Archive for the 'writing' Tag

Science Writers 2009 Conference

I recently attended the Science Writers 2009 conference in Austin, Texas, hosted by the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW). Since some of you may not know me, here’s a little bit about where I’m coming from — although I am a PhD graduate student in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I am also becoming a science writer – I have a blog on stem cells called All Things Stem Cell, did a few posts for Nature’s stem cell blog, “The Niche,” and recently started a column with the Santa Barbara Independent called “Biology Bytes.” With aspirations in mind, I traveled to Austin last weekend (Oct. 17th and 18th) for my first science writers’ convention. Below is coverage on the Saturday workshops and the Sunday morning CASW New Horizons in Science sessions. Yes, the coverage is rather detailed – I tried to give plenty of information for those of you who wanted to attend but could not. I’ve tried to highlight key terms to ease scanning down the story. I also created an amateur photo gallery of my trip. If you want to see more coverage, check NASW’s coverage website or the CASW website.

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My first first-author paper!

Just wanted to share that my first first-author paper is now online! In the journal Stem Cells and Development, here’s my paper on “Roles of Integrins in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Growth on Matrigel and Vitronectin.”

Barely Literate

Colin Marshall, a friend of mine who is a prolific interviewer, reviewer, and podcaster, recently invited me to participate in a podcast bookclub experiment he’s starting called Barely Literate. Colin and myself, as well as Mike Violette and Jim Dempsey, recently completed a podcast on Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (also available as the Barely Literate podcast on iTunes).

I feel like we meandered a bit; not wanting to deal with the philosophical issues raised by comparison of Pirsig to other contemporary thinkers. Nevertheless, it’s kind of neat. Give it a listen sometime!

Resume / portfolio Optimization

I’ve been working on my Curriculum Vitae, in preparation for the launch of AndrewJBonham.com. It’s very much still a work in progress, but I wanted to have a “professional” site to advertise myself. Then, when I’m applying for jobs, I can reference it, and if I do a little SEO (search engine optimization), it’ll be near the top when potential employers google for information on me. All good, except that I feel like my C-V is pretty blah right now (and I need to make a resume, too!).

So, I’m curious– what have you done to put some razzle-dazzle into your C-V or resume? (continued)

Half-Written Works: The Risen Lands

So, I sometimes like to write. I could write something with mainstream appeal, like a novel or a short story. But more often than not, I end up writing bits and pieces of roleplaying games. 🙂 One such is The Risen Lands, a vaguely Earthsea-esque fantasy game with a truly over-the-top number of races, nations, and ways to perform magic. I still like it, though– at least to me, it seems coherent and exciting. It’s still very much a work in progress, but I thought I’d share it.

Does anyone else have half-written things that they nibble away at?

The Risen Lands

An RPG setting in progress, by Paradoxdruid.
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