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.

Anna Kushnir continues to find out about contracts for government-funded research. “Writing a proposal is no different than writing a grant, it turns out. You tell the funding body (in this case, the FDA) how you are going to approach the problem, lay out the experimental detail and list alternatives, should obstacles be met. You then describe how you will process the data once it’s acquired and what it will mean, in the grand scheme of things.”

To coincide with the Science Online conference, Matt Brown is organizing a couple of events similar to those of last year. One is a pub crawl on Thursday 20 August around four central London pubs, each with a scientific connection. The second is a guided tour of some of London’s scientific museums and attractions on Friday 21 August. Matt writes: “I’ve still to plan out the route, but the tour will probably take in such venues as the Wellcome Collection, Royal College of Surgeons Museum and the South Kensington Museums. I’ll also point out sites of historic scientific interest as we go round. The tour will be free (including entry into all venues) and you can join at any point. All you’ll need is a Zone 1 travelcard or Oyster ticket.” More details are in the Science Online London forum. Register interest in either event by sending Matt an email . In the meantime, if you’re in London, you can take a look at some science-art: “”https://network.nature.com/hubs/london/blog/2009/07/22/carbon-rapture-burlington-house-piccadilly-until-27th-august">carbon rapture", as reported by Chloe Sharrocks.

If you already blog or are interested in giving it a try, and live in New York, Nature Network is looking for contributors to its New York hub. More details here, from Caryn Shechtman.

The journal Cell has announced a project called “article of the future” and has displayed two article prototypes on its website for reader comments. In the Good Paper Journal Club, Martin Fenner asks whether new article formats that move away from the traditional print format are better suited to communicate the message of the paper. Examples include the use of audio and video, and different versions (basic and extended) of the materials and methods section. Futher discussion on the broader role of the “paper” is in the forum Scientific Findings in a Digital Age: What is the Genuine Article? , based on issues addressed by John Willbanks at the British Library earlier this week, as part of the Talk Science series.

This weekly column will be taking a break. 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

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.

Teisha Rowland provides her perspective on the oft-discussed topic of why scientists blog in the science blogging forum. She writes: “many of the stem cell blogs I’ve seen focus (often entirely) on stem cell news and politics, while not going into the biology enough to quench my curiosity. This originally inspired me to create my blog; I wanted to explore the topics less visited by most stem cell blogs (i.e. history and the biological details) and in this way educate myself more as well as make this information more accessible to a wide audience.” Another perspective on science blogging is provided in this stimulating post by Anna Kushnir.

Metrics are in the frame again, as Bart Penders argues in the citation in science forum that despite their many flaws, scientists have to take them seriously. Other views follow.

Massimo Pinto comments on Italy’s decision to “outsource” its grant peer-review process. It’s bordering on humiliation, he writes, but necessary. Roberto Cerbino adds that it is “he first step toward a more intelligent organization of peer review procedures in Italy.” Join their discussion at the Nature Network Italy forum. A different aspect of peer-review is hotly debated as a result of a post by Martin Fenner, who muses on whether companies and organisations would pay journals for “peer-review information”. Whatever one may think of that idea, peer reviewers’ reports should be kept confidential, writes Roger Macy in the Nature Opinion forum discussion arising from a recent Nature Essay in which Toby Murcott argued for journalists’ access to peer-reviewers’ deliberations.

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

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.

Martin Fenner this week provides a recipe for receiving journal tables of contents (TOCs) automatically. Among other tips, he explains how RSS feeds can be used to set up a web page with all the journal TOCs relevant to a group of co-workers, or share just the articles of interest using a social bookmarking site. And on the topic of web tools, Richard Grant shares the initial results of his poll about scientists’ use of Twitter, a popular microblogging service.

If you wonder what a science consultant does to apply for a contract from the US government, look no further than Anna Kushnir’s post about her new job. “The process of winning government contracts is not easy and it’s not fast, but the pay-off could be huge, especially for a small company such as the one I work for. Contracts can take as little as a few months (or even weeks) to years to complete, with compensation ranging from a few thousand dollars to millions”, she writes.

