Words for the week: November 8

1. deadline
2. thiol
3. heavy metal
4. notes
5. cautious
6. concentrate
7. impossible
8. benign
9. quotation marks
10. fire
11. apples
12. feedback
13. bromide
14. hyphenate
15. sent
16. four
17. e tanti auguri
18. accomplishment

Sweet Alphabet Awesomeness

As a student of Russian, I used to have people ask me, from time to time, how similar the Greek and Russian alphabets are, their being distantly connected. Wikipedia provides a good starting point to learn about that. They are a little bit alike. It is fun to compare them; it is always pleasant to look at written language.

Greekdom

Lately I have been learning the Greek alphabet. Why? Mostly I realized I could do it. I should do it. I encounter Greek letters in my copy editing; finally I realized that instead of thinking about “that wavy-looking v” or “the thing that looks like a long lowercase n,” I could actually study the alphabet and say “that nu” or “the eta.”

The common Greek alphabet has 24 letters, so it is easy to learn by taking it in groups of 4. I am still trying to keep some letters straight, but I am glad to have made a lot of progress. The hardest one for me to remember is ξ (Xi). In general, the ones that I see less frequently in my work are the more difficult ones to recall.

The ACS Style Guide (3rd edition) lists these letters on page 214; they are also in The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) on page 436. And, of course, you can find the alphabet all over the interwebs. I visit the Omniglot page from time to time.

Right now it’s just about recognizing the letters and being able to put names to them. I would also like to learn more about the various uses each letter has in mathematics and science. We’ll see.

Happy birthday, blog!

Today is the 1st birthday of my blog. I am happy that I have existed for so long. I would like to post something more celebratory but, as it stands, I am busy with teaching. I will prepare something later this week.

Science Journal Editing

This week I am preparing to teach a class called Science Journal Editing (WR 410/510) at Portland State University. The class is one of those super-concentrated four-week doses, starting June 21 and running into July. I am looking forward to it but anxious about it: I hope that the students learn a lot and find it satisfying.

I should say that I am co-teaching the class, along with the editor in chief and the managing editor of Astrobiology. Each of us has a valuable perspective; each understands a specific part of the publishing process. So the class will take students through from start to finish: founding a science journal, acting as editor in chief, directing the peer review process, editing for clarity and cadence, and copy editing (my specialty).

How does one teach copy editing? Well, I am about to find out. I would say that copy editing for a science journal is a very structured procedure. I need to stay on track and accomplish certain tasks; there isn’t the time to dawdle or to make things “pretty.” (There is, of course, the need for clarity, precision, and fidelity to the author’s voice—I consider these beautiful, and I strive for them.) Also, I need to accomplish these tasks for eight or more papers every month, so there is a great need for skillful project management.

I consider copy editing to be a more “technical” form of editing. (Technical isn’t quite the word I want, but I cannot think of another.) By this I mean that I concern myself with details such as abbreviations, numbers, units of measurement, variables, equations, tables, figures. Certainly I spend much time on the text; I work with words and their meaning. But I have to insert a space so 0.43nm becomes 0.43 nm. I have to italicize that T for temperature. And many other lovely little things!

Well, this is my life. By the way, there is still room in Science Journal Editing, if you would like to join our band. Science journals are exciting, enlightening, important, and fun.

Gateway Graduation

I’d like all y’all to visit the site of Portland Community College Prep Alternative Programs. I worked at PCC Prep for nine years in the Multicultural Academic Program (MAP) and the Gateway to College program. In both programs, I was predominately an instructors’ assistant; but in Gateway I also served as an instructor, admissions counselor, and placement test scorer (I graded essays).

These are such excellent programs because they provide 16- to 20-year-olds the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and transferable college credit. The students in MAP come from myriad nations: I worked with students from Ukraine, Georgia, Mexico, Honduras, Vietnam, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo—all over the world. The students in Gateway are likewise a diverse group from Portland and beyond. What these students have in common is their need for another chance to earn their education. They were not able to complete traditional high school for a variety of reasons. Some of them had been homeless, struggled against drugs and alcohol, lost friends to suicide, or came from abusive homes.

Anyhow, PCC Prep rocks. Last Friday I had the privilege of attending this year’s graduation ceremony at PCC Cascade in north Portland. In addition to the usual grad ceremonies, PCC Prep was celebrating the 10th anniversary of Gateway to College. So we all partied.

I visited with many instructors and staff whom I had worked with. And a former student of mine (now finishing a bachelor’s degree in finance at Portland State) saw me looking for a seat in the auditorium and offered me a spot next to him. I love PCC Prep graduations because I know how hard the students worked—for some, even coming to class was a struggle. Their diplomas are hard won, and they know that. They have a maturity about them but maintain also that vibrancy of young graduates.

