol abuse.

“Binge drinking has been a term of controversy among scientists for some time now," Martinic explained. "It is a very narrow term, that is defined differently over different disciplines,” and a broader term that takes more factors into account is needed.

Extreme drinking goes beyond just intoxication, she explained. It includes the progression of drinkers to their destination, drunkenness. It also includes the reasons drinkers imbibe; an extreme drinker drinks to have a sense of “controlled loss of control.”

America, including Indiana University, has many extreme drinkers, according to the ICAP, which points the finger at the larger culture. Drinking socially, even to excess, is not socially stigmatized in our culture, and in many ways, it is encouraged.

At IU, it may also be because of a large number of different students from a variety of backgrounds all come to the campus and party in similar ways (re: drinking excessively), according to Keith Cash, captain of operations for the Indiana University Police Department.

Cash said he has seen this type of drinking both from behind the badge and as a former student here. “Since these were young folks raised in different backgrounds, even cultures yet acted in the same way," he said, "I would conclude much of this is like a rite of passage," he said, even "part of the college experience."

Drinking games, 21 shots on your 21^st birthday, tailgating for hours on end, have all done the same thing — increased the amount of alcohol you drink in a shorter period of time than you would normally, according to Robert Slisz, an Indiana University professor who studies drug use in American society.

This type of drinking can be hazardous to your health and potentially cause death.

Although Slisz says he sees "no visible difference regarding binge drinking" in his ten years on campus, he does "feel that the culture is changing for the better.” People are making wiser decisions about going out drinking, most notably, bringing a sober driver to the bars or other drinking events to make sure everyone gets home safe, he says, a message that is echoed by ICAP’s Martinic.

The ICAP receives its funding from major alcohol manufacturers but claims that this does not bias its scientists’ findings. ICAP does not lobby governments and does not represent the alcohol industry.

Slisz reports that research on abuses is common in several different industries in which companies profit off of potentially harmful sources, such as tobacco and gambling industries.

For additional information go to ICAP’s website at http://www.icap.org

–Jeff Maitland

Among Robots and E. coli: The lab of Cary Lai

Jeffrey Maitland — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:50:48 +0000

The Characters:

Dr. Cary Lai: Dr. Lai—oh right, Cary, sorry I keep forgetting—Cary is the newest addition to the Indiana University Psychological and Brain Sciences Department . He was previously employed at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He arrived here early this summer and is excited about working at Indiana University. Cary is an easy going principle investigator that has a genuine passion for his field. He shows up to work in jeans and a button down, short sleeved plaid shirt, but when the lab gets cold he dons his black leather jacket.

Mauricio Pazos: Mauricio, who prefers to be called Moe, is one of the research associates in Cary’s lab. Moe is in his early 30s and is dressed in a pair of khaki cargo pants and a short sleeved button down shirt. Moe’s jokes and laughter is infectious throughout the lab. He is, for the lack of a better term, the lab clown.

Collin Challis: Collin is one another research associate. He is 23 years old. Cary asked Collin for him to join him in his move from the Scripps Research Institute to Indiana University to have a familiar face around while he set up his new lab, and Collin accepted his request. Collin showed up to work in a pair of dark jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of black sneakers with red skulls and cross bones wrapped around the sole of the shoe. Collin and Moe feed off of each other’s playfulness while working in the lab.

Sachiko Koyama: Sachiko is a post-doctoral research associate. Sachiko is by far the quietest person in the lab. Although in bantering social situations (i.e. lunch) she can definitely hold her own against the guys. In the lab, she wears a white lab coat and reading glasses. She is a very diligent and methodical worker.

The Setting:

Cary Lai’s lab is the epitome of lab clichés, with a few exceptions. Two out of the four walls in lab house five deli style fridges. The fridges are filled with various mixing machines and containers filled with bacteria specimens.

The other two walls have windows that have a beautiful view of the courtyard between Jordan and Ballentine Hall. From the windows I can see students trying to fight the bitter cold and rain of the early November weather.