“Adverjournalism” is decried by Craig Rowell, who cites a journalistic article about pharmaceutical research that mainly serves to advertise a company’s programme. How common is this practice?, asks Craig – who also notes an associated issue – sensationalism – from some press reports earlier in the week.

Best-practice for journals in their formatting of online-only Supplementary Information is raised this week by Stephen Curry, and a feisty debate follows his post (in which I confess to being a protagonist). Feel free to weigh in on this important topic: to what extent is SI an integral part of a paper, or part of a wider universe of data and resources?

How can professional women scientists support younger women in their careers if they themselves do not yet have tenure? Deborah Yoder-Hines was surprised at the answer she received to this question when she asked it at a conference session. She goes on to ask members of the Women in Science forum to suggest additional ways to support women scientists in their early careers, even if they are not in an ideal position themselves.

I, Science magazine is one of the latest groups at Nature Network, created by Mico Tatalovic. I, Science is Imperial College’s award-winning popular science magazine, mainly run by the MSc Science Communication students.

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

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.

Ruth Wilson is going to Istanbul later this month to give a talk at the Equal Opportunities Conference. She’ll speak about the steps she and her colleagues at the UK Resource Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology have taken to help women scientists connect online. To gather information for her talk, she asks Nature Network users for their views and experience of whether blogging, twittering, and other social media help women’s careers in science, engineering, technology. Is this male-dominated area any less so in online environments? Are there online facilities or developments that would help women wanting to start/develop their careers? Ruth welcomes your views at the Women in Science forum (views from men are as welcome as those from women).

Do we need a scientific literature? The answer might seem obvious, but Bob O’Hara gets to the basics of “why we consider peer-reviewed research so important”. It’s a very well-argued post, covering access to the literature itself and to what it says once you have access to it. Unusually for a blog post, a diverse range of commenters broadly agree with it, in a discussion of a range of “accessibility” issues. Please join in.

Cath Ennis gets to grips with the writing style itself. “It began with the phrase “The human genome is a motley harlequin”, and became even more eccentric as it progressed. It was wonderful stuff. I loved it. But I knew I couldn’t use it. A little part of me died as I took out my red pen and rewrote his words in a more conventional academic style.” Read on at Cath’s blog post ‘Resistance is futile’, which refers to Jennifer Rohn’s stimulating post about “the untold narrative of the precise dryness of scientific papers”.

The writing process will be further dissected at Second Life on Tuesday (7 July), where visitors can join Tom Levenson, professor of science writing at MIT, who will be talking about his new book, Newton and the Counterfeiters. Professor Levenson will be taking questions from the audience on the book, his career as a writer, or anything else. See Joanna Scott’s blog for more details of the event itself and of how to set up an account on Second Life.

Dara Sosulski picks up a bit of pseudoscientific news education, in a week when the sixth World Conference of Science Journalists has been putting science news reporting in the spotlight. There’s a discussion in the Nature Opinion forum about Nature’ s special issue to accompany the conference – a collection of articles ranging from the evolution of the science journalist from cheerleader to watchdog, to how blogging by audiences at scientific conferences is challenging traditional newspaper reporting. Another aspect of science journalism – scaremongering – was at the heart of the most recent Boston “Skeptics in the pub” meeting, explosively described by Robert Pinsonneault.

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

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.

Registration is now open for the Science Online London 09 conference this summer. Act soon if you would like to attend, as there are only 150 places, 100 of which have already gone. A list of the attendees (so far) is here. The organizers have been collecting ideas for topics for discussion over the past few weeks, and will be announcing the programme soon.

