Welcome to Adverse Events, my first foray into the blogosphere.
I should probably start by setting out my stall, as it were, to give you some idea of what you can expect to find in this blog over the coming months. In short, I plan to write about the latest developments in medical research, but I’m sure I’ll deviate from that brief from time to time.
I’m a neuroscientist by training, so it’s quite likely that I’ll blog about the brain in health and disease. I also spent 7 years working at The Lancet and so I’ll almost certainly cover topics such as the global response to HIV/AIDS, why the Millennium Development Goals are so important, and the role of the pharmaceutical industry in medical research.
Perhaps it’s also worth explaining why I’m bothering to write this blog at all (apart from the fact that it should be good for me). I joined NPG about 2 months ago as Publisher of the eight Nature Clinical Practice review journals. I’m enjoying my new job immensely, but the one drawback is that I don’t get to write much. So I’m hoping that this blog will satiate my cravings to type and will help me to keep up to date with what’s going on in medical research; I have often found in the past that the best way of getting to grips with a subject is to write about it.
The other reason for doing this blog is that I want to explore how medical research can be empowered by social networking sites like Nature Network. Email and the internet have revolutionised the way scientists communicate and my gut feeling is that medical researchers will increasingly use networking sites like this one to share data and to discuss the implications of their work.
One of my colleagues at Nature Clinical Practice, Helen Jaques, has started a forum on Health and Medicine, and I encourage Nature Network users to head over there to discuss medically related topics that interest them. I’m sure more specialised medical forums will appear on this site in the months and years to come. Indeed, why not set one up yourself?
Welcome to the Network, James. I’m personally looking forward to seeing more medical coverage on the site. And you join at the right time for talk of how web2.0 can empower researchers. Richard Grant just wrote a post on exactly these issues.
Welcome! Neuroscientist? That would men you’re a, um, brain surgeon? Now we can line you up against the rocket scientist, and see which one is brainier.
Sounds good for you and for us. Have fun and look forward to the next instalments.
A brain surgeon? Unfortunately not. I did read Ian McEwan’s Saturday though and so I could probably remove a pilocystic astrocytoma by an infratentorial supracerebellar route if I was allowed to use the book as a crib sheet…
Welcome, James.
Remind me not to visit your local hospital if I get any brain problems…