Science Link: where members of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association connect with their peers to discuss and showcase insights into the craft of science writing.

For 30 years, Science Link served as the quarterly print newsletter of the CSWA, containing feature articles, listings of upcoming events, member news and other information about science and science journalism in Canada and the world.

The new Science Link

In the coming months, the CSWA will be transforming Science Link into a truly immersive and interactive brand that will allow members to take full advantage of modern storytelling and showcasing tools such as image galleries, social networking, online training, and easier access to contribute and share information on a modern web platform.

As we make the transition, I invite you to browse our editor’s picks of our 10 most popular recent stories:

· Life on the other side of the microphone

· Right To Know: Why are government-funded science getting the muzzle? (Interactive feature)

· Reclaiming Hidden Star Stories

· Eco-porn at the ROM

· Behind the scenes of Northern Ontario’s IMAX production house

You can also see the archive of previous print editions of Science Link here: http://www.sciencewriters.ca/sciencelink/index.html

Watch this space (and your Inbox if you’re a current CSWA member) to find out when we have launched the totally-interactive version of Science Link!

CSWA member looks at alternate reality of book touring

As a journalist, I spend a great deal of time talking to experts of one sort or another, and usually I’m the one asking the questions…

Recently, however, I’ve also spent a significant amount of time being asked questions, and trying to come up with intelligent (or at least coherent) answers.

The occasion was the release of my second book, In Search of Time: Journeys along a Curious Dimension. Not that it’s made me famous or anything – but it’s at least given me a glimpse of what life is like on like on the other side of the microphone.

Of course, some interviewers, like Bob McDonald of “Quirks & Quarks,” are first-rate. Others, however, seem to have “crammed” for the interview moments before greeting me.

One U.S. radio host had clearly based his questions solely on the Globe and Mail review of my book, rather than the book itself. (It could be worse: For Universe on a T-Shirt, I did at least one interview based on the book’s flap-copy.)TV seems to have its own rules – I’ve found myself attempting to explain special relativity in 90 seconds, using a tape measure and a bright red arrow: A challenge, but a fun one.

And then there are the newspapers. I’ve discovered that when you’re interviewed for a “profile,” anything can happen:

After the British edition of In Search of Time came out, I was profiled by two major U.K.-based Jewish newspapers. The Jewish Chronicle described me as “delightfully geeky,” but that’s ok – geek has fairly positive connotations these days, and the “delightfully” part has a nice ring to it.

But I was also interviewed by a competing newspaper, and the results were quite a revelation. A banner on the front page proclaimed that “Science and religion are compatible,” in bold 48-point type, alongside a photo of yours truly; inside was another headline: “Yes, you can believe in both religion and science at the same time, author Dan discovers.” I did? The actual text of the article clarifies the matter to a degree – I was telling the interviewer about a recent visit I had had with an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, and of course that astronomer considers science and faith to be compatible. The article also says that I’m working on a book about Galileo (that’s news to me).

And there are the “quotations” which I swear I did not say, interspersed with factoids lifted from the flap-copy of the new book, the flap-copy from my first book, and from my website. (At least they’re good at Googling.)

So what do you do when inaccurate things get written about you? You can seek out sympathy from your editor or your agent, but ultimately you have to take a deep breath and move on. After all, all publicity is good publicity. As Oscar Wilde quipped, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

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Why are representatives of a science centre lugging 30-kilogram cameras around thousands of kilometres from that science centre? Odds are that the folks are from Science North, the only such facility in the world with an in-house IMAX production unit.

The centre’s latest film, Mysteries of the Great Lakes, was launched in May, 2008 and David Lickley, the Director of Large Format Films at Science North, is already working on Arctic Odyssey – Journey to the Top of the World and Wild China – Land of the Panda.

Hearing David’s stories about getting the shots that make Mysteries of the Great Lakes so spectacular is almost as spellbinding as the film itself.

Hoisting a bulky IMAX camera up a pine tree so that a cameraman could shoot footage of a bald eagle bringing food to its nest was tough enough. But it made your spine tingle when a storm came through and the cameraman had to retreat from his 25 metre-high perch in the dark as the tree shook in the wind.

Setting up a crane to suspend a camera over the edge of the Niagara Falls; the priceless good fortune of two woodland caribou jousting in exactly the right place at the right time; the fabulous underwater footage of 120 kilogram lake sturgeon swimming upstream to spawn in Wisconsin: are all grist for David’s storytelling and film making mill.

Not only is David an award-winning film maker, he is also a biologist with a Masters degree. His understanding of science comes out in the strong storylines of all four of his IMAX films.

Following the success of Gold Fever in 1999, Bears hit the giant screen in 2001 appearing in over 80 theatres worldwide. David then traveled to Gombe National Park in Tanzania where he filmed Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees. Since its release in 2002, Wild Chimpanzees has been screened in nearly 100 theatres throughout North America, Asia and Europe. The film also received the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s award for Best Film for Lifelong Learning in 2003.

It isn’t just his experience in getting the shots for Mysteries of the Great Lakes that are so fascinating but also his insights into creative work with line producer and editor James Lahti, director of photography Reed Smoot, and writer Stephen Low that comes after the cameras have stopped rolling as well as sturgeon biologist Dr. Ron Bruch based out of Wisconsin.

Many of David’s film-making reflections will be on the DVD of Mysteries of the Great Lakes to be released in 2009. Well-known science popularizer David Pearson is Science Director, Science North and a professor in Laurentian University’s Department of Earth Sciences

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By land, sea, air, First Nations educators reveal lost constellations

Teaching science in most school boards can be challenging. When those schools are scattered across thousands of square kilometres of the northern Manitoba wilderness, teaching science literally becomes a matter of life and death.

