ROLES OF SCIENCE WRITERS

As an interpreter of S&T
for the benefit of mankind

As a translator of scientific and

technical jargon into simple
language
What is science
about the issue?

story angle
Features are intended
to give readers more
descriptions and details.
Parts of a Science Feature
• Introduction
- acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into
the topic or issue to be discussed
• Body
- Elaborate the topic through discussion of essential information through
definition, cause and effect relationship, process approach, comparison,
and contrast
• Conclusion
- pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider
broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance
of your findings
- can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader,
but also enrich your reader’s life in some way
Declining Bio-DIE- Hammer
versity Deck
Saving all creatures great and
END-dangered
small species
Subheads
ex-THINK-tion

Ampayon Central Elementary School, Butuan City in Science Writing

NSPC 2020 - Elementary Level
 Beware of Toxic Toys

When Bitter is Better

The Fault in Our Stalls

Marriage Madein Heaven

Epidemic of Fear
Unmasking the Health Risks of Zika Virus

Drink Now. Die Later.

Facing the Dangers of Alcoholism
Lead
a strong hook sentence or paragraph may include any one
of the following:
• Ask a question.
• Be descriptive and paint a vivid picture of the scene.
• Use a factual and relevant situation.
• Startle the reader with a fact.
• Be inspirational — start with a quote.
• Provide a plot twist.
Tides of Change
Facing the dangers of ocean pollution
John Matthew C. Marquez
3rd Place - Science Writing
Philippine Science High School - Central Luzon Campus, Angeles City Division, Region III
National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) 2015

In a world with oceans filled with rolling garbage

and wastes, how will the Philippines survive?
 Ocean pollution is a rampant issue in our
society. According to the agency Ocean
Conservancy, millions of plastic bags, water
bottles, cigarette butts, bottle caps, and other
waste are thrown into the oceans each year.
These wastes are difficult to decompose,
therefore turning our oceans into landfills.
 Aside from the adverse range of health
risks such as amoebiasis that can be contracted
by those who ingest the polluted water, ocean
pollution also causes environmental damages to
numerous coastal areas. The beauty of many
natural scenic spots is being damaged by the
waste brought by ocean pollution.
 The environmental damages of ocean
pollution cause a chain reaction with a
nation’s economy. Polluted coastal areas
affect local tourism, such as lessening the
number of flights to these areas. Local
businesses that depend on tourism are also
affected by the decrease in the number of
tourists present.
 Wildlife is also affected by ocean pollution.
Birds living near coastal areas consume bottle
caps and other waste, mistaking them for a
viable food source. However, the birds cannot
digest these materials, and as a result, they
soon die of starvation.
 Turtles are also affected by pollution.
They consume plastic bags, which resemble
the turtles’ natural prey—jellyfish. Just like
the birds, they cannot digest the waste, and
soon die afterwards.
 World efforts are now focused on
solving this issue. Annually, a world coastal
cleanup event is being held to rid the
shorelines and coastal areas of any garbage
present. Divers are also given a task of
cleaning the seabed and further depths of
the ocean of any waste they find.
 The Philippines is a nation that is greatly
affected by ocean pollution. Our country has
various coastal areas which are an asset to
tourism. Sadly, ocean pollution has become a
significant threat. For example, Boracay, once
a pristine area of clear waters and clean sand,
is now plagued by the amount of trash that
washes on its shores.
 The tides of change are upon us, and we
must strive to make our oceans cleaner not just
for our society, but also for the future
generations to come.
Floating Monster of the Sea
Mitigating the Oil Spill in Oriental Mindoro
By Aries M. Oliveros

Humans always pay the price for the harm they do to the environmen

The scent of danger enveloped the coast of Pola, Oriental Mindoro on

February 28, 2023 when the M/T Princess Empress sank. Carrying
800,000 liters of industrial oil, the vessel allegedly suffered engine
failure and sank in rough seas. Consequently, oil spilled in the water,
causing serious health and environmental threats.
According to Provincial Health Officer Cielo Ante, at least 43
people suffered nausea, headache, vomiting, and breathing
difficulties. Inhaling fuel oil vapors caused these health problems
because of the toxic compounds found in oil.

Residents of Pola started wearing protective equipment and

masks to prevent worse effects of smelling chemicals from the oil
spill. The local government also imposed fishing and swimming
ban in the area because skin contact may result in blisters and
itchiness.
The oil spill also affected the supply of seafood. It disrupted the
livelihood of fish sellers in the public market and the tourism
workers who struggled to get by.

Jennifer Cruz, the mayor of Pola, told CNN Philippines that “in the
span of nine days the oil spill is getting worse.” To prevent the
spread of oil spill, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) used floating oil
spill boom, temporary floating barrier used to contain an oil spill.

