For publishers in Portland, Oregon

The Source for Science Writing

Author and professor Paul Collins introduced me to EurekAlert! This is an excellent resource for science writers or simply the science curious. It posts press releases from a wide variety of fields—from Agriculture to Technology & Engineering.

Just looking at it now, I love the press release “Galaxies gone wild!” It’s a great example of using a clever, catchy title to draw in the reader. Click here for the complete Hubble press release from ESA/NASA, including the 59 newly released Hubble images of galaxies partying as only galaxies can.

Also, I was surprised by an older release, “Is anybody out there?” It promotes a paper by Andrew J. Watson—a paper that I copy edited for Astrobiology. It is just amazing. Copy editing is often a reclusive endeavor: I work alone with these papers, alone with the language. So I'm caught by surprise when something I have done makes an appearance in the world. This sounds silly, but I'm astonished to find that I actually make a contribution to the written world. Editing is a great profession.

Returning to my original point, EurekAlert! gives us an understanding of how vast and active scientific research is, and—frankly—how curious and intelligent we all are! I highly recommend exploring this site.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), K. Noll (STScI), and J. Westphal (Caltech)