Luna Media Press Release | 8 December 2010
EMMA YOUNG, a contributing editor of COSMOS magazine, has won the prestigious Health Journalist of the Year Award, for her feature article on manipulating memories.
Young attended the annual Excellence in Health Journalism Awards, hosted by the National Press Club of Australia, today in Canberra. She was named as one of four category winners, for Best News Feature, Article or Presentation, and as the overall winner for “the most outstanding entry among the winners of the previous four categories”.
Young, who has been covering health for 16 years, wins a study tour to the United States with a focus on the health industry.
“I'm thrilled to win this prestigious award,” says Young. “I still get excited at finding out about discoveries that have such an impact on people's lives. Our memories are such a fundamental part of ourselves that it's impossible not to be fascinated by work aimed at tinkering with them - and perhaps even deleting them.”
In the award-winning article in COSMOS, “Learning to Forget”, published in October 2009, Young details investigations into how memories are stored, created and retrieved to understand why one third of people who experience a traumatic event, such as a physical attack or a nasty car accident, go on to develop post-traumatic disorder.
In her in-depth article, Young looks at new research into memory manipulation that may be used to treat the disorder, which affects 6% of Australians.
The four category winners were:
Best News Feature Article or Presentation, covering Health, Health Sciences or Innovation: Emma Young, COSMOS Magazine for “Learning to Forget”
Best Documentary or Documentary Series, covering Health, Health Science or Innovation: Rebecca Le Tourneau and Rahni Sadler, Seven Network for “The Vanishing”
Best Feature Article or Presentation, covering health policy, economics, business: Mary Gearin, 7.30 Report ABC TV for “e-health”
Best News Feature Article or Presentation, directed to medical professionals: Stephen Pinnock – Australian Doctor for "Jumping Through Hoops"
The duo of awards make it a total of 42 prizes and commendations COSMOS has picked up since it launched in 2005. In November 2010, the British Institute of Physics awarded Cosmos Online as the People's Choice award for Best Online Magazine, calling the website a “real treasure trove of science news, opinion, reviews and more.”