Of Schemes and Memes Blog

Communities Happenings – a weekly round-up of NPG online news 7/8/13

This will drive you mad – #eyesci

Scientific Reports is thrilled to announce the launch of their new game called Eye Sci – it’s an exciting, intriguing and at times frustrating online game,  that will keep people coming back for more:

The game is undeniably highly addictive and we apologise in advance for getting you in trouble with your boss or keeping you up all night to get ‘just one more answer,’ but if after a week of no sleep you need added incentive to keep going, then help is at hand.  Register 25, 35 or the full 50 correct answers (make sure you are logged in) and, in addition to extensive bragging rights, you will be entered into a prize draw.  Top prize is a MacBook Air, but there are also Kindle Fire HDs and 500 subscriptions to Nature to be won.  The competition runs until October 31st, 2013 and full Terms & Conditions are on the website.

You can also join in the online conversation and let us know how you are getting on using #eyesci and by tweeting @SciReports.

SpotOn London 2013 – get your suggestions in! #solo13

SpotOn londonThis year’s SpotOn London conference will take place on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th November. We have now closed session suggestions for this year and you can see them all in our public Google document. We’re going to take a couple of weeks to review the ideas and we’ll be in touch with anyone that has contributed an idea in due course.

More information on the conference can be found in our blog post here . Finally, if you’re not already on our mailing list do send us an email and we’ll add you!

nature.com blogs – a collection of blogs from editors and other staff at NPG

In this week’s Soapbox Science post, Ben Thomas looks at how to promote accuracy in press interviews:

Any time you’re about to talk with the media, practice, practice and then practice some more. Rehearsals accomplish a lot more than just calming nerves – they’ll train you to tailor your message into a compact, easily understandable format that leaves plenty of room for questions and discussion. As you’ll find out for yourself, this is surprisingly difficult on the very first run.

The world’s first laboratory beef burger was cooked and eaten during a live press conference in London last week. Davide Castelvecchi elaborates in the News Blog:

Hanni Rützler, a food scientist, and Josh Schonwald, a writer, were the first to sample the cultured beef burger, but were not blown away by its taste, either positively or negatively. The texture was “crunchy and hot”, but didn’t have an intense meat flavour, and “it is a bit like cake”, Rützler said.

A jam-packed week of blogging includes posts on careers, Obama and entrepreneurial events.

Scitable – Nature Education’s network of science blogs

There’s been intense debate about the Keystone XL pipeline in the US. If approved by the Obama administration, it would lead to the provision of oil for the foreseeable future. But it’s also considered highly pollution. Environment blogger Whitney Campbell summarises the issues in her latest post entitled “4 Things Keystone XL Doesn’t Have”.

shannonpatrick17/Flickr

SciLogs.com – a blogging network

Blogger Jalees Rehman writes about stem cells research, peer-review and more on The Next Regeneration. He lately concentrated on the “more” part as he took an in-depth look into why research on male contraceptives has mostly stopped.

Your weekly morsels of the best science stories curated by Malcolm Campbell right is here.

Gene & ImmunityNational Immunization Awareness Month

August marks the National Immunization Awareness Month. Check out free articles from Genes & Immunity offered to commemorate this month.

Nature Middle East

The Arab world has a rich history of scientific breakthroughs. Ensure you’re part of the scientific and medical community gaining access to the latest research in the region. Access Nature Middle East – your free portal for news, features, jobs and events in the Arabic speaking world.

You can also subscribe to the House of Wisdom blog,  a place for the science community from the Middle East, or those interested in the region, to meet, discuss and learn.

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