Periodic Table of the ScienceBlogs, Part 7: Blogs L-M

Living the Scientific Life
Categories: Biology, Academia

GrrlScientist is an evolutionary molecular biologist with a BS in microbiology (specializing in virology), and a PhD in zoology (specializing in ornithology and hormone receptors). She blogs about evolution, the environment, birds, dinosaurs, avian influenza, conservation, and literature.

The Loom
Categories: Biology, Medicine

Carl Zimmer is a science writer whose work appears regularly in the New York Times and many magazines. He is also the author of five books on science. (For more details, go to http://www.carlzimmer.com/author.html). Zimmer launched the Loom in 2003. It covers evolutionary biology and its links to medicine, neuroscience, environmental issues, bioethics, and politics. Zimmer won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Writing Award for the Loom.

Mike the Mad Biologist
Categories: Biology, Culture Wars

Mike is an anonymous blogger, trained in evolutionary biology and microbiology, and holding a biology PhD. He's mad--as in angry--about the political state of affairs in the U.S., and he started blogging to vent his frustration at watching the slow dissolution of the things he cares about. He works in Boston, MA at a non-profit that deals with the problem of antibiotic resistance. Mike posts about microbiology and politics, and he doesn't hesitate to be outspoken.

Mixing Memory
Categories: Brain & Behavior

Chris is a psychologist who studies concepts and categorization, similarity and analogy, metaphor, memory, the interconnection between language and thought, and embodied cognition. His background is in both psychology and philosophy. Mixing Memory is primarily a cognitive science blog; in it, Chris talks about current research and theory in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, social cognition, and occasionally philosophy of mind. Sometimes he examines issues from a historical perspective. When not blogging or working, Chris can be found reading something not even remotely related to cognition, or spending time with his eight-year-old son.

Molecule of the Day
Categories: Physical Science, Biology

Molecule of the Day is written by a chemist who enjoys rambling about the relationship between chemistry and real life to non-chemists. MoTD welcomes any corrections or suggestions for future molecules. The site began to vent its creator's displeasure with what seemed like a dearth of science writing that is simultaneously:

⢠Accurate: Too much science writing oversimplifies and panders. MoTD aims for an average technically inclined reader.

⢠Interesting: Science is utterly dry without context. Contextualizing science without oversimplification is worth a shot. A lot of people (MoTD included) might have been ambivalent about chemistry, and Sophomore organic chemistry was the class where everything "clicked" and it all became fun. For MoTD, it was because it put the world into a chemical frame of reference - probably one of a few classes in college that can make the claim of changing my worldview.

This site will not be very useful if it fails at either of the above goals. Suggestions are welcome! MoTD is a lot of fun to write, and just like teaching, it forces its writer to really understand something before explaining it. As Richard Feynman said, we don't truly understand something if we can't teach it to college freshmen.