Ricki Lewis | Oct 25, 1998 | 7 min read
I write 1,000-page biology textbooks. Tomes. So when in early June a nice public information officer (PIO in media lingo) from Columbia University called to ask if I'd like to write a press release--a mere page or two--I jumped at the chance. Pay was minimal (and yet to arrive) and a byline nonexistent, but I would have a shot at actually making the news, to distill the essence of some exciting new research result in a way that might make it into the mouth of NBC's Tom Brokaw or the pen of The