That epitome of gentleman and scholar, Dr M. F. of Hannover, asks Why Do We Blog And Other Important Questions and then offers nine excitingly intrusive interrogatives for the titillation of our neural-crest-derived tissues, to which Dr H. E. of Paris and Toulouse (in the town hall if wet, restrictions may apply) offers a teasing tenth. Unafraid as I am to pin my hamster to the mast in a sudden crisis, I shall splench my mainwairing to the thistledown and gladiate hencewithstanding. Hold on.
1. What is your blog about?
The Long Answer: pretty much anything that doesn’t involve being a Nature editor. Or, at least, not anything very specific, given that most of what I do is confidential. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.
The Short Answer: the transportation problems faced by even-toed ungulates in the urban environment. Apart from that, chickens.
Don’t look now, Hermione, that’ll only encourage them.
2. What will you never write about?
I won’t know the answer to that until I’ve written about it.
3. Have you ever considered leaving science?
Yes.
4. What would you do instead?
Be an editor at Nature.
5. What do you think will science blogging be like in 5 years?
‘Prediction is very hard, especially about the future’, an aphorism attributed to Woody Allen/ Niels Bohr/ Yogi Berra/ Richard P. Grant, delete as applicable, or, in Richard’s case, just delete.
6. What is the most extraordinary thing that happened to you because of blogging?
Finding myself.
7. Did you write a blog post or comment you later regretted?
Frequently.
8. When did you first learn about science blogging?
When Matt Brown told me about this thing called the ‘Nature Network’ he was starting up in Corie Lok’s garage. At the time all he had was an old washing-machine motor, a jam jar, a piece of string, three eggboxes and miles and miles of sticky-backed plastic. Posterity will be forever grateful for the fact that he cheerfully ignored my warnings that he’d never get that contraption to achieve powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight. So when the machine crashed in the canal, as we all knew it would, Matt used the three or four months he spent in hospital to invent the Nature Network as we know it today.
9. What do your colleagues at work say about your blogging?
They all pretend they don’t read it.
10. Extra credit: are you able to write an entry to your blog that takes the form of a poem about your research?
No. Well, yes. No, not really. On the other hand, yes, well, sort of.
Friday afternoon, 4:09 PM – Heather is laughing out loud in the lone lit room at the end of the corridor. What a poem! Would you indeed do an outdoor declamation?
I came by because for some reason I’ve just been added to your network again. Odd; I thought I was already there. I like the tag “martinmeme” and if I ever get around to it, will use it as well. Ah, I see that was Maxine’s good idea.
Where were you before you started writing a blog, Henry? Revocably lost?
Wow, I made it into a title of a blog post! But I have to ask Matt about the facts behind answer #8 when I meet him next week. The way I remember the story, it involved an old bicycle and a surfboard.
Thank you Henry, you’ve brightened up my boring Saturday afternoon too.
And here’s someone who went to bed at 9PM last night, woke up at 5AM, and laughed!
(waving wings to Hermione)