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
• Like the blog? Buy the book!
• Tell me about you: Part 1 Part 2
Search
Recent Posts
- South African wildlife - Wait, that's not a trunk...
- Discriminating butterflies show how one species could split into two
- Native language shapes the melody of a newborn baby's cry
- Mid-continent earthquakes are often aftershocks of centuries-old tremors
- Even without practice, sleep improves memory of movements
- In a pandemic climate, public sneezing increases fears of unrelated risks
- How many people did the man-eating lions of Tsavo actually eat?
- South African wildlife - Elephant encounter
- Drought drives toads to mate with other species
- Big-headed tiger snakes support long-neglected theory of genetic assimilation
Recent Comments
- stripey_cat on Native language shapes the melody of a newborn baby's cry
- Monado on Prehistoric carving is oldest known figurative art
- Monado on Giant insect splits cavefish into distinct populations
- yikes on South African wildlife - Wait, that's not a trunk...
- jay on Mid-continent earthquakes are often aftershocks of centuries-old tremors
- Kim on In a pandemic climate, public sneezing increases fears of unrelated risks
- Catharine on South African wildlife - Wait, that's not a trunk...
- Bob O'H on South African wildlife - Wait, that's not a trunk...
- smithm9 on Drought drives toads to mate with other species
- smithm9 on Even without practice, sleep improves memory of movements
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
Badges
By Date
- November 2009 (8)
- 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 (18)
- Amphibians (7)
- Animal behaviour (157)
- Animal communication (29)
- Animal defences (21)
- Animal intelligence (20)
- Animal locomotion (15)
- Animal navigation (6)
- Animals (243)
- Anthropology (21)
- Ants (8)
- Aphids (5)
- Autism (3)
- Bacteria (29)
- Bats (6)
- Bees (10)
- Beetles (2)
- Biotechnology (8)
- Birds (26)
- Brain (42)
- Butterflies and moths (14)
- Cancer (5)
- Cephalopods (11)
- Child development (19)
- Chimpanzees (18)
- Climate change (14)
- Computer science (2)
- Consciousness (4)
- Conservation (32)
- Cooperation (24)
- Corals (6)
- Crustaceans (3)
- Culture (12)
- Decision-making (5)
- Dinosaurs (13)
- Dolphins (4)
- Drug resistance (4)
- Drugs (5)
- Earth sciences (7)
- Echinoderms (2)
- Ecology (28)
- Education (4)
- Elephants (8)
- Environment (14)
- Epigenetics (4)
- Evolution (96)
- 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 (6)
- Genetic modification (5)
- Genetics (59)
- Genomics (10)
- Happiness (3)
- Horizontal gene transfer (10)
- Human evolution (8)
- Insects (64)
- Invasive species (6)
- Invertebrates (90)
- Journalism (10)
- Language (20)
- Learning (12)
- Life history (5)
- Lizards (13)
- Malaria (2)
- Mammals (81)
- Material science (3)
- Mathematics (2)
- Medicine & health (68)
- Memory (13)
- Mental Health (11)
- Mimicry (11)
- Molecular biology (15)
- Monkeys (8)
- Morality (5)
- Mosquitoes (4)
- Music (8)
- Neoteny (2)
- Neuroscience (61)
- New drugs & treatments (11)
- Not Exactly Rocket Satire (1)
- Obesity (5)
- Palaeontology (28)
- Parasites (28)
- Perception (25)
- Personal (35)
- Plants (16)
- Politics (4)
- Predators and prey (31)
- Psychology (61)
- 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 (4)
- Snakes (7)
- Social science (38)
- South African wildlife (5)
- Speciation (5)
- Spiders (12)
- Sports (5)
- Technology (20)
- Transitional fossils (8)
- Video games (4)
- Viruses (25)
- Wasps (7)