I, too, am battling the cold from inside the lab. It is a very cool 60 degrees in the lab, if not lower, everyone in the lab agrees that the thermostat in the lab is a liar, for saying that it was a comfortable 72 degrees. As I go across the lab for my jacket, I expect to see my breath escaping from my lungs.

My stroll across the lab reveals the more stereotypical lab characteristics. The floor is white; the walls are white with splashes of plum that look like they were added as an afterthought. The countertops are black and the cabinets below are made of the industry standard oak. The most colorful thing I see in the lab is red letters that come together to spell Leica on the microscope covers.

The shelves are covered in bottles standing at attention. Labeled with chemical jargon, a proverbial who’s who of chemistry class, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, and others were systematically organized, poised for their next use.

The Work Day, Part 1: The Demonstration

When I asked Collin and Moe what time I should start my observation of the lab, Collin laughed, “Well back in California, I would have told you noon, since Cary liked to get up, get breakfast, wash his car, and come into work around 11:30 or noon, but now that we’re in Indiana we’ve pushed are start time all the way back to 10, it must be too cold to wash the car.”

As suggested, I showed up at 10 in the morning. Cary was really happy to see me. He had an exciting surprise today. A demonstration of a new robot he was considering purchasing. The Eppendorf epMotion 5075 Workstation is a pipetting robot designed to help eliminate human error and speed up the process of preparing and mixing test tubes of DNA mixtures. A representative came to show off all of the features of the $43,000 dollar machine and to show the lab constituents how to use it.

The representative first shows how much time the robot could save the lab. It dispensed and mixed a plate of 96 test tubes in two minutes, a job that Collin said would generally take somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. Not only is the robot quick, but it is also very accurate, able to measure fluids to the nearest microliter, which is 1/1000th of a milliliter.

Cary acknowledged how great this machine is but his concerns came back to human error. “We are trying to eliminate human error, but if we make one mistake during the programming phase, we could have an entire batch of useless DNA.” Cary was concerned because he will be having his to-be-hired undergraduate assistants working directly with the machine.

The representative took this time to give a training session on programming the robot. With all of the lab members present and taking notes, the representative explained the ins and outs of the programming process. This was interesting to see, a published doctor of biology and his employees taking notes and learning from a representative. They were all very attentive and asked questions whenever something was not clear to them.

After the representative finished her mini-seminar, of sorts, Cary insisted that each member of the lab design and run a program that would be applicable to their everyday work. Moe was the first volunteer and his first program went without a hitch. Collin went next and wanted to see how it could handle mixing and dispensing several different liquids, at once. Collin made a program that used six different fluids. “Well, I don’t want this to be easy, I want to trick the robot, I’m not losing my job to a $43,000 piece of metal” joked Collin as he put the finishing touches on the robot.

Cary agreed with this idea and thought they should use colored liquid, instead of water, to actually see the mixing take place and to make sure each liquid made it to the correct test tube. After scouring the lab for dyes, they could only turn up five. That is until, in what can only be described as the genius light going off, Cary ran back to Sachiko’s desk and grabbed her coffee. The test was ready. And so it began with the six different colored fluids: yellow, blue, green, red, purple…and coffee. The test went well and Collin did not succeed in tricking the machine, much to his dismay.

Sachiko and Cary both took their turns as well. Both of their test runs went swimmingly. So well, in fact, that Cary took the representative to lunch to discuss payment and warranty options.

The Workday, Part 2: Lunch

Since the boss was gone to lunch, it was our time for lunch, was the general consensus of the lab. Moe and I decided to run across the street to get some sandwiches from Subway, he tells me on the way, “if it wasn’t for the five dollar foot longs, I would starve at the lab.”

We meet back up with the rest of the group at the lab and go to a cafeteria area in Simon Hall.

