Nanoscience writers as lab rats

A project at the University of South Carolina's center for societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology (Thanks, Jack): Science Journalism: Lowndes Stephens (J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism, USC) will pursue an experimental study of ways to improve science journalism, particularly that covering nanotechnology. The experiment will be conducted during summer 2004 on a group of experienced science writers who will have a weeklong training course in Newsplex, a $2 million state-of-the-art multi-media, micro newsroom laboratory at the University of South Carolina. Using information from other team members and from members of USC’s NanoCenter, the subjects will be asked to research, source and write news stories on several significant advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The subjects and their stories will be examined both before and after their experience in Newsplex, as a way to determine the degree to which this experience improves their ability to write about nanotechnology. I met a couple of the USC nanopeople last autumn, and they told me about this database of nanoscience abstracts that they're building. Sounds like a worthwhile project. While you're on the USC site, browse around a bit and find nano-enlightenment via pdf. The science of the study of the popular perception of the study of nanotechnology has truly arrived. Discuss Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics Human Genetic Information: Science, Law and Ethics - Symposium No. 149 Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists and Engineers