Maintained by Seed's editors, web editors, and the other people who make Seed tick, Page 3.14 points you in the direction of some of ScienceBlogs' finest offerings, plus the tastiest tidbits of science news and opinion from around the web.
Have a look at the left-hand column of the ScienceBlogs homepage. You may notice that the list of channels there has changed. You may also notice that the home pages for the individual channels have been redesigned, with more color and new features. (Check out the new Life Science homepage, here.) Over the coming days we'll be adding even more features, including a science news feed on each channel homepage.
Why the changes? We re-jiggered the channels in response to feedback from our bloggers and readers. We think the new channels are more user-friendly and intutive, in name and content. Providing an attractive homepage for each channel, we decided, would allow readers to zero in on areas of interest. Never want to miss a post about chemistry? Bookmark the Physical Science homepage at ScienceBlogs, and you never will.
Here's a list of the new channels, and what you can find there.
- Life Science
Anything and everything biology, from the smallest cells to the largest living systems. - Physical Science
Posts on the so-called hard sciences, including physics, chemistry, astronomy, math, and geoscience.
- Environment
Posts about the Earth and our attempts to gauge—and protect— its health. Climate change, sustainability, pollution, alternative energy, conservation and 'green living' live here.
- Humanities & Social Science
Everything about human beings, from the scientific study of human life (anthropology, sociology, archaeology, linguistics, science studies, and psychology) to philosophy, to musings on books, art, and music—even non-science ones.
- Education & Careers
Posts related to the learning science, teaching science, and pursuing science as a career inside the academy or out.
- Politics
Combining the previous "Policy & Politics" and "Culture Wars" channels, Politics is about the place where science meets government—in courts, elections, public policy issues, and of course, the debates we call the culture wars.
- Medicine & Health
Posts on medical studies, medical training and practice, pharmaceuticals, health care, epidemiology, public health, alternative medicine&mdash...it's all here.
- Technology
Scientists rely on tools, and this is where ScienceBloggers discuss them, from supercolliders, to labware, to the latest personal gadget.
Enjoy the new pages. We'd love to know what you think—leave a comment here or drop us a line at info [at] scienceblogs [dot] com
Technology
Comments
These new categories leave no place for items that would have been posted in the old categories. Consider the ones that have been eliminated:
Philosophy of Science: where would a typical post in this old category fit now? With Humanities and Social Science? Why? Is philosophy more like sociology than physics?
Academia: this used to be full of the trials and tribulations of the people living and working in this strange system. It seems like perhaps both this category and "Philosophy of Science" were merged into "Education and Careers", which is more narrow than either of the ones that were combined into it.
Chatter: No place for that anymore, apparently.
Culture Wars: This old category may have been awkwardly titled, but this doesn't change the fact that rants on religious issues - some of the most popular posts - simply don't fit anywhere anymore. Maybe it just should have been called "Culture" in the first place, thus avoiding the cliche.
Technology is odd because the definition of it isn't what I expected. I assumed it would be the place for feats of engineering - instead it's apparently supposed to be used for updates on the latest multimeter technology. Weird.
In a word: boo.
Posted by: jeffk | October 15, 2007 9:18 PM
Is there a way posts can have multiple "tags" instead of being in a category? For example, a post could easily overlap physical sciences, environment, technology, and politics if the post is about carbon sequestration (geology, co2 reduction, subsurface technology, and politics).
I don't think the channels should be replaced...but the tagging would be a nice addition...although then you'd have to figure out some semi-standardized tag list for your bloggers to choose from. That could get messy.
Posted by: BrianR | October 16, 2007 2:22 AM
#1: "Technology is odd because the definition of it isn't what I expected. I assumed it would be the place for feats of engineering..."
ScienceBlogs may have nice coverage of science (and too much of politics), but engineering is missing. In modern society that is unforgivable. We engineers get mentioned only if the creationist of the day that Pharyngula is shredding happens to have an engineering degree.
Posted by: Lassi Hippeläinen | October 16, 2007 5:27 AM
Hi from Ginny, ScienceBlogs editorial assistant.
