New Science Journal begins
by J.p. Lawrence
Many scientists don’t know how to write.
Many in the humanities don’t understand science.
Diana Crow feels there is a gap to be filled.
Crow, a junior in biology with a concentration in science, technology, and society, recently started a new campus science journal, the Bard Science Journal.
The goal of the journal is to engage those not typically involved in scientific pursuits. By focusing on science, technology, and society, Crow’s concentration, she hopes to engage those outside of the lab and inform them of what is going on within it. The first issue came out this month and it will be a quarterly publication.
“The research takes a long time because first off, they're really long and they're hard to write,” says Crow on the challenges of publishing a science journal. “To get someone to write an eight page paper without a grade and then get someone else to read it and give feedback and then get someone else to revise it takes a really long time.”
Furthermore, the Bard Science Journal won’t just cover research. Crow plans to incorporate fiction too. The function of the publication is “not just to talk about science,” she explains, “but it’s to talk about how science [and technology] impacts people, and I think you can do that through fiction too.”
Writing about science is often a challenge, notes Crow, whose upbringing included scientist parents and “physics nerds” friends.
“You have to take into account who you’re writing for,” she said. “Because someone who’s had even just two years of chemistry is a lot a more fluent in chemistry than someone who hasn’t.”
Like President Botstein, who introduced Citizen Science under the same rationale, Diana claims that there’s a danger in people’s tendency to marginalize the importance of science. With an endless flow of new technology, environmental issues, stem cell research, and the like, “there’s a lot of scientific issues that are really important in politics and in life right now.”
Copies of the journal can be found around campus.
The Bard Science Journal is looking for creative artwork related to science, technology and nature as well as creative writing for its second issue. Submissions are due April 23 and there is a $15 prize for cover art.