Some reassurance awaits in the NYTimes for those worried about US space exploration after the shuttle retires and when Americans must hope the Russians give our astronauts a lift until newer rockets are ready. The lead story in Science Times, by John Schwartz, takes readers into the somewhat frayed innards of Star City, near Moscow, where US astronauts train with Russians and others for rides to the space station aboard oldie-but-goodie Soyuz spacecraft. Schwartz brings a sensible groundedness to the article – dwelling on the exceedingly trusting and mutually admiring society there and gathers evidence that, if push comes to shove, the Russians and Americans will find a way to keep cooperating in space. His descriptions of the sturdiness and reliability manifest in the stolid Soyuz are alone worth the read.

For news writers interested in the words people use a particularly tasty story is found well inside, by Jessica Warner. She profiles a Univ. of Texas psychologist who counts and plots the uses of the words that people say or write, and derives insights into the ways they think. The story links to the professor’s website and includes an illus showing Sens. Obama and McCain over a fact caption with a taste of what their verbiage says about them. The website has a lot more on that – and no doubt is getting heavy traffic today.

Also upfront, Gina Kolata gets started on a story about MRIs and other radiological scans by presenting some purely anecdotal evidence: her foot and what the doc missed when it hurt. Plus,  Jim Glanz, a sometime science writer who’s been working for the Times in Baghdad lately, had a tale of misdiagnosed achey hands to tell too. Her first-person story is engaging. She backs up her umbrage with plenty of further reporting to explain to readers why they need be careful, and often to seek second opinions, when a pain won’t go away and the doc says he or she finds nothing much wrong. This is a good illustration of that old adage for would-be authors: write what you know.
Other notable headlines:

Kenneth Chang - A Guiding Glow to Track What Was Once Invisible ; a full story on the glowing proteins that won a chemistry nobel last week. He explains, among other things, the difference between fluorescent and luminescent proteins. (Also see today: Phil. Inquirer Faye Flam profiles her local green glowing protein Nobel laureate).

Jim Robbins – Thinking Anew About a Migratory Barrier: Roads ; Filed from Montana and bear territory, with the picture above.

Laura Beil: Worrisome Infection Eludes a Leading Children’s Vaccine ; Yes, another one – a nasty, drug-resisistant microbe.

As usual, plenty more. Whole section.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories, Health & Medicine Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.