"Large Magma Reservoir Get Bigger" writing about science

Yellowstone Article on Nature

This article from the Journal Nature explores a new revelation in science this week, that the super-volcano located beneath Yellowstone National Park is actually double the size than previously thought. I think that this article is a good one to look at the understand how journalists write about science, as I am planning on trying to write a science article in the coming weeks.

This first thing I think that is important to writing about science is making sure that the reader understands everything that is talked about. That may mean trying to explain complex topics on a more basic level than the scientists may be doing. The article does a good job at keeping concepts simple. When explaining the danger of earthquakes, for instance, the author does a good job about explaining the geologic forces involved in the moving of tectonic plates without it sounding to complex.

Another important part of writing a good science article is making it relatable. This article does that by using analogy to explain certain things. For instance, when talking about the massive magma tunnels under the ground, it relates it to a sponge. The magma flows through pockets that resemble the hollow parts of a sponge.

One more piece that is important for science articles is talking about the future of the research, and what exactly is left to be discovered. This article does a good job at explaining just how much there is to learn about this volcano, and how little knowledge of it we actually have.

What I still need to learn about Journalism

When it comes to journalism, I am still a little unclear about exactly how to come up with a good person to profile. My biggest fear is to find someone who is not important enough. I need to come up with a good reason to interview someone about their life, and I am finding it difficult to think of exactly who. If I choose someone, and write about them, I think there needs to be a reason. I would hate to come up with someone, and have the reader think "So what?"

Lou Reed, Boston Globe Profile

Profile on Lou Reed


Lou Reed died on Sunday, and as a tribute the Boston Globe put out a profile. As I will be writing my own profile on someone in the coming weeks, I think this is an opportunity to look at some of the techniques used by Boston Globe contributor James Reed.

Though the profile is short, and could be seen more as a eulogy as anything else, but it goes into some details about the importance of Reed's work on our culture, and talks a little bit about his life. It talks about some of the taboo topics that Reed's music highlighted, like transsexuality and drug use, as well as some of the songs that have influenced our society such as "A Perfect Day"

Reed died at the age of 71 after complications from a liver transplant that he had received a two weeks ago.

The article also talks about Reed's relationship with journalists and journalism. "For every story written about his music, there’s at least another one about the hell and shot nerves that went hand in hand with interviewing him." writes James Reed. 

This piece is not very long, and when I plan to write my own profile on someone, I will most likely take a different approach. As I said, this is more a eulogy than anything else, so in order for this piece to dig deeper into Reed's life, more sources would need to be talked to to gain a larger picture of his life. 

I would have liked to have read a little more about Reed's influences, his life, and how he got into his career in the first place. It would be interesting to get a few anecdotes from some of the terrified journalists who interviewed him. 

I spent the last week in New York City for the annual College Music Journal Marathon. Each year the radio station at UNH sends members to attend workshops and concerts, and to meet contacts in the radio and music industries.  This was my second year attending the festival, and I really had a great time. It was also informative and I got a lot out of some of the workshops I attended.  Also, just going to New York is an experience in itself.

One of the main features at CMJ is the showcases put on by music promotion companies. These companies are hired by artists and record labels to promote music to college radio. As members of a college radio station we were invited to many of the free music showcases they put on. These showcases feature bands that the companies promote. I took this as an opportunity to discover new bands that I  hadn't heard of before.

Thoughts on the current government situation and on Boston Globe article

On Monday the government shutdown will enter it's third week, and there seems to be no signs of it stopping any time soon. As the congress continues to debate how to move forward, the situation is proving to be more complicated than it may have seemed going into the shutdown. As congress continues to attempt to work on passing a budget, no political topics seem to be off the table. Now, as we are beginning to near the debt ceiling limit, it adds another complex issue for congress to sort out.

I think that the article in the Boston Globe on Sunday the 13th (Obstacle emerges in last ditch struggle to avoid default) highlights the complexity of the situation. Though we have entered the shut down due to an effort to defund Obamacare, it is clear that that is not the only issue facing any way to get out of the mess that the country is in currently. We are clearly in a political climate that leave a lot of disrespect between sides. Each political party feels that they have to upper hand, and it is leaving the country in a difficult situation.

It feels like there are two US governments. The first government is the one that is constantly in the news. It is the president and the congress and the supreme court. These groups have a lot of say in what happens in the country, and are the ones that are in the fore front of people's minds when we think of government in general.

The second government is the people in the background, the ones that are actually keeping things running. These are the office workers, the forrest rangers, the fire fighters, the NASA employees, the CDC employees. It is these groups that keep things happening in our country and are crucial to making sure everything is working properly.

In most cases, the second group is able to continue working even if the political squabbles of those in power are particularly intense. But now, without a working budget, the second group is feeling the full force of a government unable to get anything done. For now, we all have to wait and see how things turn out.