After the speeches, diplomas, cheers, and cake, I had a quiet walk back to my stop. I rode the train home and watched the sun set over my favorite city.

AbSciCon Part 2: Posters

I am new to this whole science conference thing, so bear with me as I express my surprise: science fair is real. I remember setting up my little tri-fold with its science-sounding title and its Hypothesis, Experiment, Results, Conclusion—all neatly handwritten on notebook paper. I stood nervously next to my display as people wandered around the school gymnasium. Some of them would stop to hear my little spiel about growing plants in the darkness (to see whether or not they would survive) or rolling a pair of dice over and over again (to see if any patterns appeared). Ok, well, I was not so much the brilliant scientist. But I did my time at science fair.

And it’s for real! The Poster Sessions at AbSciCon were science fair for real, with adults and serious people and glorious full-color posters with titles like “Abiological Nitrogen: Formation of Nitrogenated Organic Aerosols in the Titan Upper Atmosphere” and “Tracing Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Influences on Microbialite Formation in Pavilion Lake, BC.” This was a very exciting discovery for me, and I wandered around until my mind was like to burst.

I have returned from AbSciCon

The 2010 Astrobiology Science Conference was a superlative professional and personal experience. I attended AbSciCon with joy and departed from it with sorrow: three dynamic days passed by all too quickly. I met authors, attended presentations, read posters, talked science and publishing, and learned a great deal. Today I am assembling my notes from the conference so that I may write a series of posts about my experience. I also have a few more book reviews in the works.

Oh, AbSciCon, I loved you, and I miss you. 2012 seems so far away.

I am going to AbSciCon!

I am going to AbSciCon! I am going to AbSciCon! I am going to AbSciCon! I am so excited that I can hardly speak or type.

AbSciCon, my friends, is the Astrobiology Science Conference. It is coming up next week, April 26–29. AbSciCon brings together an international community of scientists from a multitude of disciplines; it is the place to hear about new discoveries and insights in astrobiology. And I, a humble, awestruck copy editor, will be there!

What takes me to Houston on such a marvelous mission? I copy edit Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed science journal that studies the origins and existence of life in the Universe. My editor in chief invited me to attend the conference with her. I am delighted for this opportunity to represent my journal. Delighted? I am sitting at my computer, grinning and laughing and thinking of the pure awesomeness of AbSciCon.

Most of all, I am happy (and a wee bit nervous) for the possibility of meeting some of the authors I have worked with. To date, I have edited 24 issues of the journal; that translates into more than 200 scientific papers. Of course, not every author I have corresponded with will be there, but if I can meet even a handful of them and say hello, I will be so very glad.

So, readers, expect a lot of posts about AbSciCon in these next few weeks, because I will be writing about it like crazy.

Recent Discoveries

I have been making all kinds of discoveries recently. Here they are.

Food
A friend and I wandered through Portland’s Pearl District. Oh, the weather was lovely for walking. We happened upon Sweet Masterpiece, a quiet chocolate shop. The proprietor shared with us the most marvelous lemon cream: it had the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness, lightness and richness. I ordered a jasmine and clementine chocolate, an alderwood smoked caramel, and something else with milk chocolate and cinnamon. There were several floral blends, including one with lavender that I ought to have tried. Next time, perhaps.

Thought
I found a blog that is a good blend of irreverent and heartfelt. It is called Write on Through, and it speaks for itself. [Edit on 3/2/2017: the blog appears to no longer exist. I am sad.]

Life
The Habitability Primer is online! European astrobiologists and the Astrobiology editorial staff got together and created this special issue of the journal, focused on the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets! see my previous blog post here). This issue represents a significant collaboration and effort, so I am quite pleased to see it online. Would you like to read a paper or two? Go ahead, because right now the entire issue is available for free!

Robots
What can I say about the Robot Astronomy Talk Show? I can say that it is awesome. The Spitzer Space Telescope folks have created a variety of videos under the name IRrelevant Astronomy. You can view the Spitzer Space Telescope Musical, a Spitzer Space Telescope action film featuring Sean Astin, and RATS: the Robot Astronomy Talk Show. RATS is quirky, funny, and educational; it presents hard-core astronomy lessons and space marvels. Recent episodes have featured guests including George Takei, Mark Hamill, and Linda Hamilton. And the episode “Sculpting with Stars” has a copy-editing joke in it.

Why the IR in IRrelevant? Because Spitzer detects infrared radiation, commonly abbreviated IR.

Hooray for discoveries!