lxxxii
2.7.08
published on 04/03/08
New Yorker's words decode sciences
Sarah Siegel
Life Editor
Why are scientists resurrecting lethal viruses that have been extinct for millenia? What was Einstein’s pet name for his first wife? What happens when a hacker is so dangerous that a judge wouldn’t give him a bail hearing gets out of prison? Michael Specter, a The New Yorker staff writer since 1998, tackles these and other questions on the science beat with panache.
On Tuesday, April 8 he’ll be at Vassar for a conversation on science writing.
Professor of Psychology Janet Gray and Assistant Professor of Biology Erica Crespi were the main forces behind bringing Specter to speak. They organized a panel about communicating information on the sciences with the public.
A former Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times and New York bureau chief for The Washington Post , Specter has also received several awards for his science writing, especially his continuing coverage of the global AIDS epidemic.
While science and technology can often be the odd men out in literary journalism, Specter brings mordant humor and rich metaphor to subjects that laymen often find too riddled with jargon to approach or understand.
To him, a lab filled with different extinct viral specimens is a “museum of genetic catastrophe.” What about that newly freed hacker’s first breathless keystrokes on the Internet, which hadn’t existed at the time of his arrest? “He did just what you might expect a cyberian version of Rip Van Winkle to do: he Googled himself.”
The writer’s passages on the actual science involved are, if not quite as entertaining, equally lucid. If he had written the Grey’s Anatomy (the book, not the show), more students might be pre-med.
At Tuesday’s luncheon, Specter will speak about his own career in narrative journalism and how to translate mRNA into something that the broad public can read, as well as answer questions from students.
To meet this prolific New Yorker or just get some free food, head over to the Learning and Teaching Center on April 8 at 12 p.m.
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Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
