Nautilus

The week on Nature Network: Friday 5 June

This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors and communicators. Readers are welcome to join any of these discussions by visiting the links provided. The Nature Network week column is archived here.

Scientific findings in a digital world: what is the genuine article? A Nature Network forum has been set up to discuss this question in advance of the next British Library Talk Science evening on 22 July 2009, where John Willbanks of Science Commons will speak. Some of the discussion topics include: looking good on paper; video killed the methods section; share and share alike; and on common ground. Please join the forum to contribute your views.

Larry Brownstein presents a fascinating post about Temple Grandin, an animal behavourist who is autistic, a condition which she believes enables her to understand more clearly how animals “see” the world. A film about her life and work is due out later this year.

Suggestions are pouring in for speakers and sessions at the Science Online London conference in August this year. The deadline for you to make yours is 19 June.

Terminologies are in the frame this week, from the sublime to the ridiculous. In the former camp is Jennifer Rohn‘s post on the convolutions of the geneticist’s mindset (Dara Sozulski has some useful names at the ready for any new discoveries, incidentally), and at the opposite end of the spectrum is Cath Ennis’s discovery of strange definitions of the word “other”. More scientifically, Henry Gee investigates the origins of the inadvisible term “missing link”. The use of language, particularly in letters of application, is deconstructed by Research Assistant Audra McKinzie.

Martin Fenner has been looking at the newly announced Google Wave communication tool (not yet available), letting readers know why scientists should be interested in it and how they might use it, with the appropriate extensions.

Two new opportunites were announced on Nature Network during the week, the nature.com Open Innovation Pavilion and the Eppendorf young European investigator of the year award, in partnership with Nature.

Further science-related blog reading and online discussion can be enjoyed at:

Planet Nature

Nature.com’s science blogs index and tracker

Nature Publishing Group news at Nature Network

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