Branwen Hide was asked the other day how she would set up a research base in the UK if she could start with a blank slate. She passes the question to Nature Network readers: “If you had ultimate power what would you do? If you want you can start now and talk about changes you would make and things you would like to see.” Visit the UK science policy forum to add your answer! (Mine is there.) Moving from the UK to the US, Michael Nestor says that we need a national consortium of science, and for universities to be parallel distributed processors. Read on, and contribute.

Maria Nowotny, a researcher in materials science, enjoys peer-reviewing papers and acting as a guest editor for journals – so much so that she’s interested in an editing career. An online discussion follows of the qualifications and experience needed for this role.

If you’re a scientist who writes, and you like travelling to the remotest of places, Steffi Suhr rounds up current opportunities to visit the Antarctic, complete with insider tips.

How do you fit 4,000 years of science into 400 pages? Historians of science call this the Big Picture problem, and now Patricia Fara has provided the first ever solution – Science: A Four Thousand Year History (Oxford University Press). In a Second Life talk on Tuesday 30 June, she discusses three of the Big Questions she had to confront while she was writing her book – When did science begin? Who did science? How does science change? Some of her answers may be unexpected. More details are here. You may have difficulty attending if you are in Australia, unfortunately, as Craig Rowell reports censorship plans.

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

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.

María José Navarrete-Talloni writes about her involvement in a Chilean organization for scientists called RedCiencia, a web platform for Spanish-speaking scientists from all over the world that promotes funding opportunities and jobs, as well as publishing news and columns (including one by her).

The Semantic Web is based on the relatively straightforward idea that to be able to integrate (link) data on the Web we must have some mechanism for knowing what relationships hold among the data, and how that relates to some “real world” context. Jim Hendler tells us what it is really all about at his Nature Network blog, and how useful technology is ready to be applied in fairly simple ways.

More on technology: what can we do to close the “digital divide” among scientists? Martin Fenner writes that “many if not most scientists are experienced users of computers and the internet, and use email or public databases such as PubMed on a daily basis. But few scientists regularly use Web 2.0 tools, which would include both general tools such as Twitter, FriendFeed or Facebook, as well as tools specifically targeted at scientists (and this would of course include Nature Network).” Some good suggestions for closing the gap follow, both in the post and in the ensuing online discussion.

Mickey Schafer and Linda Cooper discuss whether poor writing can be useful in teaching people how to write well in their scientific papers, in the Good Paper Journal Club.

Happy second birthday to Nature Precedings, a wesite now hosting more than a thousand documents, including several specialized document collections. Hilary Spencer writes that thousands of researchers have signed up to read and view pre-print manuscripts, posters and presentations, and many have posted comments providing feedback on these submissions. Santosh Patnaik assesses usage of the service during its second year. More information and updates are at the Nature Precedings forum.

Streamosphere is the latest web application from Nature Publishing Group. Euan Adie has created a visualisation and aggregation tool that lets you track scientific discussion on the web in real-time. Futher details, with links to the service, are provided at the Nature Publshing Group news forum.

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

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.

Do you deposit your materials and data in a suitable public resource when you write and publish a paper? You should: some of the reasons for doing so are discussed this week by Chris Taylor and Allan Sudlow , in a conversation that contains links to articles explaining why, for those who need convincing.

Gillian Pepper notes that much of the recent House of Lords debate about the contribution of science, technology and engineering to the UK was not about the contribution of these disciplines directly, but about secondary organizations that highlight and facilitate. Would be more interesting, she asks, to discuss specific emerging disciplines and technologies, what they might contribute and how this can be supported?

The United Kingdom is a world leader in measurement, writes Scott Keir – although measurement is not something that’s often talked about. The National Measurement Office is undertaking a consultation exercise looking ahead at the country’s needs for measurement infrastructure and standards. What are the priorities for measurement research — business competitiveness, sustainability, security, other? Should the government invest in new advanced laboratories? What do scientific institutions requirements for measurement technology and expertise? There are other questions at the National Measurement Office website, and there will be a free event on Tuesday 16 June 2009 at the Royal Society, London, to discuss these issues. Futher details are at Scott’s post.

