The Observatory

Univ. of Montana Launches Environmental Journalism Program

School cites expansive value of training, diverse job possibilities

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 11, 2009 at 02:39 PM

At least somebody gets it. The University of Montana in Missoula announced on Monday that it is accepting applications for... More

Trash Compactor

The NYT’s “Pacific garbage patch” story: a Spot.us “deliverable” that doesn’t quite deliver

By Megan Garber   Nov 10, 2009 at 05:45 PM

Today’s New York Times features an article about a patch of garbage, estimated to be two times the area of... More

AAAS Announces 2009 Kavli Science Journalism Awards

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 10, 2009 at 12:55 PM

Recipients of the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards were announced this morning. “A radio broadcast on probability told through... More

Unscientific America Meets Denialism

Mooney and Specter debate causes and cures

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 6, 2009 at 06:36 PM

Michael Specter and Chris Mooney agree that the United States is full of people who just don’t get science, and... More

Reservations about Resveratrol

By Terry McDermott   Nov 5, 2009 at 04:03 PM

There is in the science press a kind of gene-of-the-month club for disease cures in which scientists discover that promoting... More

“Will Work in Copenhagen”

SEJ launches freelancers’ board for climate meeting

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 3, 2009 at 03:48 PM

The United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen this December will undoubtedly be an international media circus of the highest... More

Halloween Hype?

A health story about germ-fighting pumpkins

By Cristine Russell   Oct 30, 2009 at 01:57 PM

As trick-or-treaters ready themselves for the annual ritual that is Halloween, health and headline writers around the world have found... More

More On Super Freaks and Troubling Temps

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 30, 2009 at 01:39 PM

As I noted in a Wednesday column, a number of reporters have recently had to revisit the most fundamental question... More

The Trouble with Temperature

Press still trying to set the record straight on cool weather

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 28, 2009 at 12:26 PM

Articles about climate change legislation quickly piled up on Tuesday morning as the Senate began debating a proposal to cap... More

“Fix the Climate, or the Kid Gets It”

MoJo’s Copenhagen issue shoots for the big picture

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 23, 2009 at 04:52 PM

A Friday morning headline in Politico noted that it’s “crunch time” for the climate bill currently underway in the Senate.... More

Limbaugh Suggests NYT’s Revkin Should “Kill Himself”

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 20, 2009 at 05:28 PM

There’s commentary and then there’s hateful insanity, and nobody is blurring the line between the two better than Rush Limbaugh.... More

Notebooks Aside…

Science writers grapple with digital media at annual meeting

By Robin Lloyd and Cristine Russell   Oct 20, 2009 at 10:24 AM

When American science writers donned their cowboy boots to travel to the University of Texas in Austin for their annual... More

Columbia Suspends Environmental Journalism Program

Falling employment, rising education costs to blame

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 19, 2009 at 02:36 PM

For the first time since it was created fourteen years ago, Columbia University’s highly regarded dual-degree graduate program in environmental... More

Sanjay Gupta on Cheating Death

By Clint Hendler   Oct 16, 2009 at 01:45 PM

We’ve poked a bit of fun at CNN’s Sanjay Gupta in the past. See this Blair Witch like visit to... More

An (Oil) Peak Too High

Energy crisis too big, too complex for media to handle on its own, experts say

By Tiffany Plate   Oct 14, 2009 at 12:50 PM

DENVER—Protestors in giant chicken suits lingered outside the 2009 International Peak Oil Conference here on Monday. Their personas were meant... More