Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
like
Science
and the
Journal of the American Medical Associatio
n
(sometimes writing scientists for additional material before writing a
summary).
Through the years, the staff also became adept at exploiting access to
the research community. They routinely covered the meetings of major
scientific, medical, and engineering associations, persuading organizers
to send advance copies of programs, and speakers to send copies of pa-
pers. Science Service did its part by voluntarily embargoing news articles
until after a researcher's presentation had been delivered, thereby adjust-
ing the newspapers' demand for timeliness to the scientists' desire for
credit. To speakers reluctant to provide advance texts, Science Service
explained that having a written paper helped to insure accuracy and “in-
telligent reporting” even if a journalist could be present at a session.
32
As
one staff writer explained, science reporting required attention to detail:
“All science stuff at meetings is written from the papers; it is impossible
to sit down at a convention session and take notes for a story in the same
fashion as you do anything else on that order.”
33
Sometimes local stringers were dispatched to interview prominent
scientists or obtain exclusive information. In 1938, Davis attended the
annual British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in
London and, like all good journalists, paid attention to the scientific gos-
sip. On September 6, he wired his Washington office the news that: “EO
LAWRENCE BUILDING TWO NEW MAGNETS FOR FURTHER
WORK RADIOSODIUM.”
34
Physics and chemistry editor Robert D.
Potter then telegraphed a stringer in Berkeley, California (where physi-
cist Ernest O. Lawrence had his laboratory), asking “CAN YOU RUSH
COLLECT WIRE DESCRIBING SETUP AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE.
TELL LAWRENCE THAT GUSTAV HERTZ BERLIN JUST AN-
NOUNCED 59 PERCENT PURE NEON MASS 22 BY DIFFUSION
32
For example, W. Davis to Arthur F. Coca, April 26, 1938; SIA RU7091, Box 194,
Folder 3.
33
Leonard H. Engel to Roger E. Chase, June 17, 1938; SIA RU7091, Box 194, Folder
1.
34
Potter, former science editor of the
New York Herald-Tribune
, joined the staff in
1934 and had responsibility for physics, engineering, and chemistry. Along with oth-
ers on the Science Service staff, he was one of the founders of the National Associa-
tion of Science Writers.
