Can you persuade an eminent scientist to start blogging? As reported at the Science Blogging 2008 conference in London on 30 August, not many senior scientists have a blog, despite the usefulness of this communication tool for education and outreach. To help scientific blogging gain momentum, Nature Network is coordinating a challenge to increase the number of senior scientists who write online. Points will be awarded for the seniority and reputation of the blogger, their previous lack of experience with blogging, the quality and quantity of posts, the blog’s relevance to science and its demonstrable positive impact.
Nominations can include self-nominations, and must be submitted by 5 January 2009. (See this Nascent post for more details.)
The winning blog will earn the chance to be included in The Open Laboratory: The Best Science Writing on Blogs 2008_. The blogger and instigator will also earn an expenses-paid trip to Science Foo Camp 2009 — an invitation-only ‘unconference’ on emerging technology held at Google headquarters in California.
[See also the Nature Network group for Science Blogging 2008 and this FriendFeed room for the conference.]
“_Nature 455, xii; 18 September 2008":http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7211/full/7211xiic.html
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From the blogosphere by Maxine Clarke
An archive of the "From the Blogosphere" column on the Authors page in Nature, highlighting nature.com blog posts of interest to scientists in their role as authors and peer-reviewers. We welcome comments and suggestions.
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Blogging challenge to senior scientists -- 18 September 2008
- Date:
- Thursday, 18 Sep tember 2008 - 10:12 UTC
Last updated: Thursday, 18 Sep 2008 - 10:12 UTC
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Comments
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I note that Sergey Brin, of Google, has just started a blog, called Too. The first post is scientific. Was he persuaded to start this blog by someone at Science Blogging 2008, will he win the prize, and if so would he appreciate it (a paid trip to SciFoo, a conference held at the Google HQ)?
His first post – about 23andMe and genetic testing – is very personal and rather interesting. It relates to a discussion going on at Jenny Rohn’s other salon where there is a deal of cynicism regarding 23andMe’s activities…
Damn – messed up the link – click here and check out “Spitting DNA in an evening dress”.
Yes, this particular topic (23andMe and Google) is of particular interest to Attila Csordas, who was at ScienceBlogging and has discussed this at blog"Partial Immortalization":http://pimm.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/sergey-brin-gly2019ser-a-real-chance-against-parkinson-diseaseaging/, which is about “life extension” and similar matters. (Attila also has a NN blog but he doesn’t post very often.) He was quite excited about the Brin posting at FriendFeed today, as he has been following Google and this outfit for a while on his blog.
I have very strong personal views and emotions about genetic and predictive testing, but as to some extent I write here as a representative of my employer, Nature, I will not directly comment – especially as others are doing so rather eloquently as you point out, Stephen.
Sorry, forgot to check Preview in the heat of the moment. The Partial Immortalization link is here.
I would certainly be interested to hear your take on this subject. Are you freer to expound elsewhere? (BTW – loved your first post on 10th Sept on that site!)
Thanks, Stephen! I am free to expound there but I am also rather shy to confide in the Internet. Also I think my thoughts on the topic aren’t that coherent.
The Great Beyond#, Nature’s news blog, has its take on the story now.
By the way, having a young person about the house was jolly useful in writing that 10 Sept post.
I think this could be a really good idea to invite senior scientists to blog. This will definitely bring benefits for science students and young researchers.