Op-ed piece in today's Ottawa Citizen: Science decade in review

Today's (Wednesday, December 9, 2009) Ottawa Citizen -- the largest-circulation newspaper in Canada's capital city -- contains a commissioned op-ed piece by Robert J. Sawyer entitled "The Future Disappoints," looking back at the progress in science and technology over the last decade.

This is the first of a series of decade-in-review op-eds that will be appearing in the Citizen; I'm honoured to have been asked to kick off the series.

Above is how it appears in today's print edition; you can read the full text (sans italics -- I wish the Citizen would fix that problem on their site!) here.

(An op-ed piece is an opinion piece or essay that appears opposite the editorial in a newspaper -- it's a featured opinion piece by someone other than the newspaper's staff editorial writer.)

And (ahem) I'll just point out the biographical note that appears at the end:

Robert J. Sawyer's Nebula Award-winning science-fiction novel The Terminal Experiment has just been reissued by Penguin Canada.

Previous op-ed pieces by me:

• Multitasking and Attention Deficit
  
• A Bright Idea for Atheists
  
• Michael Crichton's Blending of Fact and Fiction
  
• The Private Sector in Space
  
• Stephen Hawking's Call to Colonize Space

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

Sawyer addresses Canadian Science Writers' Association

On Monday, May 25, 2009, Robert J. Sawyer gave the closing keynote address at the annual meeting of the Canadian Science Writers' Association (Canada's professional organization of science journalists), which this year was held in Sudbury, Ontario.

Rob's 52-minute talk to the CSWA (including Q&A session) is now available right here. (Matthew Dalzell of the Canadian Light Source introduces Rob.)

An excerpt: "In fact, those of us who are writing science fiction are by and large enormously well-versed in science, enormously careful about science, and I think serve an enormously important societal role in the public discourse about science." -- Robert J. Sawyer

Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com

All Screens Are Not Created Equal

My op-ed piece "All Screens Are Not Created Equal" -- about computer use, multitasking, and attention deficit -- is now on my website here.

It was first published in The Ottawa Citizen, the largest circulation newspaper in Canada's capital city, on March 20, 2009.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Nina Munteanu on my op-ed

On March 20, 2009, I had an op-ed piece in The Ottawa Citizen about the use of computers by children. Nina Munteanu -- always a fascinating blogger, as well as a very fine SF writer -- responds with some very interesting ruminations here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

RJS op-ed in today's Ottawa Citizen

The Friday, March 20, 2009, edition of the Ottawa Citizen -- the largest circulation newspaper in Canada's capital city -- has an op-ed piece by me entitled "All Screens Are Not Created Equal" about multitasking, computer use, and attention deficit disorder. At some point it will go behind the subscribers-only wall, but right now it's free to read online right here.

An op-ed is a signed opinion piece that appears opposite the editoral in a newspaper; it is an opinion piece by someone other than the paper's editorial writer. You can find older op-eds by me here (scroll down).

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Michael Crichton: Stranger than Truth

I have an op-ed piece on Michael Crichton's tendency to bend the truth in his fiction in today's Ottawa Citizen, the largest circulation newspaper in Canada's capital city. You can read it online here.

(An op-ed piece is an article that appears opposite the Editorial -- that is, on the facing page; it's an opinion piece by someone other than the newspapers' editors.)

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site