Science Blogging FTW

As you might have noticed, I've added a new badge to the left sidebar. That's right - you can start submitting posts for next year's Open Laboratory already! So find your favorite science blog posts from around the interwebs that were published in the past couple months and get submitting!

On a similar note, submissions are also open for the The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Awards. These awards are "designed to recognize, promote, and encourage effective communication of science, engineering, medicine, and interdisciplinary work within and beyond the scientific community."

Prizes are dolled out in four categories: Book, Film/Radio/TV, Magazine/Newspaper and Online. Last year, the online category was won by none other than the incredible Ed Yong. What does this mean? Why, it means that a science blogger has a shot at the $20,000 prize!

So while you're pondering what posts to submit to this year's open lab, think about the science bloggers that come to your mind or whose RSS feeds you subscribe to. Think any of them are great science communicators? Then nominate them for the Keck Futures Initiative! All it takes is a quick nomination form submitted by February 25^th with a title, where they blog, a little about why you think they rock, and links to several of their stellar posts from 2010. Let's see a science blogger take the online category for the second year in a row!

If, by chance, you want to nominate little ole me for the honor, here are some posts from last year that people liked a lot:

• Evolution: The Curious Case of Dogs
• Evolution: Watching Speciation Occur
• Evolution: A Game Of Chance?
• Ancient Sex Scandals: Did We Get It On With Neandertals?
• Reflections on the Gulf Oil Spill - Conversations With My Grandpa
• Tuna
• Testosterone Levels In Carcharhinus leucas: Is It All Bull?
• The Science of Makeup
• And this one, from my contributions to Nutrition Wonderland: The Truth About Organic Farming