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The department's editor, Steven T. Corneliussen, is a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics. He monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA's history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.

New York Times letters page: "Invitation to a dialogue: Using nuclear energy"

A nuclear engineer advocates nuclear power for future energy needs; readers are invited to comment.

Wall Street Journal presses to have climate change seen as an open scientific question

Sixteen adamant climate-consensus disbelievers publish their second long op-ed in less than a month.

NY Times: "Physicists create single-atom transistor, a crucial step toward a nanocomputer"

The Times reacts immediately to news from Nature Nanotechnology.

Nature and Science seek bright spots for science in the 2013 budget

Nature's editors urge scientists to find efficiencies before politicians impose them.

Washington Post spotlights an "evolving vision" of college science education

A "lecture backlash" reflects the contrast between the deficit model and the engagement model in science outreach.

Should scientists participate in politics, or just seek to advise from the outside?

A Nature commentary and rebuttal letter spotlight the conceptual conflict.

National newspapers remember the late rocket engineer Roger Boisjoly

Belated but respectful obituaries revisit his efforts to avert the 1986 shuttle Challenger disaster.

President Obama hosts students and their science fair projects at the White House

Media coverage includes the fun—but also some serious news about STEM education.

Yale astrophysicist's Washington Post commentary urges science-education reform

Priya Natarajan's thoughts complement recent similar calls in Science.

US-educated Pakistani physicist and political observer presses compatriots on the bomb

Pervez Hoodbhoy's three January newspaper analyses advocate nuclear restraint.

Wall Street Journal attempts to escalate the climate wars

Teaser blurb says, "Sixteen concerned scientists: No need to panic about global warming."

New York Times "Science Times" continues its focus on scientific publishing and open access

In a letter, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine calls for distinguishing medical from scientific papers.

Innovation, research, energy in president's speech

In his State of the Union address, President Obama touches on issues pertinent to the science community.

New York Times solicits views on the right balance between biosecurity, scientific openness

It's an opportunity for scientists to contribute letters to the editor—but they must act fast.

Science leaders advocate measured progress on open access to the scientific literature

Letters appear in the New York Times from the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Physical Society.

Major newspapers continue to question science's communication and collaboration practices

A Guardian commentary attacks; a New York Times feature offers thoughtful future-mindedness.

New York Times cites Science: "New storage device is very small, at 12 atoms"

The Times calls this information-technology achievement the result of "a heated international race between elite physics laboratories."

Three national newspapers spotlight killings of Iranian nuclear scientists

A growing number of technopolitical murders starts to look like a campaign.

NYT op-ed equates raw manuscripts with published journal articles and demands open access

Public Library of Science founder Michael B. Eisen also calls for scientific societies to quit the Association of American Publishers.

National newspapers engage science in front-page headlines

Recent editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post highlight physics-related stories.

Columbia Journalism Review sees climate coverage declining; NY Times sees politics

Has the reduced media attention hampered study of links between climate change and extreme weather events?

New York Times, Washington Post examine science's bird flu dilemma

To what extent, if any, should—and can—biosecurity trump openness?

Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy proselytizes for secular rationality in Pakistan

Commentaries challenge phony science and Islamic extremists' incitements to violence.

Washington Post reports temporal cloaking as physics "parlor trick" and "wrinkle in time"

The news article is based on a scientific paper and an explanatory essay in Nature.

Washington Post runs front-page near-obituary for Russian science

"Exhaustion, corruption, cronyism" could affect spaceflight—and therefore NASA.

Dilemma of freedom vs. security confronts science in a new way

Newspaper front pages report biosecurity request that Science and Nature withhold information.

National newspapers join physicists in tentative Higgs excitement

Washington Post front page reports that the particle might well appear at CERN in the predicted energy range.

Does "No Child Left Behind" force the scanting of gifted STEM students?

In City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern alleges unintended negative consequences from NCLB.

Does human activity require an anthropomorphic name for the present geological epoch?

A New York Times op-ed presents the debate scientists are having over the name Anthropocene.