But when that teaching includes the chance to share almost-forgotten Cree and Ojibway astronomy knowledge with Cree and Ojibway students, the risk is worth it.

STARCHART: First nations constellations

At the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, we service 57 local control, band operated schools throughout Manitoba. To reach these scattered schools we travel by van, boat, plane, helicopter and sometimes even hovercraft.

The school locations range from Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation (a few kilometres north of the 49th latitude) to Northlands Denesuline First Nation in Lac Brochet (just a few kilometres south of the 59th latitude.)

Curriculum, subject area resources, professional development, and training for support staff are some of the major areas we cover. For science supports we hold an annual science fair for all local controlled band operated schools with the winners of our fair going to the Canada Wide Science Fair. Another aspect of curriculum support we administer is safe and proper usage of laboratory equipment.

One of our favourite subjects we deliver is First Nations Astronomy, using stories we’ve researched from interviews with dozens of elders and families in remote communities.

FIRST NATIONS STARS: In-depth

To help bring these stories to life, we use an “inflatable” planetarium dome and digital projector. The setup is large enough to fit 20 students but collapses in to a space small enough to fit into (or onto) almost any vehicle.

During these scheduled visits, a large number of unscheduled things can go wrong. These range from ice storms and being stuck somewhere on the road waiting it out, to being fogged or snowed in at a fly-in community. For the science team this also means lugging around equipment such as telescopes, portable planetarium and laboratory equipment on our travels. At times, these items are simply transported by staff on foot, towing sleds across snow and ice.

To get to these communities, we’ve fought spiralling costs, multiple vehicles (we’ve had to wait for air transportation to take us across impassable stretches of dangerous water), a heart attack, and more than a few soakers.

LINK: Wilderness Astronomy

For a number of fly-in communities there are other essentials you need to take along with you when attending these schools. Depending on the community and where you are staying in the community one needs to remember to bring toilet paper, sleeping bags, food!, cooking utensils, water, plates, cups, forks and knives…etc. It doesn’t need to be said how the shortage of any of these materials can cause great stress and discomfort when you are hundreds of kilometres away from a handy 7Eleven.

In relation to the astronomy, the night skies are almost always spectacular in these remote communities. In winter, you can witness the glare of Wesakaychaks/Orion nebula or see the faint glow of Andromeda in a summer sky. When viewing the Northern Lights on a crisp winters’ night you can actually hear the crackle or swish of the aurora as they dance overhead, demanding awe and respect from all who see. This is one reason why the Cree call them Cheepayuk Nimetoowuk (“The Spirits are dancing”).

MORE IN-DEPTH: Astronomy in our national parks

Over the course of our constellation research, we’ve commissioned an artist to paint some of the characters we’ve discovered in the night sky infront of the stars associated with them. We’ve incorporated these visuals into our planetarium show and into a Power Point presentation.

Originally from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, in Manitoba, Wilfred Buck is a Science Specialist with the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, based in Winnipeg.

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I’ve got the Marmoset penis, gonzo science & more

So what does a science writer do when approached out of the blue by “The Gonzo Scientist” who says they’ve been referred by a past president of the CSWA and who asks if one likes “Green Porno”?

Well duh… The greener the better, one says…and that, your honour, is how I found myself parading through down town Toronto with a facsimile animal penis on my head on my way to meet the beautiful and talented Isabella Rossellini at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her latest short films.

Said Gonzo was John Bohannon Harvard-based Contributing Correspondent, with Science Magazine. (Yes, it checked out, that Science magazine: see www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist.) In line with his other AAAS pieces John “takes a look at the intersections among science, culture…(and) doesn’t “shrink” (sic) from making himself a part of the story.”

This story was to be no different.

This time his angle was “a faux research article” rating the Green Porno series on ‘it’s ability to convey “wonder about the natural world”, to spark interest in environmental conservation, artistic innovation, etc.”

And so we (finally) get to it…What the heck is Green Porno? It’s a series of wonderful and playful short films featuring Isabella Rossellini that describe the mating habits and genitalia of insects and marine organisms.

Originally commissioned by Robert Redford for the Sundance Film Festival the films, excellent examples of packaging science in an easy-to (ahem)-swallow format, have evolved to include more of a conservation message in their third iteration.

The gig turned out to be a three-day marathon. It started with meeting John and CSWA Past Prez Veronique Morin at the Royal Ontario Museum for the launch of a Green Porno exhibit including the forest of gigantic and anatomically-correct paper penises portraying a variety of species.

The next day a group of distinguished scientists from as far afield as BC and Boston sat in Dr. Miriam Diamond’s University of Toronto boardroom to build a series of penis hats. Assisted by a costume maker from www.fittobetied.ca (full disclosure: the corsetiere in question is my lovely wife) they struggled with the intricacies of affixing John’s spiral mallard dick on a baseball hat, assembling fruit fly “bits”, and figuring out how a plastic bowl, a colander, Christmas decorations, gold long-sleeved party gloves, pipe cleaners, Starbucks coffee cup lids and some sparkly fabric could be made into an alien penis complex that might exist on some far-away gas giant.

Finally on Friday night we set off on a penis promenade from City Hall through the Eaton Centre to the premiere of the new films at TIFF. We were given the opportunity to describe our creations to Isabella, her collaborator, elephant seal biologist and Pew Fellow, Claudio Campagna, and the audience that had filled the cinema.

At the after-party, finally free of our attention-grabbing headgear, we were able to relax and marvel at where CSWA connections might lead.

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