events
Highlights from NSWA events, tours, and field trips
Tour of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) with CEO Oren Etzioni
Can a computer ace a high school biology exam? What about navigate a typical household, or play Pictionary? At the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), researchers are working on these questions, among others. CEO Oren Etzioni gave us an overview of...
NSWA 2019 Holiday Party and Annual Membership Meeting
2019 Holiday Party and Annual Membership Meeting We let our inner geeks out to play on Jan. 10 during our Holiday Party and Annual Meeting at Paul Allen’s Living Computers Museum + Labs. We talked shop and had fun with science-writing peers as we built and operated...
Chat with Ben Goldfarb, author of ‘Eager’
Environmental writer Ben Goldfarb spoke to Glenn Nelson, founder of The Trail Posse, about his new book, Eager: The surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter, on Dec. 13 at The Elliott Bay Book Company. Goldfarb joined interested NSWA members in...
The Art of Feature Writing With Jacqui Banaszynski, Brooke Jarvis, and Craig Welch
For writers, synthesizing information from research and interviews to produce a story is a challenging task. And it can even be more complex for those writing features, longform stories, or even books. On Nov. 28 at University House, we learned ways to think about...
‘First Man’ with NSWA and Geoff Nunn from Museum of Flight
Geoff Nunn, adjunct curator of space history at The Museum of Flight, joined us for an IMAX screening of “First Man” on Oct. 20 at the Pacific Science Center. After the movie, we got to chat about how it represented Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 space mission....
Show Me the Science
This panel on Oct. 6 at Lane Community College in Portland, Oregon focused on story ideas, tips and resources you need to dig deeper into science-based stories such as opioids, climate change and more. The event was organized in partnership with the Northwest Science...
The Art of the Interview
Whether you’re a print journalist, multimedia producer, or PIO, interviewing is hugely important to your work. On Sept. 27 at the Seattle Times Building, we delved into best practices for interviewing sources: how to prepare, put your interviewees at ease, ask...
Chat with David Quammen
The discovery that genes can jump from one species to another radically shifted scientists' understanding of the tree of life. In his latest book, bestselling author David Quammen guides us through stories of the new technologies and discoveries that are transforming...
Wildfire Talks
Note: First few minutes of presentation not available in recording above. Wildfires in the western United States have become increasingly more common. They burn through forests, damage the ecology and threaten property and lives. Even the careful science of tackling...
Share your Science workshop
Sunday, July 29 Naked City Brewery 8564 Greenwood Ave N. NSWA partnering with The People's Science on July 29 at Naked City Brewery to put on an interactive workshop and write-a-thon for effectively communicating science to the public. Scientists and researchers...
Summer Happy Hour with Solutions Journalism Network
We toasted the summer with our friends at the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) on June 19 at Pono Ranch in Ballard. As a bonus, SJN will soon be giving away a travel stipend to attend the first-ever West Coast solutions Journalism conference on July 14 in Portland.
When Salmon and Stormwater Pollution Collide: Tour the Green Solutions
The Pacific Northwest is famous for both its salmon and rain, but when the two meet, it’s not always sunny. On May 16, members and guests learned about what happens when all that rain hits our cities and streets, washing thousands of pollutants into local...
NSWA Science Trivia Night
Members and guests joined us April 18 for a science-themed trivia quiz night and social event at Floating Bridge Brewing in the U. District. This special NSWA-organized evening was hosted by the quizmasters at Geeks Who Drink and tested our knowledge of arcane facts...
Exploring the power of art and illustration in science storytelling
From infographics to illustrations, images are an essential part of science communication. Pictures can explain concepts in a flash, illuminate a narrative or simply provide a quick visual thrill. But to many writers, the process of drawing, illustrating and telling...
Tour the Burke Museum Fish Collection
Natural history museums can only display a fraction of their treasures. The Burke Museum is no exception. It has more than 11 million preserved fish specimens from around the world, though many of them hail from the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and Pacific...