Secret Satans: Math

By: | December 31, 2012

shutterstock_113762158For the holiday season we here at LWON are giving ourselves the gift of confronting our fears. We are writing about our most daunting science-related subjects and why they scare us.

The advice came to me within the first few months of starting as a science writer: always be on the lookout for good math stories, the wonderful Sharon Begley told me. No one else ever covers them, she said, so the niche is wide open for a young writer to exploit. I had loved every little thing about science journalism up to that point, and perhaps working with Sharon most of all. But my gut clinched a little when she spoke those words.

It’s not that I’m math phobic, exactly, nor entirely innumerate. Some of my best friends, favorite colleagues and best-loved family members perform or write about math on a regular basis. Continue reading →

The Last Word

By: | December 29, 2012

shutterstock_50515912December 24 – 28

This was Secret Satan week, in which we science writers confronted our secret fears; which subjects do we find most daunting? Why do they scare us?

Ann got us off to a great start last week with an erudite explanation of why biology’s not for her.

Richard goes into a cold sweat when someone says ‘here’s how it works.”

I consider all the trap doors and open manhole covers offered by neuroscience.

Michelle insists that her hatred of archaeology has nothing to do with mummies.

Christie and Heather tell harrowing tales of bad chemistry .

And Cassie and Cameron dread physics.

Hope you’re all having a lovely holiday season! Come back next week for the dramatic finale of Secret Satan, when Tom will confront his fear of math!

Secret Satans: Physics

By: | December 28, 2012

For the holiday season we here at LWON are giving ourselves the gift of confronting our fears. We are choosing our own most daunting science-related subjects and writing about why they scare us.

Oh, physics. It’s flummoxed both Cassie and me.  First, you’ll see Cassie’s delightful video about a not-so-delightful experience that soured her on the subject. Then, I write about how my negative feelings toward physics might be related to bad beer. Vomit features in both of our stories. Continue reading →

Secret Satans: Technology

By: | December 27, 2012

carburetor

For the holiday season we here at LWON are giving ourselves the gift of confronting our fears. We are choosing our own most daunting science-related subjects and writing about why they scare us.

My father wasn’t a physicist, but he could work wonders with gravity. He’d be showing me how to change a flat, or fix the boiler in the basement, or tune a carburetor, and I could feel the time-space suck gathering itself beneath my feet, buckling my knees and shrinking my shoulders, tugging me toward the center of the Earth.

The cause of this peculiar effect, I now realize, wasn’t my father but the subject. I have had the privilege of receiving guided tours of some of the coolest technology on the planet—telescopes on Mauna Kea, tabletop gravity experiments at the University of Washington, the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab. I know they’re cool because my tour guides told me so. The passion of these guides—the scientists who know the instruments most intimately, who have nurtured them from spitballing sessions in the faculty lounge to $50 million, multi-ton, producing-results-in-peer-reviewed-journals reality—is very much parental. And if any scientists who have graciously given me tours happen to be reading this, thank you. Really. You’ve been great. You’ve given my tape recorder all the information I would eventually need in order to make sense of your babies. It’s not your fault that some of the time you were talking, I was thinking about the dinner of hot wings and beer I’d be having that evening at the dive bar down the street from my hotel.

Continue reading →

Secret Satans: Chem 101

By: | December 26, 2012


ChemistryDraw1For the holiday season, we here at LWON are confronting our fears of certain sciences.  We are choosing our most daunting subjects and writing about why they scare us.

Heather: Today Christie and I are fessing up to the science that has often given us the cold sweats, the one that freaked us out at high school/university and that still instills a certain deep dread whenever we encounter it in the course of a story.

I’m talking, of course, about chemistry—that maze of molecules and mind-bending equations scrawled with lightning speed across a chalkboard. It’s embarrassing to admit, but my chemophobia took root quite early, in high school, while squinting at all those two-dimensional representations of molecules, with their stick-figurelike carbon and hydrogen atoms splayed across the page.

How about you, Christie?  Where did your phobia begin? Continue reading →

Secret Satans: Archaeology

By: | December 25, 2012

292393932_66d6d5c150_z“Is it the mummies?” Tom asked.

When I confessed my fear of archaeology to the LWON crew, Thomas Hayden immediately blamed the undead. Or long dead. Which was quite reasonable, really. But I’m a lapsed biologist; I like decay. I like a lot of other things about archaeology, too. I like its stories about people too ancient to leave written records, its puzzles made of potsherds and bone fragments. The thing about archaeology, the thing that makes it my Secret Satan, is that those lovely puzzles never seem to get solved — not to anyone’s satisfaction, anyway. And that makes me deeply nervous. Continue reading →

Secret Satans: Neuroscience

By: | December 24, 2012

brain“Well, you know we only use about 10 per cent of our brain.”

I don’t like when people tell me this. Someday, I hope to acquire the guts to issue the following rejoinder: “Which 10 per cent do you use?” But because I don’t like confrontation, I usually just make a face of mute disappointment and change the subject.

If you read LWON, you already know we use 100 per cent of our brain. That’s not the point of this post. But you know what is? I’ve spread similarly outrageous rumours about the brain.

This week, my esteemed colleagues will try to convince you that chemistry is the most nightmarish discipline to cover as a science journalist, or maybe archaeology or biology or physics. They will be wrong. The most dangerous science is neuroscience, because it gives journalists so much rope to use to hang ourselves. Continue reading →

Sunday Stories

By: | December 23, 2012

avalancheChristie wonders if the New York Times has found the perfect format for telling a story. John Branch‘s stunning multimedia narrative Snow Fall: the avalanche at Tunnel Creek presents words, photos, videos and maps just where and when you want them, without breaking the story’s flow.

We at LWON sure miss Virginia Hughes. This week on her new National Geographic blog, she asked a lovely question, why does music move us? And then she offered a thorough and eloquent answer.

Erik recommends this amazing profile that fleshed out a fascinating character and invited the reader into a wonderful bizarre world. Clearly a lot of research went into this New Yorker piece by Joshua Foer.

Heather likes this Universe story by Claire L. Evans about seeing Jupiter through a telescope. Such a seemingly simple subject, and such beauty in the writing.

Ann suggests you head over to the Awl to read ‘s take on the eternal question, How do you know it’s really there?  A post on ancient screw-ups with ancient maps, and to Johnson’s credit, Apple Maps is not mentioned and Sandy Island is.

 

 

Avalanche image by Shutterstock.