American Scientist

Hello everyone, how are you doing? Usually the editors of American Scientist use this space to introduce you to the contents of the issue and provide some context for the articles. But this time, we thought we would take the opportunity to check in and ask about how the pandemic is affecting you.

As a break from the problems of the world, we’d also like to include some good news. We are extremely proud that American Scientist’s digital managing editor, Robert Frederick, has been selected for a prestigious Nieman Foundation for Journalism fellowship at Harvard University. He will be exploring new ways of involving audiences in the creation of science news, an approach that could be deeply beneficial in connecting science to a wider audience.

We’re also pleased to announce that American Scientist has won three EXCEL awards from Association Media and Publishing! We received two gold awards—one for a blog post by Adam Shapiro titled “What We Get Wrong About the Evolution Debate,” and one for general excellence. We also received a bronze award for design excellence. The winning blog post is available on our website, and it was also highlighted in the latest AmSci Update e-newsletter. (You can sign up by creating a free account on our website.)

Shapiro and other scientists also have been helping us keep our blogs updated with current information about COVID-19. Our blogs are exploring topics from favorable transmission conditions for SARS-CoV-2, to how students are defending their dissertations while campuses are shut, to looking at climate change through the lens of the pandemic. You can find a listing of coronavirus-related blog posts in the online preview box in the Letters to the Editors section of this issue.

American Scientist’s publisher, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, has issued a statement in support of racial and social justice, which you can find on the Sigma Xi website. As part of that statement, you can find a select listing of past related content in American Scientist magazine and on our blogs, and many more related articles can be found on our website. We endorse Sigma Xi’s statement that “Black lives matter to research and all aspects of society,” and we will be increasing our efforts to highlight this important subject. In this issue’s Science Policy column (“Empowering Success”), you can read about how historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have fostered a culture of inclusion and success for Black students in STEM fields, a model that other universities might do well to emulate.

In hearing from our readers, some of you have let us know that while in quarantine, you have had time to catch up on reading their back issues of American Scientist. We are happy to hear your comments on any articles from past volumes. We’d also like to hear what else you’ve been up to. You may be exploring new hobbies while you are socially distancing, in which case our most recent issue, on how art and science work together, may be of particular interest to you. (That special issue prompted some poetic replies, a selection of which are in this issue’s Letters to the Editor section.)

But perhaps you are busier than ever, trying to parent small children while maintaining expected career productivity? Or perhaps you are trying to organize new opportunities for yourself or your students as events and field work trips are canceled? Maybe you are trying to keep lab samples viable as lockdowns continue. You could even have taken on the responsibility of being the most reliable curator of legitimate news on the pandemic for your friends and family on Facebook. Let us know how things are going for you. You can reach us by writing a letter to the editor, by using the “contact us” form on our website, or through any of our social media channels. Take care, stay safe, and keep engaging!—Fenella Saunders (@FenellaSaunders)