It occurs to me that there might be an interesting parallel to the conundrum we discussed about whether it’s better to engage with a scientist giving off a shady vibe or to back away with all due haste. It’s not a perfect parallel, but there are some similar issues at work.
Should scientists and physicians engage with the Huffington Post?
Category Archives: Blogospheric science
Outing pseudonymous bloggers.
I’ve gotten word that another blogger who has been tracking IP addresses associated with comments (on his own blog and on the blogs of others) is preparing to blow the whistle on what he is inclined to view as sock-puppetry. I’m not sure how complete this blogger’s information is, nor whether it is consistent with other conclusions besides the ones he is drawing.
But at this point, it might not matter that much. So I’m just going to go ahead and tell you what I know.
Celebrating the Year of Science.
I’ve been derelict in my duty to inform you that 2009 has been declared the Year of Science, which is, of course, just an excuse to celebrate science-y goodness every day. Each month has a theme and a variety of options for exploring that theme.
ScienceOnline’09: Managing your online persona through transitions.
Some quick thoughts in response to the session led by PropterDoc and Sciencewoman.
In some sense, this is really just an extension of the problem of managing your public persona as you go through transitions in life.
Maybe it’s something even deeper than that. Maybe it’s a piece of the project of deciding who you are and what kind of person to be.
Seen elsewhere in the intertubes.
While the ScienceBlogs upgrade was underway, a shiny new Bloggingheads diavlog was posted, featuring yours truly and PalMD.
Mostly we talked about medical ethics, with some time spent on ethical issues around research with human subjects.
ScienceBlogs upgrade this weekend.
You’ve probably already gotten the news that ScienceBlogs is getting a backend upgrade to MT4 this weekend.
While this is going on (from Friday 1 PM Eastern until sometime Saturday, we hope), you’ll still be able to read the ScienceBlogs posts that are already up, but Sb bloggers won’t be able to publish new posts and you won’t be able to leave new comments.
(Actually, I’m hearing rumblings that the comments might already have been disabled. Hold that thought! Jot it down on a Post-it or something, ’cause I want to read it when the comments return in MT4)
During our radio silence, you might want to pass the time by checking out some of the excellent blogs listed in the blogroll in the left sidebar. For particularly good reading, let me recommend:
Blogging, philanthropy, and commerce. (Oh my!)
I realize that I forgot to mention here that I’ve been writing posts on the Invitrogen-sponsored group blog What’s New in Life Science Research. The blog is hosting discussions about stem cells, cloning, biodefense, and genetically modified organisms. (The cloning discussion just started yesterday.) As you might guess, I’m primarily blogging about the ethical dimensions of these biotechnologies. We’d love to have you get involved with the conversation.
In other news:
Why would anybody want to blog under a pseudonym?
I’ve talked about a number of these issues before, but since Abel and PalMD are having some conversations (here, here, here, here, here, and here) in preparation for their session at ScienceOnline09, and since I’ve experienced the blogosphere on both sides of the pseudonymous line, I thought I’d pipe up.
Some good reasons (from the top of my head) to blog under a pseudonym:
Periodic table of wow!
I suspect I’m late to the party on this one, but I just had occasion to check out The Periodic Table of Videos produced at the University of Nottingham. It’s a collection of 118 short videos (ranging in length from approximately one to ten minutes each), one for each of the elements currently in the Periodic Table of the Elements.
I did not watch all 118 of them, but the ones that I did watch covered, among other things:
