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SVP press coverage
As a working reporter who wasn't able to get to either meeting in person, I
went through the SVP conference abstracts, then checked the press conference
list. The press conference list is intended to be the most interesting talks
for the general press, and they did a pretty good job. I wrote about Dave
Unwin's pterosaurs and Ross MacPhee's study of the Pleistocene megafauna. My
lead for New Scientist was Karen Sears's talk on how bats likely evolved their
long wing digits very rapidly (a really neat example of evo-devo at work). I
also did very short notes on the St. George, Utah trackway, Nick Longrich's
report of a Cretaceous aquatic mammal, and reports of a possible fossil chimp
and a giant snake. Every reporter is likely to make some different selections,
and many are likely just to cover the press conference. I think Ken Dial's work
is neat stuff, but I had covered it when it came out in Science,
Paleontology works better than geology for the general reader. GSA has a larger
press officer (with a full-time staff member doing PR), so they sent out more
detailed press releases. However, none of them excited me or my editors enough
to cover the story. (GSA's abstract book has grown enormous and I didn't have
the time to dig into the large numbers of talks.) Gerta Keller has been saying
the KT impact and the extinction don't match for so long I don't consider it
news, and that account sounds like it was based on a paper published sometime
in the past year. She's insistent enough and contrary enough to offer the
potential of a good story, so her claims do get picked up by some reporters.
--
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
jeff@jeffhecht.com; http://www.jeffhecht.com
Boston Correspondent: New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor: Laser Focus World
525 Auburn St., Auburndale, MA 02466 USA
v. 617-965-3834; fax 617-332-4760