APS and AIP Initiate Inside Science News Service

The brain as a whole can be scanned non-invasively with magnetic resonance scanning or with detectors sensitive to magnetic fields arising from electro-chemical signals. At the next organizational level, surface and depth electrodes have been used to monitor the electrical activity of a group or population of neurons. Microelectrodes can also be used to monitor the activity of a single neuron. At yet another smaller scale, patch-clamp techniques are used to measure the electrical current of a single ion channel. Photo from AIP.

The American Physical Society has teamed with the American Institute of Physics to create Inside Science News Service, a new resource for journalists that will make it easier for them to uncover, understand, and explain important science that adds depth to news stories. Inside Science News Service offers resources and fingertip access to thousands of experts in all fields of science, free-of-charge. Randy Atkins, the APS Senior Media Relations Coordinator, asks for members help in getting coverage in the popular press by alerting him of new and noteworthy scientific advances. Randy can be reached at 301-209-3238 or via email at media@aps.org.

Here are a few examples of recent science stories Inside Science News Service helped place in the media -

• Statistics and the Perfect game at the top of Tony Kornheiser's nationally syndicated ESPN radio show. After NY Yankee pitcher David Cone pitched a perfect game this summer, he off-handedly said: "You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than this happening." We released a tongue-in-cheek explanation of why he was way off. (With all due respect, he had a much better chance of pitching a perfect game.)
• US Physics Olympiad Team's excellent third-place finish in the worldwide competition was placed in the following newspapers: USA Today, Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post, Denver Rocky Mountain News, and The Record-Journal (Hartford, CT).
• Why power outages occur during heat waves explanation with APS member quotes was used in a Chicago Tribune article.
• Matter and string theory supplement to appear with ABCNews.com: A Nightline in Primetime: A Brave New World.
• Communications-based theory about epilepsy that may lead to treatments will appear in The Economist, Reuters Health, the Associated Press and, possibly, USA Today.
• Fun things parents can do with children to teach science over the summer on ABC's Good Morning America. ABC News.com linked to the APS webpage Playground Physics.