What We're Talking About Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Science of Blogging
A new paper in the Journal of Scientific Communication has put science blogging under the microscope, but turnabout is fair play: bloggers from around the net are now putting the paper through its paces. Author Inna Kouper’s analysis focused on 11 blogs—including our own Pharyngula, DrugMonkey, The Scientific Activist, and Pure Pedantry—in an attempt to discover best practices for communicating science to the public. But trying to characterize science blogs as a monolith from such a small sample has led to questions about methodology and the heterogeneous nature of blogging as a medium. Must there be a consensus on what science blogs are for, what kinds of audiences they should aim to attract, or on the level of discourse for engaging with readers? Our own new media maven Bora Zivkovic has the most thorough breakdown at A Blog Around the Clock, but see others at Cosmic Variance and The Panda’s thumb, which were also subjects of the study.
- More news of the week on Page 3.14.
Science blogs and public engagement with science
A Blog Around the ClockMarch 8, 2010
“As you may know, I love the Journal of Science Communication. It publishes some very interesting and useful scholarly articles on a wide array of issues pertaining to the communication, education and publishing of science. I wish more science bloggers (and non-blogging scientists) read it and blogged about their articles. Unfortunately, human nature being as it is, most of the excellent papers go by un-noticed by the blogosphere, while an occasional sub-standard paper gets some play - it is so much easier to critique than to analyze or even praise.”
Stop using the lens of your preconceptions
PharyngulaMarch 9, 2010
“We don't need to 'stabilize' on anything: the virtue of this medium is unfettered diversity. Pharyngula is not to everybody's taste (really!), but is just right for some others — the wonderful part of the science blogosphere is that we have so many different ideas bouncing around out here.”
Blogging in the Academy: Batts et al, 2008
DrugMonkeySeptember 22, 2008
“A small literature of review/commentary papers on the application of blogging technologies to academic disciplines has been developing in traditional journal outlets. A recent effort by ScienceBloggers Shelley A. Batts, Nicholas J. Anthis and Tara C. Smith has been published in PLoS Biology as a Community Page.”
Community
Welcome to Travis Saunders and Peter Janiszewski, our newest bloggers on Obesity Panacea. These guys are devoted to debunking weight loss gimmicks and other things that are too good to be true, while offering real and effective insight into losing weight (maybe) and at least leading a healthier lifestyle. They also offer a field guide to the Kanyes, Bonapartes, and American Idols at your local gym.
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In Conversation
“Then I thought: who will call me next? The mathematicians? The physicists? The chemists? We can't possibly call it the USA Science, Engineering, Math, Technology, Nanotechnology, Biology, Earth Science, Statistical, Medical and Astronomy Festival.”
Channel Surfing
Life Science
Botanical Wednesday: Knobs erupting from the ground!
Lithops...
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE
There are 35 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes...
State of sequencing technology in 2010
Dan Koboldt has a very nice recap of the various sequencing technologies presented at last week's Advances in...
The Life Science Channel RSS FeedPhysical Science
"Our objective over the next 18 to 24 months is to deliver one inverse femtobarn of data to the experiments."
This is a piece by Rolf Heuer, Director General of CERN explaining what is happening over at LHC....
Grandiose Crankery: Cantor, Godel, Church, Turing, ... Morons!
A bunch of people have been asking me to take a look at yet another piece of...
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
The Con-Time Machine
Time travel will never be the same again ..
The Physical Science Channel RSS FeedEnvironment
Biocontrol in the UK: will they be singing, "Where have all the flowers gone"? (tagline: When will they ever learn)
Australian rabbit stew, with a side of kudzu, anyone?
Transcript of AU Forum "The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, & Politics in an Unsustainable World"
Full text of remarks, comments, and questions from last week's public radio broadcast forum...
Climatologists who are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore
Randy Olson says: There comes a point where the public DOES want to see the science community stand...
The Environment Channel RSS FeedEducation
Confessions of a Science Librarian
Computer Engineer Barbie!
Yesterday was International Women's Day and since I'm a firm believer in International Better Late Than Never Day,...
The Frog Scientist
I just got my hands on a very interesting book for the younger set: it's aimed at kids...
HBCU scholars answer questions at NYTimes education blog
Penn's Marybeth Gasman and Philander Smith College president Walter Kimbrough will spend this week answering some tough reader questions about historically-black colleges and universities in the United States.
The Education Channel RSS FeedPolitics
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Obama Now Experiencing Presidential Puberty As The Result of Health Care Reform
Ezra Klein explains the reconciliation process that Democrats need to pass health care reform and what Republicans can do to drag it out
Thought For the Day
A little point to ponder from Jason Lisle, a young-Earth creationist with Answers in Genesis. This is from...
A Worm Free World
a potential breakthrough in the treatments for roundworms that could improve the health of millions of children
The Politics Channel RSS FeedMedicine & Health
Jenny McCarthy drives the stupidity to ever higher levels on--where else?--The Huffington Post
Way back on May 25, 2005, I first noticed something about a certain political group blog. It was...
Feeling Sorry For Myself Therapy: An update on my knee
Friends, you already know much of this. People who don't know me, you don't want to read this. This is for the in between people. There will be no discussion of needles, because I'm done with the needles..
