Welcome to Free Association, the new blog from the editors of Nature Genetics.

If it sometimes seems to you as if everyone with an internet connection has his or her own blog, rest assured we’ve noticed that as well. Given that, how can we justify claiming a space on the bandwagon?

Well, it turns out that the bandwagon in science blogging has lots of room. As noted by Richard Gallagher in this editorial in The Scientist, the life sciences in particular have been late to embrace blogging as a way to spark interesting conversation, promote more of a sense of community among scientists, and, possibly, to increase awareness of the process and substance of science among non-scientists.

So, with a great deal of excitement, we are launching Free Association, accompanied by our colleagues at Nature Neuroscience, who are launching their own blog called Action Potential . What might you find here? Here’s some of what we have in mind:

· Commentary on papers published in Nature Genetics or in other journals. We’re particularly interested in inviting authors to follow up on points in their work that may not have found space in the formal manuscript.

· Links to and commentary on genetics (and geneticists) in the news.

· Updates on books and websites of interest to the community.

· Notes on editorial policies that may not have made it into one of journal’s printed editorials.

· Announcements of editors’ attendance at meetings, which may also generate posts to the blog.

· Round-ups of genetics coverage in the popular press and in the blogosphere (for better or worse).

And…no doubt some things we haven’t yet thought of. Perhaps the most important component of Free Association will be reader comment, which is strongly encouraged

Science is hard work. But if you need a break from the bench, or a break from the heavy lifting of the peer-reviewed literature, just run that gel a bit more slowly and check in with our own ongoing experiment.