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SANDSWA book club recap: Citizen Canine by David Grimm

By Mike Price

I didn’t grow up a dog person. For the majority of my life, the closest things I had to pets were short-lived betta fish (I graduated to aquatic frogs in college). I married a dog person though—when my wife and I moved to San Diego, getting a dog was her top priority. And so it was that Pico, a small Chihuahua mix with a big, grumpy personality, entered our lives and I found myself doting on him as a father dotes on a child. A few years later, we added Winnie, a German Shepherd–Chihuahua mix, and ventured further into the “crazy dog people” category. Continue reading “SANDSWA book club recap: Citizen Canine by David Grimm”

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SANDSWA members tour Palomar Observatory

By Alyson Smith

Saturday, July 20th, was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which made it a fitting day for SANDSWA members to tour the historic Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in the Cleveland National Forest, some 60 miles northeast of San Diego. Our guide, Thomas Murphy of UCSD’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, spent many nights at the observatory during his physics PhD at Caltech. Continue reading “SANDSWA members tour Palomar Observatory”

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How to Use (And Not Abuse) Direct and Indirect Quotes, Part Two

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This is Part Two in a two-part series on using direct and indirect quotes. Read Part One here.

By Tiffany Fox

Quotations (also known in journalism as direct quotes and indirect quotes) help to humanize science and often add much-needed emotional contrast. They provide a sense for the “characters” in our stories – what drives them, how they speak and how they relate to the world. Many times – especially when a source is particularly charismatic or cantankerous – the use of quotes can mean the difference between a stuffy, boring technical piece and a story that vibrates with life. But it’s important to know how to use quotes effectively, and for that, we offer these tips: Continue reading “How to Use (And Not Abuse) Direct and Indirect Quotes, Part Two”

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How I moved from academia to industry, thanks to SANDSWA

By Deb Bright

It was a stunningly bright summer afternoon by the ocean, and the breeze was cool. SANDSWA was holding its inaugural happy hour at The Farmer and the Seahorse restaurant in La Jolla, and I didn’t feel like going. Work had been rough lately. But I went anyway because a number of my colleagues were going to be there, and I thought perhaps I’d have a chance to share some successes—and challenges—with them. Little did I know, that afternoon would mark the start of a new era in my career. Continue reading “How I moved from academia to industry, thanks to SANDSWA”