The PCG, along with the residents, collected 92 sacks of oiled debris
by using absorbent pads to wipe slick from rocks along the shore of
Barangay Buhay na Tubig.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. hoped that the government can
contain the oil spill and that the oil spill cleanup will take less
than four months. Given financial assistance, residents engaged
in the cash-for-work program for the cleanup as they await to go
back to their fishing job.

Moreover, Japanese Ambassador for the Philippines Kazuhiko

Koshikawa expressed support through sending a disaster relief
expert team on oil removal and control. He said that Japan is with
the Philippines in these trying times.
The scent of danger still lingers and threatens the lives of Pola
residents. However, through the collective effort and quick
response of concerned agencies and individuals, the oil spill will
soon disappear before it is too late.

Undeniably, the time an ecosystem takes to recover from an oil spill

depends on its size. The Philippine Marine Science Institute
predicted that more than 36,000 hectares of coral reefs, mangroves
and seaweed, including marine protected areas, may be affected by
the disaster. Mitigating oil spill may seem a Herculean task,
especially for a locality that lacks appropriate technology and sense
of urgency against this calamity.
For now, Pola residents and environmental workers strive and
collaborate to solve this dilemma. It is their collective effort, love,
and care for the environment that shall outweigh the dangers of
this the man-made floating monster of the sea.
A Pulmonary Assassin
Preventing the spread of TB in the Philippines
Aries N. Oliveros

Healthy lungs are crucial for overall fitness. When strains of contagious bacteria or
virus infect these vital breathing organs, immediate medical attention is needed to
prevent life-threatening conditions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that tuberculosis (TB) kills at least 1.5
million people annually. It is was considered the world’s deadliest infectious disease
before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 372, 367 cases of TB.
This comprises 7% of the world’s TB cases in 2021, according to the WHO.
Phytoremediation: Vanguards of Nature
Safeguarding clean water in Zambales
Aries N. Oliveros

Access to clean water is a human right. Health will be in peril if water pollution takes
its toll.

Safe water is necessary sustain life. Humans are heavily dependent on clean water
which allows food production, basic to complex human activities, leisure, hygiene,
and sanitation possible. With the threats of water pollution, all the more that we
need effective management of water resources.

To reduce water pollutants at the SUBICWATERS in Zambales, the Department of

Science and Technology (DOST) unveiled its phytoremediation technology through
plant-based treatment.
Garden of Trees
Lee Romney Santos

What is a garden without flowers? What is a world without trees?

Rooting from the soil, making its way up and almost touching the
clouds, the trees stand tall with their leaves swaying to the
movement of the gentle wind as the dew sparkled under the
daylight. But these trees are more than a stunning sight, for their
mere absence makes it hard to give rise to life of many forms.
Like how flowers give colors to a field of grass turning it into a
garden, trees give life to the world making it a home. These
oxygen-giving posts of brown and green proved their
significance as life-sustainers to a variety of creatures, including
us humans.

Ranging from acacias to palm trees, Clark is a garden of trees

with the green leaves spotted all over the place.
In a highly-urbanized place like Clark, where carbon dioxide
levels are high, coming from people, factories, or vehicles, trees
are an essential part of the surroundings, compensating the
increasing demand of oxygen with the zone's expanding
population. Trees are proven to stabilize the temperature by
being able to diminish a city's temperature by 7° C which creates
a more comfortable environment for a usual busy day in Clark.
These tall flowers with hard brown stems and thin green petals
provide long term support to our lives. On the average, some
trees can live for up to 50 years, while others can survive for
5,000 years like the Bristlecone pine. The acacia on the other
hand, which is common in Clark, can grow for a thousand years.
To think of how much service the trees have provided to
humanity convinces me that I owe my whole lifetime to them.
In line with Clark's further urbanization possibly comes land
degradation, making the world less of a home. Trees are already
part of my memories associated with Clark, like how the fallen
brown leaves give an autumn vibe to the scene. Even more, these
trees are a part of our lives ever since, sustaining us and
providing what we need.

Imagining the world without trees gives me the vision of a garden

without flowers, and same goes with Clark.
Mycowood Violins: A Different Kind of Time Machine
Natalia Araña, Winner, 2021 STEM writing contest, The New York Times
Philippine Science High School - Main Campus