Homeopathy vs. science?
The Medicine & Health Channel RSS Feed
Brain & Behavior
Marriage
One of the hazards of writing a book on decision-making is getting questions about decisions that are far...
Science with Moxie's Princess Ojiaku: PLoS Blog Pick of the Month this week, on tour with band next week
Bassist, singer, blogger, grad student kickin' it.
More on Depression
I thought it's worth addressing this article one last time. Dr. Ronald Pies (professor of psychiatry at SUNY...
The Brain & Behavior Channel RSS FeedTechnology
Shaming in the Marketplace: who polices online sellers scammers?
if a seller lies about their merchandise and doesn't bother to ship it for weeks, why is their positive feedback around 94%? The answer may surprise you
"The Myth of Black Disingenuity": Exploring the Intersection of African American History and the History of Technology
To deconstruct this myth...we must look at how white Americans have constructed the "Yankee ingenuity" myth whereby technological expertise is intimately intertwined with American democratic ideals, masculine identity, and whiteness.
The Australian's War on Science 47
The Australian has been caught making things up again, claiming that Tim Flannery predicted 80m sea level rise even though their own paper reported a different prediction.
The Technology Channel RSS FeedInformation Science
From the archives: A Structural Exploration of the Science Blogosphere: Director's Cut
This was originally posted 1/9/2009 on my old blog. Due to popular demand (well 3 requests :) ),...
My qualitative study of science blogging
Sometimes you have to just let go and release something to the wild. I have mentioned on a...
ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Christine Ottery
Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants...
The Information Science Channel RSS FeedJobs
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Obama Now Experiencing Presidential Puberty As The Result of Health Care Reform
Ezra Klein explains the reconciliation process that Democrats need to pass health care reform and what Republicans can do to drag it out
ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Christine Ottery
Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants...
ScienceOnline2010 - Trust and Critical Thinking, Part 1
Saturday, January 16 at 4:40 - 5:45pm C. Trust and Critical Thinking - Stephanie Zvan, PZ Myers,...
The Jobs Channel RSS FeedAdvertisement
ScienceBlogs Super Photos
Top Lists
- 1Pay it forward? Cooperative behaviour spreads through a group, but so does cheating : Not Exactly Rocket Science
- 2Beer makes humans more attractive to malarial mosquitoes : Not Exactly Rocket Science
- 3Ask DrugMonkey: Will you comment for attribution? : DrugMonkey
- 4Introducing the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed : Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
- 5An 60,000-year old artistic movement recorded in ostrich egg shells : Not Exactly Rocket Science
- 1Episode XXVII: Rumors of my birthday are premature
PZ Myers 03.08.2010
- 2The empirical evidence for man-made global warming
Tim Lambert 03.01.2010
- 3Stop using the lens of your preconceptions
PZ Myers 03.09.2010
- 4Increasing signs of activity at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland
Erik Klemetti 03.04.2010
- 5The Australian's War on Science 47
Tim Lambert 03.09.2010
- 1
"The Spread of Goodness
The Frontal Cortex 03.09.2010
- 2
Genetic ancestry testing: people who don't want to know
genetic future 03.08.2010
- 3
Economics and Evolution as Different Paradigms VI: Elinor Ostrom—Evolutionist
Evolution for Everyone 03.06.2010
- 4
Chameleons hunt with cold-proof tongues and zebrafish babies go blind at night
not exactly rocket science 03.09.2010
- 5
A nutritional approach to the treatment of HIV infection—same old woo?
white coat underground 03.08.2010
From NYTimes.com
Latest science stories | More at nytimes.com
Latest posts from the GE Collective Imagination blog
More on the Collective Imagination blog
- 1Your daily healthy imagination question: What one thing could you do today to improve your personal health?
- 2Your daily healthy imagination question: What kind of health information would you like to see in a mobile app?
- 3Your daily healthy imagination question: How do you define adequate health coverage?
- 4Your daily healthy imagination question: Have digitized medical records changed your experience of managed health care? How?
- 5Important Health Finding: Booze with no hangover effect
SB Basics
Synthetic Biology
Some engineers use cranes and steel to make their designs reality, but synthetic biologists engineer using tools on a different scale: DNA and the other molecular components of living cells. Synthetic biology uses cellular systems and structures to produce artificial models based on natural order. Read these posts from the ScienceBlogs archives for more:
Pharyngula May 30, 2007
“Playing God”
The Loom January 31, 2008
"Frankenstein Was Here": Synthetic Biology as Graffiti
Discovering Biology in a Digital World July 2, 2006
Build your own virus
Humanities & Soc. Sciences
The Primate Diaries
Darwin and Spencer in the Middle East
It is a common argument by those who are opposed to evolution's implication for religious belief to label...
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
The Frustrated Trumpet Player
This is so silly, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it, so I had to share it with you, too. This video captures a trumpet player who is using his out-of-tune trumpet to prank a band marching past his flat on Norway's National Day, 17 May.
DrugMonkey
When scientist audience is from another field it is still "outreach"
Just as I am in the "outreach" target demographic for the bone jockeys, my readers are certainly in the target demographic for my blogging.
The Social Sciences Channel RSS Feed