Top Chemistry Reporting Award goes to National Public Radio Correspondent

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9/10/97 - #12210

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Don Rhamy, 202/872-4580

TOP CHEMISTRY REPORTING AWARD GOES TO NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO CORRESPONDENT

"You shouldn't wear lipstick when you're drinking a glass of champagne." That unique reporting style of Joe Palca, science correspondent for National Public Radio, has earned him the top chemistry reporting award from the world's largest scientific society. Palca has just been named the 1998 recipient of the American Chemical Society's James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. The annual award, which includes a $3,000 prize, is the Society's highest honor for public communication about chemistry. It was established in 1955 to recognize, encourage and stimulate outstanding reporting that increases the public's knowledge and understanding of chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields. Champagne is truly "chemistry in a bottle," says Palca. In a New Year's Eve report broadcast on NPR's "Morning Edition," Palca used the beverage to explain the chemical process of fermentation, especially the special second fermentation step that gives champagne its characteristic bubbles -- actually carbon dioxide that has been dissolved in the liquid. The CO2 is responsible for the distinctive 'pop' when a bottle is opened, and for producing the small amount of foam on the top of a glass of champagne. And that's where Palca's lipstick advice comes in. Lipstick, he says, has an anti-foaming agent that causes the foam bubbles in champagne to burst. If you like the foam, "and who doesn't," adds Palca, don't wear lipstick. The same holds true for beer, he says.

Palca's coverage of chemistry is wide-ranging. Other examples include an interview with the discoverers of the famous DNA double helix structure, James Watson and Francis Crick; the chemical reactions that occur in onions that make you cry when you cut them; and the difficulties of obtaining industry funding for university-based research.

Palca, a New York City native and president-elect of the National Association of Science Writers, has been reporting on science since 1985. Prior to joining NPR in 1992, he was a senior writer with the journal Science, and was the Washington news editor for the journal Nature. He also has produced television programs for PBS and written articles for numerous magazines, including Discover, Child Magazine and Reader's Digest.

"Reporting science is particularly exciting because it's always something new," according to Palca, "Although there is news in general reporting, it too often seems to be about the same old fire and police reports." The diversity and freshness of research are what attracted him to the science beat, he says.

Palca earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982 and 1980, respectively. He graduated cum laude from Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., in 1974 with a B.A. in psychology. He now resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife Kathy Hudson and their two sons.

The $3,000 Grady-Stack award and a gold medal and bronze replica will be presented to Palca next March at the Society's national meeting in Dallas, Tex. The award is named for two former managers of the American Chemical Society News Service.

Past recipients of the Grady-Stack award include Isaac Asimov, Don Herbert ("Mr. Wizard") and Malcolm Browne of The New York Times.

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The American Chemical Society was founded in 1876 and is a nonprofit organization. It is the world's largest scientific society and has a membership of 152,000 chemists and chemical engineers. The American Chemical Society was chartered by a 1937 act of the U.S. Congress. The Society is recognized as a world leader in fostering science education and research, and in promoting public understanding of science.