I am the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). My job is to try to motivate you to comment on the papers there. My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com
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Category: Blogging • History of Science
Posted on: May 7, 2008 11:36 AM, by Coturnix
The challenge from skullsinthestars is up - pick up a very old, classic science paper and write a blog post about it. Put it in a proper historical, theoretical, methodological and philosophical context. You can always go back to blogging about the latest research or latest creationist idiocy tomorrow.
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Comments
As Blake put it. It may even go into the Basic Concepts list afterwards, just tell John Wilkins.
Posted by: Coturnix | May 7, 2008 12:48 PM
How old? Any guidelines?
Posted by: PalMD | May 7, 2008 12:50 PM
The original challenge says "before WWII", but I think it all depends on the discipline, whenever the key classic papers were written.
Posted by: Coturnix | May 7, 2008 12:55 PM
Coturnix: Thanks for mentioning the "challenge"! You're absolutely right: I said "before WWII", but it's clearly discipline dependent. My personal goal was to seek out research that formed the foundations of a field, before the important concepts were taken for granted.
Posted by: gg | May 7, 2008 1:07 PM
What a great idea. Wish I had time to work up an entry. I'll be cheering from the sidelines.
Posted by: bill | May 7, 2008 1:19 PM
Oh, man, what a very neat idea! There is a paper (actually, an original paper and then one that was more like a commentary on the first from the same author) that I have always loved. Perfect for this challenge. And I can't believe it, but I found it available in PDF--I think. If I could find a copy of my thesis I could be sure. But I'm not quite sure where that is these days....
Is there a date for this? I work better with deadlines :)
Posted by: Mary | May 7, 2008 7:18 PM
Mary: I just posted a semi-official 'end of May' deadline for entries, just to keep people motivated! (I should have planned this at the beginning, but I wasn't necessarily expecting anyone to do the challenge...)
Posted by: gg | May 7, 2008 9:32 PM
@gg: gotcha! I'm gonna do it. I found the paper I was remembering. Has lines like this:
I had forgotten how much I loved this paper; this post is practically coming out of my head fully formed. Thanks so much for the inspiration.
Posted by: Mary | May 7, 2008 10:03 PM
Update: the deadline is end of May.
Posted by: Coturnix | May 8, 2008 8:24 AM
I tried to use the track-back for this post on mine, but it gives me a 404. Am I doing it wrong?
Posted by: Mary | May 8, 2008 10:01 AM
Trackbacks are disabled on Sb.
Posted by: Coturnix | May 8, 2008 10:03 AM
There's a very sad note on a classic neural crest paper by Raven and Kloos, from the mid-1940s, indicating that Kloos had been shot and killed by the Gestapo. I make the point with the grad students that it's important to maintain perspective, even when things seem really rough.
I feel compelled to write a post on a favorite classic avian neurodevelopment paper from the 1930s, however...might have to be "neural connections week" on my blog.
Posted by: Barn Owl | May 8, 2008 1:12 PM