Essay in national newspaper calls time travel "a genuine possibility"

The Wall Street Journal offers "Why time travel won't be like the movies: A few basics will make it easy as pi—like antimatter, antigravity and neutron stars."

Snapshots from the climate op-ed wars

Has "Climategate" actually had little political effect, as Nature's editors assert?

In New York Times letter, Republican leader reaffirms Solyndra charges

Representative Cliff Stearns takes a hard line in response to a Times editorial.

New York Times essay: "How do eminent physicists tackle the Higgs boson? With chocolate"

Theoretical physicist Robert Garisto tells the story of a bet about the future of fundamental physics.

"Climategate 2.0": A scandal or unjust defamation?

Media coverage varies widely on the newly revealed second batch of UK climatologists' email.

Well-known media outlets confer credibility on new cold-fusion claim

MSNBC, CNN, Fox, Daily Mail, and Wired UK suggest to the public that the “E-Cat” might be legitimate.

National newspapers show restraint in their first reports on additional speedy-neutrino news

One kind of systematic error is now said to have been ruled out; others remain at issue.

NYT, Nature highlight new geopolitical, technopolitical problems in US–China relations

The geopolitical part involves Marines in Australia; the technopolitical part involves space-science collaboration.

Wall Street Journal editorial implies Energy Secretary Steven Chu should resign

Final line says, “Perhaps [he] will still do the honorable thing, if only for the sake of his reputation.”

Washington Post discusses implications of report that neutrinos exceeded c

Joel Achenbach’s prominently displayed commentary quotes well-known physicists.

New York Times report lacks skepticism for antiscience

Half-page article covers astrology-based advising and claims of psychic powers.

New York Times: Key participant falters on carbon-capture vision

The power company Ameren withdraws from federal FutureGen demonstration project.

UK news article muses on US physics sitcom's relation to resurgence of physics study

The Big Bang Theory is seen as one of several possible motivators.

Nature exhorts academics to defend the privacy of public university researchers' email

Editorial assesses recent developments in freedom-of-information case involving climatologist Michael Mann.

NYT: Candidate would cut three agencies, but forgets to mention Energy Department

In Wednesday's presidential debate, Governor Rick Perry ticks off Commerce, Education—but can't call third target to mind.

Washington Post commentary defends science that no one attacked

Republican senator’s actual criticisms of the National Science Foundation are left undiscussed.

New York Times's David Brooks on shale gas: "a crime if we squandered this blessing"

Columnist sees and deplores extremism on both sides of the "fracking" controversy.

The late Norman Ramsey: New York Times obituary

Article outlines seven-decade career that started under Rabi at Columbia.

Jon Stewart engages physics and science with varied humor

Comedy Central's fake-news Daily Show of 26 October merits physics community's attention.

New York Times extends "Invitation to a Dialogue" on renewables

It's an obvious opportunity for physicists to join, and maybe help lead, an important technocivic discussion.

WP spotlights the drama of Hubble's envisioned successor

Front page flags article summarizing JWST’s exciting science prospects—and perilous budget realities.

Washington Post front page charges secretary of energy with naïveté

Solyndra political analysis trumpets what it treats as a revelation: politics isn’t physics. Analysis in the New Yorker presents a completely different spin.

Caution and whimsy in New York Times speedy-neutrino update

Dennis Overbye invokes poet, singers in reporting physicists’ continuing skepticism.

Wall Street Journal editorial declares "historic" turning point on global warming

The headline reads “The post-global warming world: Moving on from climate virtue.”

Media downplay climate-debate development

Climate skeptic’s Berkeley study refutes assertions that the planet is not really warming.

Science magazine: 'China looks to purge academia of "trash journals"'

The government makes an effort to rise above “slapdash and irrelevant publications read by next to no one.”

Nature: Intensifying US dispute threatens science ties with China

Virginia Republican Representative Frank Wolf presses to restrict bilateral activities.