To jeffk:
RE: "Is there a way posts can have multiple "tags" instead of being in a category? For example, a post could easily overlap physical sciences, environment, technology, and politics if the post is about carbon sequestration (geology, co2 reduction, subsurface technology, and politics)."
Yes, in fact, posts can be put into multiple channels. A post has a "main" channel--where it will appear on the Sb homepage. But it will appear in both of the chosen channels' individual pages. For instance, if a blogger chose "Politics" for the main channel on a George Bush/climate change post, the post would appear under "Politics" in the "Latest Posts" section at the bottom of the homepage, and on BOTH the Politics and Environment landing pages (linked through the left hand column on the homepage).
RE: "Chatter: No place for that anymore, apparently."
Though the "chatter" category is no longer linked off the homepage, it's still a tag that bloggers can use for posts. The idea is that many "substantive" posts that have been ending up in Chatter because there's no better place for them might now will find a home in Humanities & Social Science (things like book and film reviews, etc).
Posted by: Ginny Hughes | October 16, 2007 10:07 AM
"Philosophy of Science: where would a typical post in this old category fit now? With Humanities and Social Science? Why? Is philosophy more like sociology than physics?"
In Humanities and Social Science, definitely. I consider philosophy to be a humanity. 'Science studies' kind of straddles the line between social science and humanity, in my opinion, and that belongs here too.
"Academia: this used to be full of the trials and tribulations of the people living and working in this strange system. It seems like perhaps both this category and "Philosophy of Science" were merged into "Education and Careers", which is more narrow than either of the ones that were combined into it."
All those posts about the trials and tribulations of academia are going to stay! But there have always been posts about other levels of education in this channel, and we wanted to make that clear.
"Chatter: No place for that anymore, apparently."
Chatter posts still live on the individual blogs where they appear.
"Culture Wars: This old category may have been awkwardly titled, but this doesn't change the fact that rants on religious issues - some of the most popular posts - simply don't fit anywhere anymore. Maybe it just should have been called "Culture" in the first place, thus avoiding the cliche."
Those kinds of 'rants' will go in Politics...
"Technology is odd because the definition of it isn't what I expected. I assumed it would be the place for feats of engineering - instead it's apparently supposed to be used for updates on the latest multimeter technology. Weird."
We should have been clearer--engineering belongs in Technology, too.
Posted by: Katherine Sharpe | October 16, 2007 10:59 AM
Why did you get rid of the Brain and Behavior channel?? That was the only one I watched. Where does neuropsychology go now? Cognitive psychology with nonhuman animals? Psychiatry? I don't consider those humanities or social sciences.
How about philosophy of mind of the "neural correlates of consciousness" sort (Crick & Koch, 2003)? Please read the abstract and tell me where it fits now...
Posted by: The Neurocritic | October 16, 2007 4:59 PM
The explanations provided explain where my hypotheticals would go (and I suppose I would have guessed as much) but not why. Social Sciences are sciences - like chemistry, or biology. Yes, they have a "human" element, but that's not to be confused with "humanities", which are, in my experience, *not* science disciplines. I think my concern still stands: philosophy and sociology don't belong in the same category any more than biology and philosophy do.
And the discussions of religion on various blogs are quite often a-political. Discussions about the nature of god may end up being related to religion somewhere down the line, but they're philosophical discussions. By the same argument, science could be politics, too.
Posted by: jeffk | October 16, 2007 5:55 PM
To (some of) your comments, jeffk, I think that the social sciences CAN be sciences "like chemistry or biology," but not always -- a good deal of cultural anthropology or sociology has more in common, in my opinion, with a humanities field like history or literary criticism than it does with bio or chem.
Posted by: Katherine Sharpe | October 16, 2007 6:34 PM
a good deal of cultural anthropology or sociology has more in common, in my opinion, with a humanities field like history or literary criticism than it does with bio or chem.
i agree! ;-)
Posted by: razib | October 16, 2007 7:49 PM