Science Blogging News

Several items showed up recently that may be of interest to science bloggers, their readers, and related science communicators of various stripes....

A) Today, Eureka, the science section of London Times, published a list of Top 30 Science Blogs.

Every list that has me in it is a good list ;-)

They say "Zivkovic, who studies circadian rhythms, is an often-provocative evangelist for new media who has probably done more than anyone else to inspire scientists to blog. He is also a must-follow on Twitter, where he posts as @boraz"

They could have had a more diverse group (in sense of gender, race, ethnicity, age, etc.) and there are some obvious blogs missing from the list (Cosmic Variance, Bad Science, Science-Based Medicine, several SciBlings, a few people from Nature Network, etc.). There is also a curious inclusion of an anti-science, global-warming denialist blog there at the #30 spot. But they are asking for feedback and for suggestions for another 70 blogs so they can make a list of Top 100. So go and leave some ideas in the comments there and help them make a better, more diverse and higher-quality list. Or e-mail them your suggestions to eureka@thetimes.co.uk, with "Best blogs" in the subject line.

B) Research Blogging Awards 2010 are now open for nominations. Which blogs meet the criteria? Those that, at least sometimes, write about peer-reviewed research papers. It is all nicely explained at this page with links to additional information.

You don't need to be registered with ResearchBlogging.org to nominate (or to be nominated, though existing in their system makes both nomination and judging easier), but have to be in order to be one of the judges.

Important to note: nominate yourself! Do not be shy! Everyone is nominating themselves first! Nobody knows your blog, your archives and the links to your four most representative posts as well as you do. So go do it. Then nominate others (Yes, I nominated myself and three other blogs that are not the Usual Suspects, i.e., unlikely to be remembered by many others to nominate).

There is a whole list of categories one can enter to win and each blog is also included for the big prize for the Research Blog of the Year which is $1000 (another $1000 is divided among winners of all the other categories).

C) There was, more than a year ago, a useful blog meme going around the science blogosphere, asking several questions about why science bloggers do what they do: write blogs. Martin Fenner has collected (and even analyzed) all the responses here.

It is time to re-start this meme, with all the new bloggers around. This time, Steffi Suhr came up with the questions and jump-started the meme. Several people did it in the comments on her blog. DrugMonkey did his part on his own blog. Join in either in the comments on Steffi's blog or on your blog (but make sure Steffi gets the link).

D) You have probably heard that Cognitive Daily is closing shop after five years of blogging. This was, how shall I put it, a science blog that early on showed us by example how good science blogging is done. We are all indebted to Greta and Dave for everything we learned from them over the years (and a fascinating blog post every single day!).

But don't despair yet, because they are not....really done. Not only will Dave continue running ResearchBlogging.org (and its associated news blog), but he will also continue blogging on his personal blog Word Munger. And, just the other day, Dave unveiled his newest project - The Daily Monthly with a unique concept: he will write a post per day, sticking to a single topic for a month, from various angles and perspectives. Topic for February 2010 is AIDS. So, adjust your bookmarks and RSS feeds to include this interesting new project.

E) 2010 National Academies Communication Award looks interesting:

The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative - a program of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, with the support of the W.M. Keck Foundation - will award four $20,000 prizes in 2010 to individuals or teams (up to four individuals associated with the creation of the work being nominated) who have developed creative, original works that address issues and advances in science, engineering and/or medicine for the general public. Nominations are accepted in four categories: Book; Magazine/Newspaper; Film/Radio/TV; and Online. The winners will be honored sometime fall 2010 and are expected to attend the awards ceremony in person.

F) Sarah Greene over at The Scientist says that Our conversation is about to get a lot more interesting and I am looking forward to seeing how it works out - The Scientist teaming up with the Faculty of 1000 to, with a help of some nifty geeky t-shirts, get scientists to talk back and give feedback.... we'll keep an eye.

G) It is incredible that almost three weeks later, people are still using the #scio10 hashtag on Twitter and still blogging about ScienceOnline2010!!! I have never seen a conference (except for SciFoo perhaps) remaining 'hot' so long after it ends. Let me know if your blog post is not listed - it's quite possible I missed it.