Not Exactly Rocket Science
My small attempt to celebrate science and to make it interesting and fun by giving jargon, confusion and elitism a solid beating with the stick of good writing.
Profile
Ed Yong is an award-winning science writer based in London. Not Exactly Rocket Science is his attempt to make the latest scientific discoveries interesting to everyone by beating jargon, confusion and elitism with the stick of good writing. He finds writing about himself in the third person strange and unsettling.
"One of the best sites for in-depth analysis of interesting scientific papers" - The Times
"A consistently illuminating home for long, thoughtful, and thorough explorations of science news" - National Association of Science Writers
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Recent Posts
- Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
- Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
- Elephants and humans evolved similar solutions to problems of gas-guzzling brains
- Some housekeeping
- Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers
- South African wildlife - Tyson the leopard
- Travels with dopamine - the chemical that affects how much pleasure we expect
- Revisiting FOXP2 and the origins of language
- Measuring dino fitness - more evidence that two-legged dinosaurs were warm-blooded
Recent Comments
- Joseph Steinberg on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Tasha on Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
- Coturnix on Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
- Virginia on Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
- magetoo on Some housekeeping
- Lilian Nattel on Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
- Laelaps on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Ed Yong on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Will Baird on Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts
- Khalil A. on Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
Blogroll
Science blogs
- Adventures in Ethics and Science
- Aetiology
- The Artful Amoeba
- Bad Science
- Beyond the Short Coat
- Biochemical Soul
- Bioephemera
- Built on Facts
- Cancer Research UK Science Update Blog
- The Chicken or the Egg
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Cognitive Daily
- Culture Dish
- Deep Sea News
- Denialism
- Drugmonkey
- EarthLab
- Effect Measure
- ERV
- Ethical Palaeontologist
- Evolving Thoughts
- The Examining Room of Dr Charles
- Fists Full of Science
- Gene Expression
- Genomicron
- Highly Allochthonous
- Hoxful Monsters
- Just a Theory
- Laelaps
- Lay Scientist
- Living the Scientific Life
- Loom
- Lunar Weight
- Mad Scientist, Jr.
- Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets
- The Millikan Daily
- Mind Hacks
- Moth Eyes
- Myrmecos
- Neurologica
- Neurophilosophy
- Neurotopia 2.0
- Null Hypothesis
- Observations of a Nerd
- Oh for the Love of Science
- On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess
- Oyster's Garter
- The Primate Diaries
- Professor Olsen @ Large
- Quackometer
- Respectful Insolence
- Save Your Breath for Running Ponies
- Science Punk
- Seeds Aside
- Sex, Drugs and Rockin' Venom - Confessions of an Extreme Scientist
- Skepchick
- Stranger Fruit
- Terra Sigillata
- Tetrapod Zoology
- The Flying Trilobite
- The Fuzzy Biologist
- The Inverse Square Blog
- The Other 95%
- The Reef Tank
- This Week in Evolution
- The Evilutionary Biologist
- Thus Spake Zuska
- Ugly Overload
- Virginia Hughes
- Voyages Around my Camera
- Weird Bug Lady
- White Coat Underground
- Wired Science
- Words of Science
- Zooillogix
- Cafe Philos
- Just Above Sunset
- May's Machete
- Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
- Miss Cellania
- Ombudsben
- Stop and Wander
- The 800lb Gorilla
- The Silent LOL
- Unspeak
Bric-a-brac
My inspiration
By Date
- November 2009 (20)
- October 2009 (32)
- September 2009 (33)
- August 2009 (28)
- July 2009 (37)
- June 2009 (30)
- May 2009 (31)
- April 2009 (32)
- March 2009 (35)
- February 2009 (38)
- January 2009 (35)
- December 2008 (30)
- November 2008 (30)
- October 2008 (30)
- September 2008 (24)
- August 2008 (34)
- July 2008 (22)
- June 2008 (22)
- May 2008 (23)
- April 2008 (21)
- March 2008 (24)
- February 2008 (5)
By Category
- Ageing (2)
- Altruism (19)
- Amphibians (7)
- Animal behaviour (160)
- Animal communication (29)
- Animal defences (22)
- Animal intelligence (21)
- Animal locomotion (15)
- Animal navigation (6)
- Animals (247)
- Anthropology (21)
- Ants (8)
- Aphids (5)
- Autism (3)
- Bacteria (30)
- Bats (6)
- Bees (10)
- Beetles (3)
- Biotechnology (8)
- Birds (26)
- Brain (43)
- Butterflies and moths (14)
- Cancer (5)
- Cephalopods (11)
- Child development (19)
- Chimpanzees (18)
- Climate change (14)
- Computer science (2)
- Consciousness (4)
- Conservation (32)
- Cooperation (25)
- Corals (6)
- Crustaceans (3)
- Culture (12)
- Decision-making (5)
- Dinosaurs (14)
- Dolphins (4)
- Drug resistance (4)
- Drugs (5)
- Earth sciences (7)
- Echinoderms (2)
- Ecology (28)
- Education (4)
- Elephants (9)
- Environment (14)
- Epigenetics (4)
- Evolution (98)
- Evolutionary arms races (12)
- Exaptation (1)
- Eye evolution (11)
- Fairness (7)
- Fear (4)
- Fish (23)
- Fishing (9)
- Fungi (3)
- Game theory (11)
- Gene duplication (4)
- Genes and behaviour (7)
- Genetic modification (5)
- Genetics (61)
- Genomics (10)
- Happiness (4)
- Horizontal gene transfer (10)
- Human evolution (9)
- Insects (65)
- Invasive species (6)
- Invertebrates (91)
- Journalism (11)
- Language (21)
- Learning (13)
- Life history (5)
- Lizards (13)
- Malaria (2)
- Mammals (83)
- Material science (3)
- Mathematics (2)
- Medicine & health (68)
- Memory (14)
- Mental Health (11)
- Mimicry (11)
- Molecular biology (15)
- Monkeys (8)
- Morality (5)
- Mosquitoes (4)
- Music (8)
- Neoteny (2)
- Neuroscience (63)
- New drugs & treatments (11)
- Not Exactly Rocket Satire (1)
- Obesity (5)
- Palaeontology (30)
- Parasites (28)
- Perception (25)
- Personal (35)
- Plants (16)
- Politics (4)
- Predators and prey (31)
- Psychology (63)
- Race (7)
- Radiation (3)
- Rats and mice (9)
- Religion (2)
- Reptiles (25)
- Risk-taking (6)
- Robots (5)
- Rotifers (3)
- Sex and reproduction (33)
- Sharks (3)
- Sleep (5)
- Snakes (7)
- Social science (38)
- South African wildlife (6)
- Speciation (5)
- Spiders (12)
- Sports (5)
- Technology (20)
- Transitional fossils (8)
- Video games (4)
- Viruses (25)
- Wasps (7)
