The editor of a new book, an anthology of science blogs, talks about how his blog saved his career in science.

Three years ago, Bora Zivkovic, a zoology graduate student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, was in a tough spot. Burnt out by years in research and losing motivation as he was writing his thesis, he left the lab. Instead, he took up political activism, posting on campaign blogs during the run-up to the 2004 US presidential elections.

Soon he was blogging on his own about politics, education and science, and has since become a prolific science blogger. He’s also at the centre of an emerging community; he co-organized the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, which took place on 20 January on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with about 170 people in attendance. He has also edited an anthology of science blog posts, The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006, which came out last week.

Read the story here.