Samantha Creech, 2020 Physics Today Science Writing Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of North Carolina-Asheville

I am a graduating senior from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a major in physics and minors in astronomy and mathematics. I am the president of our SPS chapter, and during my time at UNCA, I’ve worked as a research assistant studying winds produced by high-redshift galaxies. This past summer, I also participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where I tested instrumentation for the upcoming IceCube Gen2 neutrino telescope. I have a particular interest in cosmology and particle astrophysics, but as I prepare to apply for graduate schools, I still find it difficult to narrow my curiosity to a single subject.

In addition to academics, I worked as a trip leader and office supervisor for our campus Outdoor Programs. This gave me the chance to dedicate time to some of my hobbies– hiking, backpacking, and rock climbing. One of my lifelong pastimes, though, has been writing. This passion reaches back to middle school, when I was convinced that I’d swiftly become a prolific and successful author. My summer internship with Physics Today brings my two life passions together, allowing me to explore my curiosity as a scientist and sharpen my skills as a writer. With this in mind, I’m excited to see what the summer will bring.

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

While all of science journalism shares broad, universal themes, each media outlet has nuanced differences that give them unique voices and niche functions in society. Physics Today, for instance, is a unique outlet that targets an audience of experienced physicists. This presentation follows the process of writing a science story– from gathering ideas to final publication– in a Physics Today context. I will recount my own experiences as an intern in order to to both introduce the process of science writing and elaborate on what distinguishes Physics Today from its competitors.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: A Science Writing Crash Course

On the first morning of my internship with Physics Today, I sat at the desk in my Asheville apartment with nervous hands clasped in my lap. The chaos of the coronavirus pandemic had forced a complete reimagining of summer programs. Most institutions weren’t up for the task– REUs and internships had been cancelled far and wide– but SPS was determined to give its summer interns a valuable experience. So there I was, in the safety of my room, battling poor internet connection to log in for orientation.

After I successfully joined the zoom call (five minutes late), it wasn’t long before my nerves had calmed down. I’d briefly met the other interns in a virtual checkup several weeks earlier, and our group chat already make me laugh at least once daily, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find the entire team– interns and staff alike– to be warm and friendly. Even as we talked and played virtual games from across the country, I sensed the potential for us to become a family.

Later in the day, I met Andrew Grant– my mentor– and any remaining nerves were displaced by excitement. The idea of becoming a science writer hadn’t occurred to me until recently, when I brought my childhood dream of becoming a best-selling novelist together with a love of science that reaches back to second grade, when I wrote in a journal that I wanted to “lirn more siens” (translation: “learn more science”).

Meeting with Andrew was fantastic. He set me off on an adventure reading articles from as many different science outlets as I could think of. I spent my Tuesday learning about butterfly technology that could treat cancer, black hole science that links energy and entropy, and sound frequencies that might alleviate Alzheimer’s symptoms. All the while, I was jotting down the ways that each magazine constructs their narratives to appeal to a different audience. A few days later, when I reported my findings to Andrew, he elaborated on the subtle differences between each media outlet. I’m only a week in, but I’m already starting to understand the depth and complexity of science journalism.

Halfway through the week, I got a book in the mail that Andrew had sent: The Craft of Science Writing. This book covers the basics of science journalism, from the technicalities writing pitches to the psychology of interviewing trauma victims. In the chapter titled Trading the Pipette for the Pen: Transitioning from Science to Science Writing, I read about researchers who left academia after realizing that they were hungry to learn beyond their specialized field. The tale was very familiar; it’s the exact same motive that led me to this internship.

Oh jeeze, I found myself thinking, I’m every writer’s worst nightmare: a cliché.

But, when I met the Physics Today staff in a virtual meet-and-greet, I came to realize how wrong that was. Many of the editors came from a similar motivation– specialized research wasn’t for them; they just wanted to keep learning– but each person’s journey was entirely unique. Just as I’d begun to grasp the complexities of science writing, now I was seeing the complexities of the writers’ career paths. I felt my excitement grow. I’m working with an incredible group of people in an exciting, ever-changing field, and I can’t wait for all of the experiences that the coming weeks will hold.

