I don’t know if it can in academic research, (well, maybe…it has for blogger extraordinaire, Bora), but blogging might boost your resume if you’re looking for a career in science journalism.

Chembark (Paul Bracher, Harvard chemistry grad student) recently noted that Chemical and Engineering News has been recruiting chemistry bloggers as columnists, and more recently as a staff editor. Carmen, a chemistry grad student at Princeton announced last month she’s been hired by the magazine as an editor. Of course, not every ordinary blogger will get a job with a field’s leading trade publication. Paul is quite complimentary of Carmen and her blog, saying that her posts were similar in style and content to the magazine. She was able to use her blog to get her thoughts and writing out there and to gain publishing experience (even if it is self-publishing).

So (hint, hint, nudge, nudge to our community of bloggers on Nature Network and to other blogging hopefuls out there), the moral of the story is, start/keep blogging and do it well, because you never know who will be reading you and what doors it might open.