Also on the topic of priorities, Branwen Hide posts links to a Foundation for Science and Technology event summary and speeches by Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (Chief Executive of the UK Medical Research Council), Sir John Bell (President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research) and Sir David Cooksey (Chair, Bioscience Innovation and Growth Team,) on the future for medical research in the United Kingdom.

The old question of extrapolating to a general conclusion on the basis of a certain sample size pops up at Raf Aerts’s blog. If you want to weigh in, there are a couple of views to choose from – or maybe you will have a different perspective from either.

“Why do we go to conferences?”, asks Martin Fenner. Quite a few telling reasons are outlined in the post, along with an update about the Science Online 09 meeting, which Martin is co-organizing.

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

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

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.

What are the chances of publication in Nature or in any other high-impact journal when one solidly disproves an earlier paper in the journal? I would also wish to know how the chances could be augmented. What criteria should one consider? So asks Sangeetha Suranarayanan at the Ask the Nature Editor forum.

The discussion on blogging (or other online posting) and the law has been continuing during the week at the Nature Opinion forum. If you contribute to blogs, forums and online conversations, it is worth checking out this Nature Network forum for its links to some useful articles on the Internet and legal liabilities.

Also at the Nature Opinion forum is a debate arising from Nature’s special collection on swine ’flu. The discussion is focusing on whether news of the outbreak has been communicated appropriately by officials and the media; and whether preparation for the worst helps the world to come to grips with the realities of a possible pandemic, or whether perceived ‘false alarms’ erode public trust. What will – and should – happen next? Let us know your views.

What do you know about “the imposter syndrome”? This strange phenomenon is being discussed in the Women in Science forum, and also in the NatureJobs Careers forum. (The article that’s the source of the discussion is at the NatureJobs website.)

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

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.

Language evolves quickly, but some novel words may never appear in a scientific manuscript. Craig Rowell has a “rant about a recent set of buzzwords that some like to throw-around like so many tomatoes at the Valencia Tomato Festival. They are off-line and bandwidth. As in, “let’s talk about this off-line” -used during a meeting when a topic that is not relevant to the topic of the meeting is beginning to take up too much time (formally known as – let’s talk about this later). Bandwidth refers to someones availability to do work with respect to time – “does Craig have the bandwidth to finish his part of the project as well as a new meaningless task or does he need help?” Let me be clear . . . I AM NOT A COMPUTER!” At the end of his post, Craig adds a helpful note: “35,000 foot view and granular are real buzzwords, Hubble-view and Nano-perspective as well as Nano-mangement© (not listed) are not (yet). :)”.

Turning from extreme words to extreme mammals – Caryn Shechtman posts about an exhibition with that title (extreme mammals, that is, not words!) that has just opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, featuring animals that “depart significantly from the normal, average, or ancestral condition.” Divided into nine sections, the exhibit examines extant and extinct mammals that have unusual body features and those that exist in geographical isolation or extreme climates by featuring fossils, reconstructions, computer interactives and hands-on activities. More details at Caryn’s post.

Nature Networkers have been weighing in this week on the topic of freedom of (scientific) speech, in light of a recent case in which a science writer is being sued personally for remarks he made in a newspaper article. One aspect of this case relvant to the scientists and science communicators who use Nature Network is how informed they are about the potential legal risks of what they might write, whether informally online or in a publication. You are welcome to join this discussion, in the Nature Opinion forum.

I was interested reading the discussion arising from a stimulating post by David Basanta, who attended a talk that asks a provocative question: “why don’t tumours grow in muscles?” The ensuing online discussion is a great example of the educative potential of scientific blogging and demonstrates the interest of looking at a question from interdisciplinary perspectives. Such a discussion, of course, requires people with the right expertise who are prepared to share it. Rather unlike Noah Gray’s illustrated post on “the science news cycle” which, if nothing else, might raise a smile.

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