Week 2: Miles Left to Go

When budding physicists are first learning about the rich history of their field, they realize that all researchers are standing on the shoulders of giants. They hear the names of famous scientists from across the centuries. Newton, Bohr, Feynman, Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenburg– I could go on.

Samuel Elmer Imes is not one of those names. When I came across it, I had been reading as many Physics Today articles as I could stuff into my schedule. I’d broken story after story into its constituent parts, examined its narrative, and scoured the paragraphs in search of what gives each piece that unique Physics Today flare. Towards the end of this endeavor, I came across an article about a Harlem Rennisance man . Imes was a black physicist who built his career during the early development of quantum mechanics. His research in precision molecular spectroscopy showed that rotational energy is quantized, and he was a well-respected member of his field.

The article, published in October of 2018, felt particularly relevant this week. The day before I came across Imes’ history, AIP (including Physics Today) had participated in #ShutDownSTEM , in which we set aside normal tasks and dedicated ourselves to anti-racism resources . It’s not hard to see the effects of racism in physics. Thumbing through some statistics is enough to show that we have a problem– a deep, complicated problem with no simple solution. This past Wednesday was an effort to raise awareness, but this was only a first step. We still have miles left to go, and I’m optimistic that my field won’t be complacent.

Week 3: My Four Favorite Words

“You’re a good writer”

As a budding science writer, I know that it’s good practice to build suspense through a piece– to keep the reader curious, and never give them the excuse to put your work aside. If I’d taken my own advice, I would have told the story of my week without giving away my four favorite words right off the bat, but I was too excited to wait.

At the end of week two, Andrew had sent me a research paper chronicling a new study , which found that the Sun appears to be quieter than similar stars. I’d read parts of the study a half-dozen times, using color-coded highlighters to mark important details, and distilled the short, three-page paper into an even shorter, 300-word article. It was a tricky task; I had to successfully convey the key points of the paper, going far enough in depth to keep a physicist interested without going so far in the weeds that my explanations surpass the 300-word constraint. I read, re-wrote, and re-read my own writing to the point where the words didn’t carry meaning anymore. At that point, I took a deep breath and sent Andrew my draft.

There’s a unique vulnerability to the scenario: in a meeting with your mentor, you sit with hands in your lap and watch him read your first stab as science writing. This brings us to the first sentence of this blog, in which I foolishly gave away my four favorite words: “You’re a good writer.” Andrew liked my article! That said, no first draft is perfect, and most come nowhere close. He gave me some suggestions, and I turned back to my piece to tweak and revise. Next week, it’ll go through a more thorough editing process, and I’ll have the chance to experience that crucial step of science writing.

In the midst of this early attempt at science journalism, I also jumped into a myriad of zoom calls. On Monday, the Physics Today team discussed the logistics to producing a magazine– marketing their articles, selling adds, and getting statistics on which articles are read the most. On Wednesday, I met with some of the other interns to chat, and we ended up laughing until nearly midnight, when those of us on the East Coast were falling asleep between sentences. On Friday, I sat in as the PT writers proposed topics for the next round of articles, and the team worked together to decide which two they wanted to see. It was really interesting to experience the level of collaboration that it takes to get this magazine together. I felt like an audience member who had stepped backstage to watch a scene change take place.

Week 4: Lessons on Attachment

When I opened my email on Monday afternoon, a copy of my own writing was waiting in the inbox. It was the short article that I’d written the week before. Andrew was sending it back with thorough critiques of word choice, writing style, and story structure. As I read through the edits, my fingers hesitated over my keyboard. My pinky touched the “delete” button, but an inner rebuttal kept it from pressing down.

I can’t delete this– my rebuttal began– I like this sentence! I like this paragraph! How could I scrap the precious words that I’d worked so hard to string together?

That little rebellion was a struggle that I’d faced before. With any writing assignment, I will eventually become attached to my own words. I create a phrase that I’m proud of, and when this phrase no longer serves the piece, deleting it takes a non-zero amount of willpower– it takes a certain detachment from my own work. After all, if writing is a process of creation, editing is a process of letting go.

