Attractions

Our Attractions section covers fun topics that are easily relative to the non-scientific reader. Although these articles are about science, they should be presented in a way that requires minimal knowledge about the field from the reader.

Past articles in the Attractions section are: “The Science of Facebook” (2011), “Creatine: Six-Pack or Poison Attack?” (2011), “The Black Hole War” (2010), and “Video Gaming: Sixth Sense?” (2009).

Breakthroughs

The Breakthroughs section presents an overview of innovative research in any scientific field of the author’s choice. Note that this does not have to be the author’s own research; it can be a review of other research going on in the scientific world. Articles in this section can be a little more detailed than those in Attractions. Jargon should be used sparingly with explanations. In general, each article should answer most, if not all, the following questions:

• Who or what is the topic of your discussion?
• When was the time span of the research?
• Where and why was this research conducted?
• How is this research important? What are its promises? How are the readers going to be affected by it? In what ways is this research significant within the history of its field of study? What is the future of this research?

Past articles in the Breakthroughs section include: “Carbon Nanotubes: The Renaissance Man of Chemistry” (2011), “Direct-to-Consumer Genomics: Implications for Health and Bioethics” (2011), “Two Photons are Better than One” (2010), and “The Philosophy of Stem Cell Biology” (2010).

Connections

Our Connections section features in-depth assessments of a research topic relayed in a narrative form (again, not necessarily the author’s own research). You should answer the questions asked for the Breakthroughs Section, but in a narrative form. Therefore, eloquence and proficiency plays a larger role than for Breakthroughs. The narrative form serves to engage the readers, while simultaneously informing them of the main topic. The writer may choose to take 2-3 paragraphs to introduce the topic.

Past articles in the Connections section include: “Solving the Global Blood Shortage Crisis through Enzymatic Blood Type Conversion” (2011), “Blood Vessel Growth in the Angiogenic Process” (2010), and “Molecular Dynamics: Predicting the Future by Animating Nature’s Forces” (2008).