The towering walls of the concert hall are filled with anticipation as
the audience holds its breath. Suddenly, a warm, colorful melody
begins to play, filling the whole building with its majestic sound.
This is the magic of the world’s most famous violin — the
Stradivarius, made over 250 years ago by Italian Luthier Antonio
Stradivari. Today, only a few hundred of these million-dollar
violins are still in existence; even fewer are being used for
performance. But what if we could travel back in time and find a
way to remake its unique sound?
For years, many have tried to identify and recreate what makes
the instrument so special. Yet for violinists, the Stradivarius
remained superior. Recently, however, scientists were able to
discover one of the culprits behind the mystery of why the
Stradivarius was so hard to replicate — global warming.
“Nowadays, trees grow more rapidly and unevenly than during a
very particular cold spell in the 17th century, when the wood for
Stradivari’s instruments was felled,” explained scientist Francis
W.M.R. Schwarze from the Empa Applied Wood Materials Lab.
During that cold climate, wood from European spruces was
homogeneous: perfect for creating an instrument with a uniform
structure. Today, as the global temperature increases, spruce trees
grow wood with greater density. This negatively affects the
properties of an instrument’s vibrations, which are also known as
sound waves.
Sound waves, like tiny ocean waves, have crests and troughs with
varying amplitudes. When the amplitude of sound waves
traveling through a violin’s plate is large compared to the force on
its strings, the instrument’s sound emission increases. To achieve
this high plate amplitude, the wood used for the instrument must
have a high radiation ratio: the ratio between sound velocity and
density.
In order to let modern-day wood acquire this characteristic, Dr.
Schwarze designed a different kind of time machine — an invention
that could take us back to an era when wood growth and density
were still untouched by global warming. How? By recreating the
effects of the cold temperature on wood using a not-so-secret
living weapon: white rot fungi.
For three months, Dr. Schwarze let these decomposers feast on the
wood until its cells shrunk, letting the timber reach its optimal
density without largely affecting the speed of sound travel through
the material. The result? A higher radiation ratio that made the
newly created “mycowood” one step closer to the resonance wood
used by Stradivari — close enough, in fact, that most listeners in a
blind test mistook a fungi-treated violin for the original
Stradivarius!
With these positive results, this technology could provide
musicians with accessible instruments made from high quality
wood, even when the original material is lost to the past.

We have tried to replicate many things taken away by climate

change, from the exquisite wood of the Stradivarius to the
beautiful landscapes of nature. Although we can’t recover
everything, researchers like Dr. Schwarze are continuing to find
ways to restore the past as we carry on our battle for a more
sustainable future.
Unleash the Tests: The Four-Legged Future of Covid-19 Testing
Sophie Araten, Millburn High School in Millburn, New Jearsey

She’s got pointy ears, a long snout and four strong legs. Meet
your new Covid-19 test.

For years dogs have been used to detect bombs and drugs at
airports, but our canine friends can also detect certain diseases,
such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease, years before the onset of
symptoms.
How can they do this? A dog’s nose has between 125 and 300
million scent glands, compared to a human nose, which only has
about five million. As a result, a dog’s sense of smell can be up to
100,000 times more sensitive than a human’s. If there were a
juicy steak 10 miles away, your dog’s nose could find it. So, when
diseases cause people to emit slightly different odors, dogs can
detect them.
With Covid-19 occupying the minds of scientists around the world,
it was only a matter of time before researchers put dogs to the test
to see if they could sniff out the novel coronavirus. Lucky for us,
they can. Indeed, researchers have started to train dogs to detect
Covid-19 in human sweat samples, and many countries are looking
to dogs for cheap, reliable and rapid testing.

It is believed that dogs can recognize a scent produced by volatile

organic compounds generated by catabolites, substances
produced during replication of the Covid-19 virus. Catabolites exit
the body in the form of sweat, which then carries a scent that dogs
can detect and be trained to identify.
Dogs in recent trials could pick up the scent of Covid-19 in
asymptomatic carriers, and many could even detect Covid-19
earlier than a PCR test could. As Cynthia Otto, the director of the
Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Veterinary Medicine, explained to me in an interview:
“PCR identifies the RNA associated with the virus. It requires
sufficient virus to capture that signal. The dogs pick up the odor
of the person’s response to infection. That response could be
activated before the virus is in sufficient numbers in the sample
collected.”
Another drawback of PCR testing is its speed, often taking several
days to get results back. In contrast, dogs could screen hundreds
of people in a matter of minutes in busy places such as airports
and sports stadiums. Beyond their speed, dogs are also accurate,
with the ability to identify positive samples about 95 percent of
the time and with a false negativity rate of around one percent in
trials. Dr. Otto worries, however, that “If a dog is trained but
inadvertently does not actually recognize Covid, then use of this
dog would result in false negatives, which would provide
inaccurate information and could result in greater spread.”
For this reason, Dr. Otto suggests that “Dogs potentially could be
used for screening, rather than diagnosis,” which would allow for
“rapid identification of people who need further testing.”

Either way, there is great potential for dogs to help control the
pandemic. These inexpensive and quick canine testers could help
us get back to a pre-Covid normal.
 Write to express. Let the content impress.
• All science writing must refer to information that is based on
evidence.
• The information presented has been gathered, analyzed and
critiqued using accepted scientific methods.
• Any assumptions, ideas, predictions or suggestions must not
be presented as though they are a scientific fact.
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