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This year’s Science Online London has produced almost 5,000 tweets and this week we have been compiling Storifys helping to archive the online conversations. The first day of Science Online London got off to a flying start with a keynote speech from physicist, author and Open Science advocate, Michael Nielsen. The panel that followed then delved into “Linking with the Literature”, including discussion of the #arseniclife story by Rosie Redfield, which you can find archived in our 2nd Storify. Do stay tuned for more Storifys in the coming days and let us know if anything is missing:
Science Online London has also been a hot topic across the blogosphere. Nature Network blogger Sara Fletcher has been revealing her thoughts on the annual conference in her post, Light Reading, and a bit of inspiration from #solo11. Sara reveals the tips she picked up from the breakout session, So many ways to tell a story hosted by Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker:
So it was really satisfying to listen to Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker about storytelling in science and science writing, and particularly the parallels which Bora drew between writing a scientific paper and a conventional story. Apologies to Bora for paraphrasing, but his basic point was that in a story:
• We start with a description of a world in a steady state
• A catastrophic event occurs, disrupting the steady state
• New knowledge is revealed, showing us the old world transformed into a new and steady state
Scitable’s blogger Dr Nick Morris continues to keep us informed of his Science Online experience in a series of blog posts. In his latest entry, SOLO11: Science Online London 2011 (#solo11) – day 2, panel 1 – Dealing with Data Nick discusses what he took away from the session:
Alastair gave a great presentation titled “Humble Pie – charting the stories in big data”. The presentation kicked off with a quote from Edward Tufte “Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space” – and this was the general thrust of the presentation – that is, let the data tell the story through the use of graphics and interactive graphics.
Keep an eye on his blog for future updates and do check out the official wiki, linking out to all blogging and photo coverage.
Saffron as potential anti-cancer agent
The House of Wisdom blog, managed by Nature Middle East have been revealing that according to research conducted at the United Arab Emirates University on rats with diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced liver cancer, saffron extract may have chemopreventive action against cancer:
The researchers administered different concentrations of the saffron extract two weeks before inducing liver cancer in the rats. The extract reduced cell proliferation and induced apoptosis. The researchers suggest there is evidence it may suppress inflammatory response in liver cancer and modulate oxidative damage. Results show saffron significantly reduced the number and the incidence of liver nodules, with the rats receiving the highest dose of saffron showing complete inhibition of hepatic nodules.
You can find out more about this research in their blog post.
Striking picture
Barbara Ferreira – “No, this is not a scene from a sci-fi movie, this is a real photo.”
Find out more about this picture that illuminates a battle between man and nature, in Barbara Ferreira’s latest post.
Fukushima nuclear crisis, six months later
The meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant has resulted in an ongoing crisis in Japan. This week, the Nature News blog present a Nature Video which provides an update on efforts to stabilize the reactors, and the consequences of the emergency for Japan and nuclear power worldwide.
Check out their post for links to the other Nature Videos and also the NatureNews special.
Congratulations
In May we announced the details of our new recognition system for Nature Network bloggers and have been providing 3-month online subscriptions to Nature for regular bloggers. Congratulations to the bloggers who have qualified this month:
For those bloggers who have yet to qualify, don’t be disheartened as there’s always next month. Keep up the great blogging! Further details can be found in our blog post, Saying thanks to our bloggers.
Spam attack
After Nature Network was attacked by a bout of spam, Mike Fowler has launched his revenge on the Spam, encouraging readers to list their favourite science jokes in his comment thread. So far we have had a few entertaining ones:
What do you call a joke that is based on cobalt, radon, and yttrium?
CoRnY!!
Feel free to join in!
Celebomics
Continuing the science jokes, this week Viktor Poor has been asking us to guess the famous celebrity…..
Tips and answers are revealed in his post.
Finally, sometimes in her scientific career Karen Vancampenhout hates being such a perfectionist, but when it comes to her beautiful new baby, the rules change….congratulations Karen from everyone at Nature Network.