Nature editorial and news article probe prospects for federal science funding

Editorial sees hard but not hopeless times; article is less optimistic

Wall Street Journal: 'It's Official: "Age of Shale" Has Arrived'

Article, not editorial, in business-focused national newspaper proclaims the start of a new energy era

Charles Krauthammer extols the speedy-neutrino news from Switzerland and Italy

Columnist known for climate skepticism expresses joy and awe at physics research result

Letter in Nature: 'Energy should form its own discipline'

Proposal co-authored by scientist and engineer who write for the general public

Climate consensus deniers perceive lessons for science in dramatic recent news stories

What—if anything—might that consensus have to do with speedy neutrinos or quasicrystals?

Astronomer’s New York Times op-ed: 'The Universe, Dark Energy and Us'

Harvard’s Robert P. Kirshner ponders implications of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.

New York Times publicizes bipartisan call for research on climate-disruption countermeasures

Bipartisan Policy Center declares that the time has come to study and consider geoengineering.

New evidence on antiscience: Parents’ vaccine-advice rejections quantified

Press reports on new study from the journal Pediatrics.

Washington Post highlights the late physicist Richard Feynman

Prominently placed Style section article reviews a “graphic novel” about the memorable Nobel laureate.

Space science for poets—or the poetry of space science for citizens?

In a New York Times commentary, poet Diane Ackerman conjures a flourishing NASA.

Newspaper editorial boards present contrasting views of Solyndra and federal energy spending

Wall Street Journal sees “scandal”; New York Times calls for more spending; Washington Post comes out in between.

Reporters emphasize physicists’ skepticism about results showing c exceeded

Initial reactions to speedy-neutrino news reinforced at Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal sustains “CLOUD experiment” skirmish in the climate wars

After former federal science officials William Happer and Raymond Orbach point out the limitations placed on the climate implications of CERN’s CLOUD experiment, climate skeptics respond.

Washington Post highlights the large science component in the 2011 MacArthur “genius” Fellows

Newspaper borrows and runs a New Scientist piece; this year’s 22 winners include 9 scientists, with Harvard condensed-matter physicist Markus Greiner among them

Obama officials publish Washington Post op-ed: “Supporting female innovators”

Administration to support scientists in workplace flexibility for work-life balance

National newspapers react to claim that neutrinos move faster than light

Announcement of provisional European result makes next day’s print editions of the New York Times and Washington Post

STEM education advocate Norman Augustine calls for emphasis on history study

Op-ed in Wall Street Journal predicts direct and indirect benefits, including for science and technology

Daniel Yergin’s energy opinions amplified by national newspapers and NPR

Pulitzer-winning student of oil industry sees rapid changes but no oil peak

The climate wars continue on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times opinion pages

Is global climate disruption as plain as “high school physics”?

Jim Parsons, lead actor in the physicist sitcom Big Bang Theory, wins second Emmy

What’s the effect of this show’s nerd caricatures on public perceptions of the physics profession?

WSJ editorial supports Nobel laureate's resignation from American Physical Society

The climate consensus caused APS fellow Ivar Giaever of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to quit

Leading conservatives criticize presidential candidate Bachmann on medical science grounds

Editors of the Wall Street Journal charge “vaccine demagoguery”; former Bush speechwriter charges “public health illiteracy”

Science and Development Network addresses the global issue of women in science

Online, nonprofit “SciDev.net” covers and promotes science and technology in the developing world

Nature's editors advocate more explicit linking of weather to climate

“Attribution scientists” could run “operational climate-attribution systems”

New York Times and Washington Post columnists praise and defend teachers

One says they “deserve our admiration, not our contempt”; the other says they “feel defensive and less respected”

Wall Street Journal op-ed: "Heavenly bodies might be driving long-term weather trends"

Commentary amplifies the climate-wars politicization of CERN’s CLOUD experiment

NPR’s “Morning Edition” eulogizes Fermilab’s Tevatron

“A Final Smash For America's Giant Particle Collider”

Washington Post editors privilege the science-isn’t-consensus argument

Opinion editors on climate science: Anecdotal report 1

New York Times invites public comment on school reform and the teaching profession

“Invitation to a Dialogue” offers chance for outreach by the physics community 

Unabomber copycat bomb injures Mexican scientists

Essay in Nature urges colleagues to ensure their own security while the Chronicle takes a closer look at the group behind the attacks.

