Science Writing and Teaching
In 1984, Blum joined the staff of the Sacramento Bee, where she broadened her range, covering science subjects as diverse as medical issues, superconductivity, and the physics of weaponry. Her series "California: The Weapons Master" was awarded the 1987 Livingston Award for National Reporting. In 1992 the American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded her its AAAS-Westinghouse Award for Science Journalism, also for the "Monkey Wars" series.
Blum expanded the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series into a book of the same title. Her second book, Sex on the Brain examines the biological differences between men and women. In Love at Goon Park she explores the life and career of groundbreaking psychology researcher Harry Harlow and in Ghost Hunters she follows a quest by 19th century psychologist-philosopher William James and colleagues to apply objective scientific methods to the study of paranormal phenomena. In The Poisoner's Handbook she explores the pioneering work of two unheralded scientists who paved the way for modern forensic detectives.
Since 1997 a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Blum has continued to write—usually on topics of science and its interrelationship with American culture—for publications that have included The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Discover, Psychology Today, Rolling Stone, The Utne Reader, and Mother Jones.
In 2005 she was appointed Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism, a newly endowed faculty position within the University of Wisconsin journalism school.
A past president of the National Association of Science Writers, she is a member of the governing board of the World Federation of Science Writers and has also served on such panels for the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, the AAAS Committee on Public Understanding of Science and Technology, the National Research Council’s Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Society for Science & the Public.
Blum is also co-editor (with Mary Knudson and Robin Marantz Henig) of the book A Field Guide for Science Writers. Also, she is a regular contributor to Women in Crime Ink, which the Wall Street Journal called "a blog worth watching."
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Famous quotes containing the words science, writing and/or teaching:
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
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