Cactus Creative is James B. Varner & Laurie W. Anderson
Marketing Science Communications Freelance Writing Public Relations Article Researching

Freelance Communications

When we are not involved in large active projects, we are available to produce content for a variety of outlets

Cactus Creative can assist in editing your content or developing original content for your next project. Past projects have included developing content for corporate presentations, technical explainers, websites, marketing, advertising, slide decks (Powerpoints), training, video scripts, and documentaries.

The same content can be edited differently for specific purposes. In many cases crafting tightly written content can be essential to attracting and keeping the attention of your audience. Blaise Pascal has a famous quote: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter article”. It’s usually easier to write expanded text but much harder to craft a shorter message that conveys important points quickly.

For original content creation, we help you identify goals and audiences. Then write the content accordingly.

Public Relations – Click to see example

Our PR team has established media relationships with reporters/editors in a variety of industries and markets. In addition to writing news releases, we send them to targeted reporters to reach our clients’ audiences.

For wider distribution of news releases, (e.g. national), we use several news release distribution services—some are free, some are fee-based.

With all news releases, reporters and editors can use them as written or edit them as needed for space available. The main benefit of publicity is that it is “earned” media not paid advertising. If editors think it is newsworthy enough to use, that approach has an implied third-party endorsement and credibility that companies don’t receive with paid advertising.

Case Study – Scottsdale Philharmonic

When reporters/editors receive a news release from us, they can choose to expand the story with additional information. We recently set up an interview with the founder of the Scottsdale Philharmonic. The editors decided to create a feature story in “The Entertainer” magazine, a publication that reaches many of their classical music fans

The James Webb Space Telescope; Startling new discoveries challenge current theories

— Jim Varner

Image Credit: Northrop Grumman

Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) came online in 2022, surprising images have significantly changed our current understanding of how the early universe developed, forcing scientists to fundamentally revise their theories.

The wavelength of visible light from objects in the early universe is transformed by traveling through space which is expanding. This expansion stretches the wavelength of visible light such that it arrives at Earth shifted into the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike the visible light captured by the Hubble telescope, JWST was specifically designed to record these infrared wavelengths.

By capturing this infrared light and converting it back into the visible range, astronomers can ‘see’ further away and therefore farther back in time to the infancy of the universe. The results are startling.

Science is a very iterative process. Typically, new information allows scientists to incrementally refine their theories. Images from the JWST present another story entirely. Theories regarding galaxy formation in the early universe are being completely upended.

In a paper published in Nature, astronomers appear to have found extremely large galaxies in the early the universe. The massive objects, if confirmed, could radically change how we think about galaxy formation. Data from the JWST‘s infrared-sensing camera was used to picture the universe as it looked 13.5 billion years ago—in essence baby pictures of the early universe.

According to current theories, dust clouds slowly condensed to form stars, which in turn clustered from gravitational forces to form galaxies. But this concept doesn’t account for the massive size of these young observed objects. If the observations are confirmed, Astronomers will be charged with developing new theories that account for the rapid growth of these young galaxies.

From Amherst, Ohio., Jim obtained a B.S. in Microbiology from the Ohio State University with an emphasis in Physics. He worked in cancer research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and at Syngene Inc., a pioneering biotech company. His career included a wide variety of technical communication projects including educational videos for the US Geological Survey, and a variety of high-tech clients. As a science enthusiast he enjoys keeping abreast of a range of science topics from astronomy to zoology. Explaining the complexities of technical topics to people in easy-to-understand terms has always been a source of great satisfaction.