Washington Post front page: "The hot politics of global warming"

Climate contentiousness in the presidential primaries—and a "litmus test"

New York Times headline: “Black Scientists Less Likely to Win Federal Research Grants, Study

The Times’s source, a study in Science, actually focuses only on the National Institutes of Health.

New York Times solicits readers’ gas-tax views

“Invitation to a Dialogue” means science-outreach opportunity on energy

Nature, Science foresee slightly deferred pain for federal science funding

Both articles see compromise between the 12 member congressional “supercommittee” as crucial.

Wall Street Journal front page: “Mistakes in Scientific Studies Surge”

“Scar on the moral body of science” is mostly in biomedicine, but physics is criticized too.

Are researchers "largely absent" from public life?

New York Times writer Cornelia Dean says scientists shun politics and most citizens can't name a scientist.

Former NSF official blasts Washington Post’s Jack Marburger obituary

"Not so much an obituary as an editorial rehashing the political agenda of those who intensely disliked Bush and his policies," says Frederick M. Bernthal.

Open access to scientific publications: Two views of an incident

Center for American Progress blogger contrasts with two New York Times writers

Physicist Lawrence Krauss ponders NASA in Wall Street Journal

Criticizes shuttle, calls for manned exploration, advocates James Webb Space Telescope

New York Times reporter stretches to update public on high-energy physics

Can Dennis Overbye's science writing teach anything about connecting nonscientists with science?

Jack Marburger former presidential science advisor dies

Physicist, university president, national lab director and presidential science adviser dies at 70 after a long illness. Newspaper obituaries highlight the contentious technopolitics of his eight years advising President George W. Bush

Nature attacks Heartland Institute on climate science

Editorial and news feature portray “violent collision of world views”

Physics news highlighted in this week’s Nature

Two topics: physical constants more sharply defined; no exotic results from Large Hadron Collider

New York Times issues “Invitation to a Dialogue: Our Ambitions in Space”

Opportunity to discuss an aerospace engineer’s view of the future-of-NASA. Will members of the physics community respond?

Science in China: Boosting quality over quantity

Commentary in this week’s Nature

New York Times hits global warming hard this week

Editorial, two op-eds, front-page feature criticize Congress, warn of dire future

Girls sweep first Google Science Fair, with eldest winning $50,000

Story reported prominently in New York Times “Science Times”

NSF's evolving "broader impacts" draw criticism in Science and Nature

Proposers for NSF grants must now cite specific national priorities

New Emmy nominations for physics sitcom The Big Bang Theory

Will this mean more branding of the physics profession? If so, what kind?

Another skirmish in the light-bulb wars

Impending federal anti-incandescent mandate is criticized as excessive government intrusion — and advocated as a tremendous energy saver.

Why can't the free market fund scientific research?

A Wall Street Journal letter writer wants to know

High-stakes testing: David Brooks vs. Diane Ravitch

New York Times invites public to debate school reform

Can seawater power the world?

New York Times op-ed calls nuclear fusion “essentially inexhaustible" source of energy

Geek rap a "vital form of science communication"?

So declares New York Times science writer Dennis Overbye—citing physics's own "Alpinekat," Kate McAlpine

Scientific publishing: PLoS One offers one study of open access growth

Are open access journals becoming more popular than traditional scholarly publishing? A paper in PLoS One looks to some trends.

Follow-up letters vs. heads of state on nuclear technopolitics

German Chancellor (and physicist) Merkel criticized on science, President Obama on law

Space weather in the New York Times and Washington Post

What are the threats? What can be done?

Medical physics issues highlighted in the papers of record

Medical physics issues return to New York Times front page: Overuse of CT scanning? The Washington Post follows one day later

Accelerators vs. E. coli

Illnesses in Germany highlight a question: Can a physics tool enhance food safety?


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