Hack Writing
In an attempt to subsidise his intergalactic, astronomical lifestyle, Lee regularly writes and edits articles, contributes to projects, and generally abuses the good name of science through wordplay.
Listed below are links to Lee's existing published articles. You can click on an article title to go straight to the source.
Any comments or feedback should probably be kept to yourself, but dive into the contact page if you just can't help yourself.
Lee provided a shaky foundation for the following releases:
01/09/2010 The Superwind Galaxy NGC 4666
12/08/2010 ESO Website now Includes Icelandic, Polish and Turkish Translations
11/08/2010 Ambitious Survey Spots Stellar Nurseries
04/08/2010 Seeing a Stellar Explosion in 3D
Writing up interviews is great, because it's mostly somebody else's words.
Explaining in 60 seconds is Lee's kind of science communication.
Writing scripts for Portuguese TV? That's kinda cool in a geeky way, sim? Lee wrote 9 of the 13 episodes. Probably the worst 9.
Lee doesn't even remember writing this article. Maybe it was a traumatic experience? Pages 43-45 contain the goods.
A decent enough story, but somewhat undermined by Space.com putting it next to "HAVE A WACKO THEORY? WRITE IT UP". What are they trying to say?
Read the good stuff here: Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Yahoo! News. And there's something on Daily Kos.
Previously, on the Joop Houtkooper appreciation site: kooky life on Mars and stuff about the Moon.
Now it's time for the next chapter, another story based on work from the legend that is Joop Houtkooper. His brain-matter produces the craziest and yet best theories (well, ones that lend themselves to sensationalist headlines). Let's all raise a glass to Joop and hope that he keeps producing fringe ideas. Because if he doesn't, this science journalist is out of a job.
Who has been hailing Joop this week? Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Yahoo! News, MSNBC.com, Space Daily, Tehran Times. Softpedia loves Joop as well, as evidenced by their rejigged article (author name omitted, as usual). The same can be said of Daily Kos. And Universe Today. AND a Dutch site.
Writing for a new magazine? Onwards and upwards! The special astronomy issue of Physics World is available to download free of charge for a while. Pages 48 to 51 are where the action is at. Obviously.
A story not about extremophiles? Incredible!
Proof that the best CAPj articles feature very little of Lee's writing.
Space.com mis-spelled "Pullen". *sigh*. Maybe it's time to start up www.leepullin.co.uk.
Attack! Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Live Science, Yahoo! News, Space Travel, a foreign site, LifeShip, GoogleGroups, and My Technology World (who generously omitted both photo and author name). AND there's an article on Softpedia based on the story. Wooooow!
That's lucky, because any more than four would take it over the word limit.
Onward to fun! Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Sott.net, and MSNBC.com
Lee either wrote the lion's share of, or contributed in some way to these press releases. Each is more mediocre than the last!
The best Hubblecast ever, because it features great lines such as "everyone's favourite orbiting observatory" and "lo and behold, Hubble has done it again." It takes a special person to write such beautiful scripts, you know. Have a look here.
One day Lee was ushered into a tiny sealed room and encouraged to read lines from a script which he had jimmeyed, all about a bit of the latest James Bond film being shot at a hotel used by some astronomers, or something. The slightly muffled results of this recording venture then formed the ESOcast narration. This has been a strange, but true story.
Why are you so mistrustful? See for yourself.
...well it might.
Choose your weapon! Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Spaceref.com, Yahoo! News, Space Daily and Moon Today.
There's no way that any story with "water bears" in the headline can be bad. OR IS THERE?
Read and find out: Astrobiology Magazine, Space.com, Live Science, Yahoo! News.
As Assistant Editor for Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, Lee claims to have worked on the following issues:
Another article for Communicating Astronomy With the Public Journal. Lee was certainly the weaker half of the writing team, but that's nothing new. Check it out here, if you enjoy the feeling of despair.
Weird extremophile creature things again, yay! Well, more specifically, the vents that they live around, ‘n’ stuff. Some sites use the “hot spots” headline, while others are braver and use the word “swashbuckling” in the title.
Where are these articles? Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine (and the European Edition), Yahoo! News, Live Science, Terra Daily and The Legend, homepage of Bakr Anqara (obviously).
It’s off to some chilly ice sheets today as we consider how to drill and melt our way through to hidden oceans, all the while trying not to freeze to death. Sounds intriguing? It bloody well should. Special thanks go to the super-helpful principal investigator Peter Weiss. He da man!
Heads up: Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Yahoo! News, Science & Technologies News, Live Science and Space Daily are your options...
...although attention must be brought to the badly translated Spanish version, which boasts the title "Drilling below my love foreigner oceans".
Surely not another article about Mars? It certainly is, this time a cool tool for detecting life. Admit it: you can't get enough of the Red Planet and in situ instruments designed to work there.
Roll call!
Astrobiology Magazine, Space.com, Live Science, Yahoo! News and Mars Daily.
The answer is a bit more detailed than "they're both bloody cold". This story proved so popular it crashed NASA's astrobiology site. People must really love analogies between Mars and Alaska.
You know the drill by now!
Astrobiology Magazine, Space.com, Yahoo! News, Live Science, Fox News and introducing The Hanscom Family Weblog and China Daily. Which will it be?
Truly, what causes asteroids to be a variety of shapes is one of the most important questions of our time. Anyone who disagrees is not to be trusted. The time for answers has arrived!
Where are these answers, you ask? Space.com, Live Science, Yahoo! News, Sott.net and Astrobiology Magazine, of course.
Sweet Lady Luck was smiling upon a group of scientists who were looking for life underground. It's a ground-breaking news story, ahahaha.
And now for the important bit: where you can read the article. Your options are Space.com, Astrobiology Magazine, Yahoo! News, Space Daily or Fox News. Choose wisely.
WORST CASE SCENARIO #102: having to teach science to a class full of screaming kids.
Luckily this survival guide of sorts will help get you through.
Even more luckily, it’s only two pages long.
This was published in Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal. Read the entire issue here or just the article here. Or option three, which is to not bother and do something else instead.
This story “broke” at the same time as NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL: PLATYPUS GENOME DECODED, so was destined to be overshadowed from the outset.
Still, you can check it out if you really want. Space.com, Yahoo! News, Astrobiology Magazine and Mars Daily are your best options. The Today Show and MSNBC.com are good bets, too.
War! HUH! What is it good for?
Many things, including but not limited to resolving territory disputes, advanced weapons development and creating analogies to better explain the robotic exploration of Mars on a grand scale.
Doubtful? Read on via the gift of Space.com, MSNBC News or maybe even Yahoo! News. Or how about Live Science? Perhaps give The Today Show a chance.
If you want to know all about robotic exploration of the Moon, then this feature is perfect. Otherwise it’s not.
This was picked up by a few sites, probably due to Space.com’s sensationalist headline. Hurrah!
Pick your favourite site to read the article: Astrobiology Magazine, The Mars Society, Space.com, MSNBC.com, or Yahoo! News.