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
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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
Other writing
In addition to writing this blog, I'm also starting a freelance science writing career. Here are some links to other pieces elsewhere on the web.
2009
10/03 - New Scientist - East meets west: How the brain unites us all
28/02 - Guardian - The trouble with crowds
2008
Oct tbc - SEED Magazine - Article on ape rights
13/08 - New Scientist - The evolutionary story of the 'language gene'
09/07 - New Scientist - Scientists find smoking gun for diabetes sperm damage
25/06 - New Scientist - Girls are as competitive as boys just more subtle
23/05 - New Scientist - Lab rats turn cannibal in cleaner cages
18/05 - New Scientist - Biggest is not best in mosquito mating game
11/05 - New Scientist - Rats feel peer pressure too
08/04 - New Scientist - Losing one gene brings out a mouse's wild side
01/04 - Nature Network - London's HIV epidemic spreads in sexual 'clusters'
27/03 - New Scientist - City songbirds are changing their tune
24/01 - Nature News - Blind fish see shadows
23/01 - Nature Network - Beetlemania
23/01 - Nature - Preview: Revealing reptiles
09/01 - Nature Network - At home with Attenborough
2007
18/12 - Daily Telegraph - The GM crop that will sow less bitterness
17/12 - Nature Network - Swapping hoodies for lab coats
29/11 - Nature Network - Social networking two million years ago
29/11 - The Economist - Riding piggyback - How MRSA is jumping from pigs to humans
22/11 - Nature Network - Gordon Brown opens Launchpad gallery at the Science Museum
31/10 - Nature Network - Wiki-book on chlorine heralds new style of undergraduate teaching
29/10 - Nature Network - Review: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007
26/09 - Daily Telegraph - Tardis returs to earth (on tardigrades in space)
18/09 - Nature Network - The fall and rise of British lefties
28/08 - Daily Telegraph - Grammar, a weapon against bacteria
2006
07/01 - New Scientist - How cats’ eyes keep the world in focus
