UpdateWords

Hark! A blog update?!

Great Scott... nearly a month has passed since the last.

And an update is most assuredly due. Yes-- this is true. (Thank you to those who've acknowledged. I appreciate your interest!)

I admit I've been remiss in updating my blog. But it's not been bare of new beef for no reason. Nooo. Rather, I've not been writing science here because I've been thinking science, elsewhere, for this semester. (Although... you can look for an article at the end of next week on a new mouse study, done at Scripps Research Institute, that suggests risk of serious side effects associated with peptide vaccines. MmmmmT cells.)

But, I've not been blogging science for the past month because I'm:

1) reading lots of it.

I'm preparing to do my Master's thesis this semester, and that will entail some good background work. Some interviews at the Medical School. Some serious time with the books. *Topic to be disclosed at a later date!

2) Teaching an interdisciplinary intersession course at Hopkins: "Digital Storytelling: Narrating your Personal History."

This course requires students to write narratives -- which will be turned into documentaries -- about influential familiy members. I am working with the students to develop narratives that convey a theme, or a point, if you will, for a broader audience. Narratives that leave the reader with a better understanding of some difficult life tenet.

The digital media department is working with the students, too. The science writing link? I will learn the art of podcastin'. And as a communicator of science, any new means of media that I can grasp especially well will position me better.

Bring on the podcasts!

* * *

This semester, I'll be interning at NPR in DC, working with Anna Vigran at Science Desk. Radio broadcast. Another form of communication.

My blog should still be changing though; I'll be taking psychopharmacology and Rise of Modern Science here at Hopkins, both of which will provide good fodder for my inquiring mind. For articles!

I'll also intern with David Grimm, writing 350-400 word pieces for Science Magazine's online site, ScienceNOW. These should come out bi-monthly. And be onnnnn the blog.

Lastly, thesis work will give me lots to think about~ to write! And really truly, I aspire to just research & write science as it strikes me -- the science of everything around me.

Thank you again, for stopping to glimpse. Happy 2006! May biology, physics...chemistry, nanotechnology... space and the sea!... stars, vessels, and memes... provide us with new excitement -- new discovery -- each and every day.


Best,

MGW