Royal Society announces short list

In its press release announcing the Royal Society Prize for Science Books , the Royal Society makes much of the fact that all six authors "are newcomers to the prize's shortlist".

Nice to see at least one ABSW member in there, which is why we are rooting for Henry Nicholls. The judges say of Henry's book, Lonesome George, that it "is a great piece of journalistic writing that makes you think about a wide range of complex issues ".

Descartes time again

"Nominations are now open for the next European Research Awards, which include the Descartes prizes for trans-national collaborative research, and the Descartes prizes for science communication. The total prize money on offer is EUR 1.7 million. Applications must be received by 17 July."

Check out the details over at the CORDIS: FP7 : News room.

WCSJ lands on London

That's it, then, the next WCSJ will be in London in 2009. Read all about it on The EUSJA blog and marvel at Pallab Ghosh as he sings "My Way" to a rapt audience.

EUSJA blogs from Mebourne

A team of intrepid explorers from Europe have gone off to see what they can discover in Australia. Over on the EUSJA blog Hanns-J. "Hajo" Neubert promises to provide a blow by blow account of the World Conference of Science Journalists.

Speculations on science and the press

Just in case there are readers of this list who do not also subscribe to Fiona Fox's blog in the hope that she will post another of her always interesting insights into our business, here's a link to her latest essay, On Science and the Media: Why experts need to speculate, without speculating.

As Director of the Science Media Centre, Fiona often ends up trying to pick up the pieces on breaking science stories, in the hope that the SMC can prevent the media from making a complete balls up of it. This can mean cold calling scientists in the hope that they will bring some sanity to the party.

It seems that they don't always see the point of this process. Twenty years is it since Bodmer? And we still have these neanderthals getting all precious.

Long list brought to book

The Royal Society has announced the books that are on the "longlist" for this year's 2007 General Prize for the year's best science book.

• A Mind of its Own by Cordelia Fine (Icon Books)
• Bang! The Complete History of the Universe by Brian May, Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott (Carlton Books)
• Francis Crick, Discoverer of the Genetic Code by Matt Ridley (Harper Press)
• Giant Leaps by Jack Challoner and John Perry (Boxtree)
• Homo Britannicus by Chris Stringer (Penguin Allen Lane)
• In Search of Memory by Eric R. Kandel (WW Norton & Co)
• Lonesome George by Henry Nicholls (Macmillan)
• One in Three by Adam Wishart (Profile Books)
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (Harper Press)
• The Goldilocks Enigma by Paul Davies (Penguin Allen Lane)
• The Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson (Rough Guides)
• The Science of Doctor Who by Paul Parsons (Icon Books)

There is a description of each book and its author(s) on the web site.

Professing science communication

There is a note on Framing Science about a new post in science communication. Headed "Professorship in Science Communication at Free University-Berlin" it says:

"The Free University Berlin has an associate professor opening in Science Communication, as part of their Department of Political and Social Sciences and their Institute of Media and Communication Studies."

A new research council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council quietly opened for business on 1 April. (Maybe it was the date that kept them quiet.) So anyone who tries to visit PPARC or CCLRC arrives at STFC.

Actually, it doesn't quite work like that CCLRC automatically redirects you. PPARC delivers you to a web site that "is being maintained as an archive resource for a transitional period".

One of the problems with web sites is that they can vanish completely. Anyone interested in the history of either organisation should grab what they can while it lasts.

There is a separate page for Press contacts .

Sadly, we could not find an RSS feed. So you will have to get on to their email lists, or monitor the appropriate web pages.