Sachiko pulls her lunch out of her purse. Two pink Tupperware containers with matching chopsticks. Her lunch consists of sushi and rice.

Collin has a quart-sized disposable container full of last night’s spaghetti. “Two minutes in the microwave, and it’ll be as good as last night.” He washes it all down with a can of soda bought from the vending machine next to the microwave.

The conversations over lunch were very interesting. They were interested about what I was writing about and how I was framing my story and I was interested about hearing their tales within the lab.

Sachiko decided that she would break the ice and tell me about her experiences handling snakes in a lab in Japan. She assured me that it was not as difficult as people make it out to be, “all you have to do is make sure you grab them by the neck and as close to the end of their tail as possible, so they don’t have anything to grab on to, oh and make sure you stay from their mouth, they tend to try to bite you.”

This was the most I’ve heard Sachiko say all day, and it made the table burst out into laughter. I was later told that Sachiko has a wonderful dry sense of humor that slowly comes out the longer you know her.

The Workday, Part 3: Observation of Moe and Collin

As soon as lunch was over we went back to the lab. Sachiko had to go check on some animals in another lab and would be gone for the rest of the day. Moe and Collin went to their desks to check their email then went to their respective countertop spaces.

They each were checking on the bacteria they had grown the night before and counting the number of forming colonies. Collin and Moe began to look all business. Both with lab coats on with their names embroidered on the left breast.

When I asked Moe what type of bacteria they were both dealing with he told me, to my great horror, E. coli.

“E. coli?! The type of bacteria that causes illness all over the world?! You mean to tell me this lab is potentially crawling with the stuff?”

“Relax, all of the virulent parts the bacteria have been removed. You could drink a gallon of this stuff and never get sick.” Moe reassured me. “Yeah, you want to do shots of E. coli, man?” laughed Collin.

Moe and Collin continued counting their colonies for the remainder of the day.

The Workday, Part 4: Discussion with Cary

Once Cary got back from lunch he called me over to his desk to talk to me about what his lab researches and to answer any questions I had. Cary began talking about what everyone does under the microscope, which in all honesty was way over my head, and right before I could ask for clarification, Collin yelled over to Cary “You do realize that I have a degree in this, and you’re still speaking Greek, you might want to try to re-explain that.”

Cary apologized, “I’m sorry, when I get talking about what we’re doing, I just get so excited and kind of lose track of the conversation.”

Basically what Cary’s lab is doing is growing genetically altered cells with and without a particular gene, named ErbB4. ErbB4 acts as a molecular navigation system. It gets a signal from outside the cell through the binding of a particular protein, called neuregulins. ErbB4 then transmits that information to the inside of the cell, which then influences the directional movement of the cell.

Although that may sound confusing on the microscopic level, it is a gene that has a potential link to schizophrenia. If the cell movement is negatively altered by ErbB4 the brain could be rewired, which may be what leads to schizophrenia.

–Jeff Maitland

Conversation with Laura Petersen, La Jolla Light

Jeffrey Maitland — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:25:16 +0000

While attending the National Association of Science Writers conference, I had the privilege of meeting an emerging science writer, Laura Petersen. Laura graduated from the University of California San Diego with her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications. As a student at UCSD she received a great deal of experience from internships and editing the student newspaper, the Warren Briefs, for three years.

After graduating from UCSD in 2005, Laura went on to become a full time staff writer at the San Diego Suburban Newspapers, where she writes for five weekly community newspapers including the La Jolla Light, Del Mar Times and Solana Beach Sun.

What about science writing interests you the most?

Writing about science gives me the opportunity to learn about the world around me and I enjoy conveying that newfound knowledge to readers. In particular, I hope to learn and write about climate change and how we are going to adapt because I feel this is the most important issue facing our generation.

Out of the articles you’ve written about science, what has been your favorite topic?

I enjoyed writing about a nonprofit working to save the rainforest in Ecuador and Peru. I also enjoyed writing a story about a father/son team building a rocket in their garage to compete in the Lunar Challenge X-Prize competition.