Eventually, I let out a sigh and pressed “delete.” I tore my work to pieces, saved the useful parts, and switched back into my writer’s hat to reconstruct a better, stronger article. I anticipate that, this time next week, I’ll have gone through the same process a second time.

Editing my article was the first of several lessons on attachment. Between constructing (and deconstructing) my short piece, I’d also been tasked with seeking topics for a longer story. I came come up with several possibilities, but the very first idea was my favorite. I wanted to write a profile on Sally Ride , an LGBTQ astronaut whose identity wasn’t revealed to the public until her obituary. Through her story, I hoped to explore the way that physics culture interacts with the LGBTQ+ community. I swiftly realized that such a complex piece would take experience and nuance that I don’t yet possess. It would take a seasoned reporter who could land good interviews, craft compatible narratives, and skillfully weave them into a coherent, meaningful story. Letting go of this idea (for the time being) was a second lesson on attachment.

To end on a lighthearted note, my third lesson on attachment came on Friday night, when I joined the other interns to watch The Core for our bad physics movie night. I won’t comment on the merits of the plot, but the physics in that movie is atrocious. If ever you venture to watch it, be warned that you will have to learn to let go of any attachment to physical reality.

Week 5: Already?

Since the pandemic accelerated back in March, we’ve all been experiencing a weird passage of time. For some, it’s plodded by, each week like a year. For others, we blinked and found ourselves in July. For still others (myself included), time is paradoxically slow and fast, as if we’re simultaneously observing the world within and outside of its inertial reference frame.

Towards the midpoint of last week, my roommate pointed out that 2020 is halfway done. That’s a loaded statement to unpack, so for the purpose of this blog, let’s start smaller: this internship is halfway done.

It feels as if a small lifetime has passed over the last five weeks. When I started the internship, all I knew about science writing was what I’d gathered from reading others’ work. Now, I’ve gotten a sense of what the field is like, tested my skills by writing my first piece, and began gathering sources for a longer article. This whole time, I’ve mostly been learning science writing from the perspective of Physics Today, but on Thursday, I attended a virtual brunch (sans the brunch) with Natasha Loder, an editor for The Economist . This media outlet targets a more general audience than PT, so it was really interesting to hear the similarities and differences between how the two run.

After the brunch, I met with Andrew, and when he said “I can’t believe it’s July,” the reality struck me: we’re already five weeks in. A lot has happened in the first half of the internship, but it also feels like no time has passed. It was a jarring awakening to realize that July was starting, and even more jarring to think about everything that needs to happen over the next five weeks. In my experience, the second half of anything goes by much faster than the first. If I dare to blink, I’ll be writing my last blog before my eyes can even open.

Week 6: The Fidget Cube

To some extent or another, online shopping has taken over our lives. I’m not an exception, and I recently gave in to a particularly useful impulse buy. It was a fidget cube– a desk toy with six faces of buttons, clickers, and spinning parts. I’d purchased it because, like many others, I find virtual meetings to be approximately four times as stressful as the in-person equivalent, and my anxious hands need something to do. I’d found myself playing with the fidget cube during most zoom calls since it arrived, but this past Thursday, it really proved its worth. I was particularly nervous, because I was about to conduct my first interview.

I was interviewing one of the lead researchers on a study that I’m writing about. I’d already read through his paper and formulated a vague idea of a story, but the interview was necessary to fill the humanizing gaps between the science and clarify any of my own confusion. After rescheduling once (neither of us had noticed that we live on opposite sides of the world, so I’d accidentally agreed to a 4:00 am meeting) and waiting for the interview to start, I found my fidget cube an effective tool to distract myself from the clock.

That said, my nerves were for nothing; the interview went swimmingly! the researcher was friendly and enthusiastic, and he answered each question with a thorough story. When I later relayed the experience to Andrew, he smirked and assured me that many interviewees won’t give answers so easily. My fidget cube will come in handy in future meetings, I’m certain, but for now, I’ll celebrate the successful interview by writing a published story!

