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  2. "Exactly, Ed Yong" - an interview by Dave Munger

"Exactly, Ed Yong" - an interview by Dave Munger

By edyong on March 24, 2010.

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To tie in with this week's Research Blogging Awards announcement, I spent an enjoyable half-hour on Monday being interviewed by Dave Munger, who organised the awards. The interview is now up on the SEED website, with a title that made me smile. In it, I talk to Dave about winning the award, why and how I blog, and interactions between blogging and mainstream media.

Here's an excerpt with the question that I get asked most frequently:

Munger: You've got a full-time job in addition to being a blogger--and you're one of the most prolific bloggers on ResearchBlogging.org. How do you manage to balance your blog and your work life?

Yong: Everyone asks me this and I never really have a good answer. I'm going to start making stuff up: There are actually two of me. There's an Ed Yong and a Fred Yong, who does most of my blogging.

Feel free to check out the full interview and let me know what you think, or ask any follow-up questions here. In the meantime, don't forget to check back tomorrow afternoon/evening for some news...

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PS: The photo above, which accompanies the interview on SEED's homepage, was taken by my wife just last weekend at Cambridge University's wonderful Museum of Zoology, a great, tranquil space with a giant ground sloth, a fin whale, an orca, a mutant two-tusked narwhal, a leatherback turtle, Megaloceros antlers, and this beautiful specimen. Guess the species...

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With a gape like that, I'd have to go for Komodo dragon.

Congratulations on the award!

Great interview. :)

"Yong: I think it needs to be driven by the individual, so the reason that this works for me is just tied into the way I think. I donât really have the capacity to narrow my attentional spotlight too far, which is probably why I wasnât a very good practicing scientist. I like to have broad scopes, I like to look at a wide variety of things, and I love constantly learning about new areas."

I have the same temperament, and I've wondered if my roving interests might get in the way a career in science (proper). I was wondering what you were up to before getting into journalism/blogging, and why "practicing science" didn't pan out for you?