“I’m really interesting in writing about science and I was wondering how you got into it and whether you had any tips?”
At some point in our careers, all science writers receive an email like this and most of us probably sent one when we started out.

The Cape Town Book Fair – the largest on the African continent – had science journalism in the spotlight during its fifth season July 30-August 2. The gathering featured South African and other African reporters who have taken on the fraudsters and scam artists preying on the hopes of uneducated people across the continent with phony medicine and science.

Member associations of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) have approved a constitutional change that will allow the upcoming WFSJ board elections to be held electronically.

Two thirds, 20 out of 30 member associations with voting rights voted yes to changing a clause in the constitution that required board elections to happen when the General Assembly met every two years. The clause also required candidates to be present at the General Assembly. The change, effective immediately, will allow candidates from around the world to run for the WFSJ board through an open electronic process.

The 2011 edition of the World Conference of Science Journalists will take place at the edge of significant new developments in undersea archeology. One optional workshop will take participants from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo to the port of Alexandria. There, they will watch how robotic submarines and other technology help archeologists find ancient shipwrecks and investigate their cargoes.

The Seventh World Conference of Science Journalists in Cairo, June 27-29, 2011, is less than a year away. Organizers have already lined up workshops to take reporters deeper into their assignments, seminars to help frame the reporting of science globally, and help in storytelling with the multimedia tools that are increasingly available from anyone’s laptop.

A graduate student in science journalism from Technische Universität Dortmund in Germany was at the European Science Open Forum in Barcelona a couple of years ago. She met a countryman, Jan Lublinski, and they talked.

The Executive Board of the World Federation of Science Journalists has asked its member associations to allow a change to its voting system. If approved the change would enable any member of affiliated associations to apply to be considered as a candidate for the Board.

Gervais Mbarga teaches communications and journalism at Université de Moncton in Canada and recently found himself heading up a team of “mentors.” These experienced science journalists will help general-assignment journalists in Africa, and the Middle East become better able to report on science.