Week 7: Bear Encounter (Literally)

On Wednesday evenings, the interns gather in a zoom call for a weekly video chat. Although we sometimes play games during these virtual socials, we often just end up talking. Our conversations range from hilarious to provocative, and I can tell that–had we been in person–our cohort would have gotten really close. We would have grown into a small family as we explored DC and built increasingly convoluted inside jokes. As grateful as I am that APS has worked so hard to make this internship a valuable experience – and I’m truly, very grateful –there are times when the hypothetical “would have been” feels very disappointing.

That said, the virtual nature of this internship – and its social events – has its own, unique opportunity for experiences.

I’m based in Asheville, North Carolina, which means that I have access to relatively moderate weather and lots of green spaces. This past Wednesday, I took a walk to a lovely patch of grass ten minutes away from my apartment, where I sat in the shade of a tree to join the intern zoom call. About twenty minutes into the video chat, there was a flash of black in the background of somebody’s screen.

Is that– I leaned closer– a bear? Somebody has a bear?

Wait–

Oh shoot–

THAT’S MY SCREEN

I whipped back and – sure enough – found an adolescent black bear standing thirty feet away. We made eye contact for a moment, the bear pausing as it regarded me.

“Please don’t die,” said one of the other interns, laughing.

“I’ll do my best!” While I spoke, I stood – slowly – grabbed my camp chair, and walked to the other end of the field. Meanwhile, the bear waddled back into the bushes.

This was my first encounter with a wild bear (which makes zero sense, considering that I’ve grown up hiking in the Appalachians), and I don’t think my writing can accurately convey how hilarious it was. This moment is one of those stories that I’ll tell for the rest of my life.

The point I’m getting at: this internship is not what it would have been if it weren’t for the pandemic; there are several experiences that we’re missing, people we won’t meet, and conversations we won’t have. But that doesn’t take away from the moments that we do have. We’re all making the best of an unprecedented situation, and with that in mind, we create experiences and memories that will continue to live with us. Hopefully none of those other memories will involve bears.

Week 8: Forward Thinking

On Wednesday morning, I attended the Physics Today Online team’s strategy session. During this meeting, the team reviewed their procedures, accessed what wasn’t working, and made plans for improvement moving forward. This meeting pointed out how much foresight is behind everything that Physics Today does. From the formatting of references within articles to the frequency of social media posts, each move is meticulously planned out. As consumers, we often don’t think about the time, work, and forward thinking that goes into the details of a product, so this was an interesting opportunity to step behind the curtain.

Meanwhile, life seems to be moving fast. My roommates and I have been packing to move out of our apartment all week, I gave a speech on Monday for my virtual graduation, and the internship symposium is on the near horizon. There’s a lot that I want to get done between now and August 7^th, when we give our final talks, and with so many simulatenous transitions underway, it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of it all. If I’m going to fulfill those ambitions, I’ll need to plan ahead with the intentionality of the Physics Today team.

As a disconnected note, I have my first published article! My piece on honeybee swarms has changed several times since I jotted my first interview notes two weeks ago, and seeing the finished product was incredibly rewarding. Given enough forward thinking, I hope to have another couple of articles under my belt before these next two weeks are up.

Week 9: Miles Left to Go (Part 2)

On the second week of this internship, I gave my account of AIP’s Strike for Black Lives, popularly known as #ShutDownSTEM. The TLDR: physics culture– like every aspect of our society– has roots in systemic racism that we all need to work together to upend. #ShutDownSTEM was the first step of a movement towards making physics an anti-racist field. It seems appropriate that, on this second-to-last week, I come full circle and revisit the topic.

Since #ShutDownSTEM back in June, the Physics Today staff have hosted meetings and created a list of concrete action items in order to strengthen black voices in the magazine. The online editorial published a brilliant, sobering commentary titled Disentangling anti-Blackness from physics.

Meanwhile, throughout the course of the internship, I’ve been scrambling to concoct a longer article for the online edition. Such an article would need to cover a topic in greater depth than the research updates that I’ve been writing. As I searched for inspiration, I recalled #ShutDownSTEM. During the strike, I came across a powerful panel on black feminism led by LGBTQ+ women of color. The panelists talked about the importance of investigating intersectionality: the overlap of multiple social identities. I began to think about intersectionality in physics culture, and thus an idea was born.

