What is it like to work in a lab? What’s the latest science news? How can you tell good science from quackery? The answers to all these questions can be found in blogs, and in this event you’ll meet the people who are writing them.

There are literally tens of millions of blogs online. Some read like personal diaries, while others are built round news or analysis, like reading a column in a newspaper. With so many blogs out there, it’s no surprise that science is well-covered from lots of different angles. Ben Goldacre goes on the hunt for outrageous claims, dubious statistics and credulous science reporting in Bad Science, an extension of his popular column in the Guardian. Jennifer Rohn reveals the culture and everyday life of a jobbing scientist in her blog on Nature Network London, Mind the Gap. In Ed Yong’s blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science, he converts plodding, jargon-heavy journal papers into nimble, accessible and entertaining blog posts on the freshest new research.

Join us as our bloggers talk about why they write, what makes a good post, and what blogging can do for science. You’ll come out of it with three personal views of science and some good new reads, and best of all, the event is free!

Ben Goldacre is an award winning writer, broadcaster, and medical doctor who has written the weekly ‘Bad Science’ column in the Guardian since 2003. He appears regularly on Radio 4 and TV, and in addition to the Guardian, he has written for Time Out, New Statesman and the British Medical Journal, winning him numerous awards. His book, Bad Science, is due to be published in February 2008.

Ed Yong lives in London with his wife and works as an Information Manager at Cancer Research UK. After leaving university with degree in hand, he made an abortive foray into scientific research before realising that he much prefers to talk about science than to actually do it. Ed now writes between 2-3 new articles a week for his blog, sticking to his original mission statement of explaining science in an engaging and understandable way, and only ever writing from original research papers. Ed nabbed 3 consecutive runner-up prizes in the Daily Telegraph’s Science Writer Awards from 2004-2006, before finally winning the competition in 2007. He has written freelance pieces for Nature Network, the Economist and the Daily Telegraph.

Jennifer Rohn is a post-doctoral cell biologist at University College London, having just returned to science after a four-year sabbatical as a journal editor. In her spare time, she is also a freelance science writer, editor and journalist; novelist; biotechnology consultant and the founder and editor of LabLit.com magazine.

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Free:

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