Why were those your favorites?

I enjoyed sharing with readers the unusual characters in both articles. The founder for the environmental non-profit is a living example of the power of one, and the father/son team was totally quirky. I also liked explaining the science in each piece — the rapid rate of deforestation and how to build a rocket.

Do you believe that the NASW conference will help your science writing career? If so, how?

I definitely think the NASW conference will help me in my science writing career. The NASW conference was an incredible introduction to the field of science writing. I learned a great deal about the industry by talking with other working professionals. I also learned about a wide variety of scientific research, which was not just interesting, but provided ideas for where to look for stories in my coverage area, and beyond!

What science topics do you hope to tackle in the future?

Well, dreaming big, it would be awesome to write about how the environment is changing all over the world, travel expenses paid of course! I am particularly interested in marine environments. I would totally be down writing a first person account of exploring the sea floor in the Alvin deep sea submersible.

You can find some of Laura Petersen’s work at the Del Mar Times and the Solana Beach Sun.

Saturday, 11 pm: My all-nighter with a science writer

Jeffrey Maitland — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:00:15 +0000

As I was walking back to my hotel room late Saturday, I ran into a science writer I had met the previous day at the conference. His name was Brandon. He asked me where he could get a drink this late at night. I actually had little idea of where to do this, since all of the hotel bars closed right at midnight. So we decided to stroll down a few blocks to find a bar we had heard about.

We arrived at the bar around 11:30. We were greeted with what any two men would want in a bar, great drink specials, generous bartenders, and motley crew of patrons.

Round 1: I get us the first round and we discuss our family backgrounds. He seems very interested in what I have to say and gets me to go in to further details about my past.

Round 2: He gets the second round and he talks about being an editor for a style magazine but wants to get his graduate degree to pursue a science writing career.

Round 3: We decide to split a pitcher to save the bartender the effort of serving us every 10 minutes. We continue to banter about the conference and our future plans.

In the few hours we had before I had to leave to go back to Indiana — which was at the bright, or rather dark hour of 3:30 in the morning — he taught me some of the inner workings of journalism. He talked about the politics of a magazine room and the hierarchy of a newsroom. I would have never of learned this stuff if it wasn’t for this great conference. More importantly, Brandon told me that if I could tell a story as well as I did at the bar, there was no reason I should be scared of writing.

–Jeff Maitland

Session 3C: The Digital Science Writer: Deciding on Laptops and Demystifying Multimedia

Jeffrey Maitland — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:15:06 +0000

Well, I found my seat in the Cyprus room, which wasn’t too hard since the room was only a quarter of the way full. I found that interesting, since I thought that this would be an extremely beneficial session, especially for those who are still timid about the technological advances in journalism. As a self-proclaimed multimedia nerd, I was very excited about this session, which promised to cover multimedia on the web, laptops for journalists, and podcasting.

The three speakers were:

-Peggy Peck, the executive editor of MedPage Today
-Michelle Thatcher, CNET’s senior associate editor for laptops
-Jerry Monti, the technology trainer for the Knight Digital Media Cente

Multimedia on the web. Peck explained the importance of having a uniform appearance for a website that includes multimedia with each story. To establish a professional appearance, she said it is very important to make sure everyone who shoots video or takes audio uses the same equipment. Now I realize this may seem elementary, but it really made sense, as all cameras take video in different ways, and so will look different, lowering the professionalism a great deal. Peck also stressed the necessity of getting familiar with different multimedia techniques and equipment. MedPage Today, for one, puts out about 15 stories a day, half of which are accompanied by some sort of multimedia file (audio or video interview).

