As Nature Network prepares for its momentous move to the new blogging platform, we thought this would be a timely occasion to dip once again into the archives. Specifically, we got the impish idea of looking back to the origins of some of the first blogs on the site. How did they begin, and how did they develop?
The very first blog post on Nature Network, back when it was but a humble local site serving Boston, came from M. William Lensch in June 2006. Willy’s debut, like those of many bloggers, simply gave a little information about his background and research (embryonic stem cells). It got zero comments. Undeterred, Willy went on to post over 20 times to his blog The Red Pill, including his popular piece on predicting the Nobels.
Our most venerable blogger still blogging is Anna Kushnir (we hope – she’s gone worryingly quiet since writing about her partner’s close liaisons with smallpox). Anna’s first post, on her Lab Life blog, came in December 2006 at a time when she was coming to the end of her five-year graduate school career. Her introductory post set the scene for her future writings, pondering the culture of laboratory life and comparing it to the wider working world.
I find myself looking back on my time in lab, trying to compile the lessons I learned and adjustments I have made. Which of the adjustments will hurt me and which will help me, should I find myself moving away from the world of academia? Will interactions with co-workers be different? Will I no longer be able to drink beer in the conference room at 3PM on a Wednesday? Probably not, sadly.
It got zero comments.
Anna went on, of course, to become one of the most treasured and well-read bloggers on Nature Network, accruing 125 posts to date. She also served as a much-appreciated member of the Nature Network team for a while and has since left the lab to pursue a career in science policy in DC.
After Anna, the next longest-serving current blogger is Bronwen Dekker. Bronwen was also the first member of Nature staff to start a blog on NN (M@ and Corie excepted), on 20 February 2007. She began, in somewhat unusual fashion, by asking Are you my mother?
It got zero comments.
Her subsequent postings (all 120 of them), offer insightful missives into the joys and woes of a Nature Protocols editor. Despite being a desk-bound scientist, Bronwen’s always willing to experiment with her blog. After putting her ‘letters to mom’ on hiatus, she tried blogging every day, writing a series featuring each of the animals from the woman who swallowed a fly nursery rhyme, and even blogging her pregnancy.
We’ll continue the series tomorrow, with a look into the bloggy origins of Drs Gee and Rohn.