As a physicist, a woman, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I can speak to a certain experience of intersectionality. I can speak to the pressure that women often feel to present more masculine in order to be taken seriously. I can speak to the pervasive silence surrounding LGBTQ+ issues and the fact that, in my four years as an undergraduate (in Asheville, of all places), I was never out within my department. But the more research I’ve done, the more I want my article to focus on women of color. The more my article focuses on women of color, the less relevant my own experience becomes, and the more I must rely on the experiences of others.

This week, I interviewed a very inspiring physicist whose words will be the driving force of my article. As she spoke, I realized how little I understand about what it means to be a black woman in physics. I realized that my job isn’t to speak for these women; it’s to use my position as a writer to broadcast their voices. This piece will be difficult to write, and it will almost certainly extend beyond the end of the internship. I anticipate that it will be a powerful process of confronting my privilege, making a million mistakes, and learning from the feedback that I receive. I have miles left to go, but I know myself, and I’m confident that I will never be complacent.

Week 10: One Last Time

(Please excuse the Hamilton reference; I finally watched the musical and its soundtrack has been incessantly stuck in my head)

For this final blog, I’m going to steal Hale’s idea from last week. Rose-bud-thorn is a nightly debrief activity that UNCA’s Outdoor Programs (and, apparently, sleep-away camps in Wisconsin!) use on backpacking trips. Hale gave a great run-down, but I’ll give my own: the rose is one of your favorite parts of the day, the thorn is something that could have gone better, and the bud is what you look forward to. Throughout a backpacking trip, rose-bud-thorn tends to be dinner-sore feet-breakfast (or food-everything hurts-more food). But on the last evening of a great trip, as we reflect on the entire experience, rose-bud-thorn becomes a great way to process the things that we’ve really appreciated. For that reason, it seems appropriate to use rose-bud-thorn as the framework for this last blog entry (and thank you again, Hale, for the idea!).

I like to start with my thorn. In past blogs, I’ve written about the shortcomings of a virtual internship. I’ve already talked about my biggest thorn: the loss of in-person connection with the other interns. I’m a self-proclaimed sap; I live for giant group hugs and late nights spent laughing together. During my interview for this internship, Kayla told me that past intern cohorts grew into close-knit families, and I was really looking forward to becoming a part of that. I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone through our virtual hang-outs, and I feel like we’ve truly become friends, but I mourn the connections that we missed out on.

With the thorn out of the way, next up is the rose. For the internship as a whole, it would be too difficult to choose a single concept or moment, so I’m going to share my rose for the week: the final internship symposium was– by a landslide– the best research symposium I’ve ever been to. For one, it was great to hear everyone share their diverse stories of the summer, and I loved listening to the excitement and passion that each intern had for their project. Before the webinar had gone live, we all signed on early to test our power points and chat. As we talked, Brad (for those who don’t know: Brad is the director of SPS and one of the friendliest people you will ever meet) made the grave mistake of disclosing his personal vendetta against comic sans. He also told us about a past cohort’s coordinated effort to make all the acknowledgment slides in that terrible font. The virtual nature of the symposium meant that we had access to our power points for last-minute changes, so almost every intern changed Brad’s name into comic sans on our final slide (Shout out to Kyle, the first presenter, for being the brave soul to do it first, and shout out to Hale for also including Brad’s name in wingdings). I can’t remember the last time I laughed that much, including when I almost got mauled . To Brad: I’m sorry that we put you through that, but thank you for being such a good sport. To the other interns: I know that, back in the thorn, I complained that we didn’t get to become a family. But I really appreciate the moments we did get to have, so thank you for all of those.

Lastly, my bud: August is going to be a hectic month. I’m preparing for a three-month backpacking trip in the Rockies, applying to graduate programs and spring internships, finishing up a paper with my UNCA research mentor, and writing one last story for Physics Today. I also have an article ready for publishing, which will go out within the next few weeks. This hectic month is in preperation for a lot of great things. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now, and the future seems very hazy, but I’m excited to see what comes next.

Signing off– one last time,