1. What is your blog about?
Topics that interest very few people, apparently.
2. What will you never write about?
- my (lack of) religious beliefs
- personal health issues
- shoes
3. Have you ever considered leaving science?
Wot, this week?
4. What would you do instead?
Sometimes I consider going to medical school, with the intent to specialize in either physical medicine and rehabilitation, or geriatric medicine. I think I’d enjoy being a professional craftsperson or artist, but I probably wouldn’t be solvent. I would use solvents, but I wouldn’t be solvent.
5. What do you think will science blogging be like in 5 years?
So meta or post-modern that it will no longer interest me
6. What is the most extraordinary thing that happened to you because of blogging?
My experiences to date are entirely ordinary. Perhaps I’ll feel differently, once I’ve been to CISB. ;-)
7. Did you write a blog post or comment you later regretted?
Once, on my pseudonymous, equally unread blog, I wrote a scathing, snarky, political post. I don’t do that well at all, so I deleted it.
8. When did you first learn about science blogging?
About two or three years ago
9. What do your colleagues at work say about your blogging?
“What is this blogging of which you speak?” or “Why are most science blogs not about science?”
10a. How the heck do you have time to blog and do research at the same time?
I have two very intensive teaching commitment periods each year, and I find that my blogging slows to a crawl during those months. Research activities are more compatible with the type of posts I write on my pseudonymous blog, in part because my schedule is more flexible, and also because I’m in the “mode” of reading lots of papers and writing up results. [cynical] I suspect that some bloggers in academic research/teaching positions are dishonest about the amount of time they actually spend performing, supervising, and writing up original research. [/cynical]
The poetry question is intriguing, and so I want to spend some time working on an answer.
My experiences to date are entirely ordinary. Perhaps I’ll feel differently, once I’ve been to CISB. ;-)
If you don’t know, man, you weren’t there.
Funnily enough I once wrote a blog post about shoes. Actually it wasn’t about shoes, but used the phrase shoe-in. I have never had more comments on a blog post than I got for that one – they still come in most weeks, a couple of years after writing the post. All from people trying to sell shoes, unfortunately.
Why are most science blogs not about science?
My guess is that there will be much more blogs about science in 5 years (#5).I hope you’re right, Martin. But the predominance of non-science content for some blogs (not here) can puzzle people who are just trying to get an idea of what science blogging is about.
@ Maxine – The factors that influence page views and comment counts for different blog posts often seem quite mysterious to me. The most popular posts on my pseudonymous science blog include such diverse topics as organophosphate poisoning in white-winged doves, cannon bones in horses, leptospirosis in Brazilian favelas, and steroid abuse in East German athletes in the 1970s and 1980s.
Agreed about the “lack of science in science blogs” point, Kristi. Even here, I’d say, there are many blogs/posts that don’t have much actual scientific content, though most have a scientific connection of some sort. Horses for courses, possibly – i.e. other types of platform seem more popular for discussion about scientific research per se, and blogging is more of a broader communication (meta-science) medium. But, time will tell as we are all saying.
On the searching, yes, it is strange. Not only is there a lot of auto-spam out there but also there are peple who are paid to do manual searches and put in links to any post containing keywords. Bottom-dwellers.
@ Maxine – I had no idea that there were paid jobs for such searches. Shows you how little I know about cyberspace. Teh interwebz is weirrrd.
“my (lack of) religious beliefs” – but don’t you want to, sometimes?
You could make it slightly easier to link to your pseudonymous blog…
About the remark in cynical mode, I would agree to the extent that few of us can estimate how much time we actually spend on anything in an objective manner, without a stopwatch. Witness dream time just before waking, where sagas unfold in the last ten minutes before the alarm rings, or most people’s claims to how much time they spend on housework or playing with their children.
but don’t you want to, sometimes?
Truthfully, I"m more inclined to write about self-striping sock yarn (yes, I’m easily amused), and to post photos of my knitting “works in progress”. But I realize that a lot of science bloggers enjoy discussing and writing about faith vs. science topics. I just don’t think I have anything insightful to add.
I’m rather embarrassed to link to my pseudonymous blog at the moment, because I’ve neglected it horribly during these busy gross anatomy-teaching months.
UPDATING: Thoughts on neurobiology research and anatomy teaching, in haiku and limerick
There once was a cell name of Schwann
Who decided to hang with Neuron
“Making myelin’s a snap,”
She said, “That’s a wrap!”
Thus increasing the speed in Axon.
NGF protein
forgot to add to cultures
neurons floating now
Nodose ganglion
two chances to dissect it
oops now only one
“Which structure is sought?”
“Ciliary ganglion”
(Laughing instructor)