Putting science across

If you haven't gone through it yet, you almost certainly will: that spine-chilling moment when you realise that the comfy postdoc life is over, and you've got to get a career. One of three things will happen to you: you'll either land your dream research job, you'll make a seamless career change and do something else instead, or you'll go into a fully fledged 'oh no, what am I going to do next' terrified horror. Options one and two passed me by completely, so I was left flailing around trying to figure out what I wanted from my life. After a period of experimenting with different ideas and applying for every job in the New Scientist, I realised that I enjoyed explaining science to people. Teaching was out, I didn't have the right temperament, so I decided to give the science media a go. A friend mentioned that the British Association for the Advancement of Science ran a media fellowship scheme, and maybe I should try applying for that. I did. The application form was very brief, after asking for the usual vital statistics, the only other information it required was a 200 word essay explaining why you wanted to apply. Over 150 applicants filled the forms in and crossed their fingers. When I heard the outcome of the selection procedure, I was told that I'd been chosen to work with Carmen Pryce, the producer of BBC Science Online where I would get six weeks of work experience. I was selected as I'd already 'done some journalism', writing for Science's Next Wave website. I wasn't just saying that I'd like to be a science writer, I'd already made a step towards proving that I might be able to do it. The BBC website is enormous, and many confuse BBC Science News with BBC Science Online. I did. I thought I was going to be reporting on hot science news stories as they broke. I soon found out that I was designing a website about the human body. I wasn't going to be rushing around being a news hound. I was going to prepare the My Word: Kathryn Phillips describes how a fellowship offering her a six-week stint in the British media proved a turning point for her future career. Human story: Opening page of the human body section of the vast BBC science website which covers a range of topics …