GIGO

Thanking Contributors

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I must confess to a major oversight in our last issue. In thanking the people -- subscribers and advertisers --  who helped see the NZSM through 1994, we forget to extend those thanks to one very important group -- our contributors. It's an embarrassing omission as we're very conscious of the way in which the science community has supported us over the years with articles, information and interviews.

Reading through my mail, whether postal or electronic, is like a small journey of discovery every day. It is a rare day indeed that I don't get the chance to learn something, to find out more about unheralded research taking place around the country, to make contact with the increasing number of contributors in the NZSM "family".

When journalistic colleagues hear that I'm a science editor/writer, the general reaction is "oh dear, you poor thing". There is a commonly held belief that scientists talk an impenetrable language, are obstinate about talking to "real" people and have no interest in anything other than their narrow field of study. Like many commonly held beliefs, there's very little truth to any of it.

Perhaps we have been fortunate in the people we have encountered. With very few exceptions, they have been delighted to talk to someone about their work and conscious of the need to "translate" much of their material to make it intelligible for the interested lay-person. Get someone enthused enough to write a general article -- be it on spiders or semiconductors -- and you start to get a feel for what it is that makes researchers enjoy their days.

"Publish or perish" is one of the maxims of developing a research or academic reputation. It's interesting to see that an NZSM article provides some credit of this nature to writers at a number of institutions. We may not be in the same league as Nature or Science, but researchers are becoming more aware of the importance of publicising their work. No doubt it helps in looking good on funding applications too...

So our heartfelt appreciation goes out to the many contributors who help keep us up with happenings in New Zealand science and technology. Long may we see your work in these pages.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.