Laptops for Journalists. Thatcher was up next. I was excited about hearing her speak for I’d been looking for a laptop for quite some time, and I wanted help in choosing my next big investment. Thatcher talked about two most common types of laptops in great detail:

Net Books
Ultraportable Laptops

She presented the pros and cons of each of these systems, along with suggested models of each type. She goes even more in depth in the blog she wrote after the conference, which can be viewed here. But I’ve gone ahead and made a table below that lists the pros and cons of each type of laptop she discussed, along with a link to information about each. Thatcher offered her email for any journalist looking for help picking a laptop. She also talked about general buying guidelines for purchasing a new laptop:

Once a processor has 2.0GHz, money is best spent on upping RAM.
Integrated Intel graphics will be sufficient for most journalists, unless you are working on video.
Get some hands-on time with the laptop you are thinking about purchasing before you buy one, or at least pick a company that has a generous return policy, in case it’s not what you’re looking for.

Category	Pros	Cons	Suggested Models
Net Book	-Featherweight -Inexpensive -Lengthy battery life	-Small screen -Weaker performance than regular laptops -No disk drive -Small keyboard	Dell Inspiron Mini 9 MSI Wind U100 Asus Eee PC 901
Ultraportable Laptops	-Lightweight -Full laptop features -Decent performance -Lengthy battery life	-Tend to be expensive -May lack disk drive -Screen may be too small for all day use	Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Lenovo Thinkpad X301 Fujitsu LifeBook P8020 Sony VAIO TT190 (Does not recommend the Mac Air)

Podcasting for Journalists. The last speaker was Jerry Monti from Knight Digital Media Center. Monti walked us through the steps of making a podcast. A video of those steps can be found on his website here. I have always been a bit skeptical on the usefulness of podcasts, I mean, if you have an iPod or other .mp3 player, would you really listen to stories or just listen to music? Monti presented some peer-reviewed research that shows people do, in fact, listen to podcasts. He said that the survey showed that 23 percent of people under 50 have listened to a podcast, and 4 percent of people listened to a podcast yesterday!

All in all I felt that this was a great session. Although many of my colleagues went to Science Writing for Kids (which I admittedly wanted to go to), I came away thinking that this session was a hidden treasure containing a vast amount of highly relevant information.

–Jeff Maitland

* * *

Extras!

If you’re looking for a laptop, CNET.com blogger and electronic expert Michelle Thatcher can help. How much RAM, how many gigs, XP or Linux, she’ll tell you what you need. If it sounds too complicated already, don’t worry. She can also explain a thing or two about what the heck all that computer-speak means. Thatcher writes product reviews and contributes to numerous technology blogs that are designed to simplify the computer buying process. In her NASW session, she spoke to a room full of journalist hoping to give them a better idea of what computer will work for them: perhaps a super-small, light secondary netbook with a simple 1GB RAM and 1.6 GHz processor? Or maybe an ultraportable with a spacious keyboard, Core 2 Duo Processor, and 2GB of RAM? Decisions, decisions, and Thatcher knows it. Her presentation provided a quick, easy overview of well-defined tech terms and the basic do’s and don’ts of laptop buying. She was aware that all journalists are looking for things in a PC: some want an all-in-one machine that’s light enough to take anywhere but still generously configured; others want a smaller, accompanying model for the road while their main computer stays stationed in the office. She provided helpful pros and cons, realistic expectations, and even specific prices, making computer shopping for the journalist personalized, quick, easy, and—everyone’s favorite—a little less intimidating than you thought.

–Lauren Younis

Friday 10 pm: Forging a lasting bond

Jeffrey Maitland — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:30:36 +0000

Imagine if you will a relatively small journalism class. The students are friendly, but really don’t go out of their way to make conversation. Well, this is pretty much the type of class we had before we left for our trip to California. After the meet-and-greet dinner for the conference, a number of us went to one of the hotel rooms to hang out a bit, before going out and exploring Palo Alto’s night life. It took but a brief moment before we started half-joking about how we had already turned into family. The night went on and we all remained tight, looked after each other, bought each other cocktails, danced, and shared our experiences. This comaraderie lasted throughout the weekend and beyond.

–Jeff Maitland