Nature Network has been bubbling along for almost three years now (make that three and a half, for those who remember its origins as a Boston-only microsite). With the imminent demise of the Noughties, we thought we’d hijack the end of year/decade bandwagon and put together our very own ‘best of’ list. Or, rather, lists. The quality and quantity of writing on these blogs is such that there is no way to sum up the best in just one post – we’d need Santa’s magically capacious sack and some serious theorising from Stephen Hawking to work out how to fit so many special posts into such a small space…
So here’s what we decided:
- We’ve selected the ‘best’ NN blog posts for each year based on nominations for the Open Lab books. There are plenty of other worthy posts for a given year (indeed, we hope you’ll point some of them out in the comments), but these are the ones originally selected by the community as top of their class.
- We have then whittled down the longlist to our ‘top five’ (Matt from his long association with the blogs, and Lou reading many of these for the first time). The selection is entirely subjective. The only rule is that no author is allowed more than one inclusion.
- We’ve highlighted our selection for 2007 below. Please feel free to agree, disagree and suggest alternatives – we’d love to know which gems we may have overlooked! But for the ones we have selected, we’ve added a little poll for you to take part in at the bottom.
- Over the next few days, we’ll pick out a selection for 2008 and 2009, and also reveal a few more objective measurements of the best blogs…
The best of 2007 picks:
Scifoo ponderings: how to break the mold in science
Corie Lok’s blog
Corie reflected on her experiences at the SciFoo conference (an invite-only meeting of scientists with big ideas) to argue for a greater uptake of new communication technologies by researchers. Too often, young scientists are put off open science because establishment pressures force them to follow old, restrictive rules and discourage them from trying new ways of scientific communication and publication. As Corie says:
Scientists are (and should be!) more than just scientists: they are citizens with lots of great ideas who should interact with other citizens (nonscientists, scientists from fields far from their own) with lots of great ideas. Those interactions can open up the mind, get the creative juices flowing, and hopefully lower the level of conservatism among scientists that can hold back exciting progress.
Her post really bangs the drum for the kind of communication we all enjoy on Nature Network and other platforms.
Lab Life – Anna Kushnir
On a lighter, bitier note, Anna looked at the foodstuffs commonly available in a typical life-sciences laboratory, including seaweed extract, caffeine and ultrapure water. Even milk, used by Anna in Western blots:
Autoclaving milk turns it a beautiful light caramel color. Does autoclaved milk taste slightly bitter and sweet, like burnt sugar, or is it simply burnt? I had to exhibit considerable self control not to tip some out into my cupped hand and try a sip. I would have done, if it wasn’t for the disgusted and perplexed stares shot my way when I mentioned it.
In which I contemplate the road taken, not taken, then re-taken
Mind the Gap – Jennifer Rohn
Jenny had a record five nominations for the 2007 Open Lab book, any of which could have been included here. Our pick, though, is this evocative piece, which draws on the experiences of both Jenny and her father to relate how career choices need not be set in stone.
Nothing is irrevocable. It doesn’t matter how old you are when you realize you’ve made a mistake – you can always start again. I guess my generation has been lucky in this regard; back in Dad’s day, you got a job and you plied it for life, for better or worse. It is only by a lucky accident of birth, being raised in an era and a society when all things are possible, that has allowed me this precious second chance to get back on the right road.
No Girrafes On Unicycles Beyond This Point
The End Of The Pier Show – Henry Gee
Regular Networkers will no doubt have encountered unicycling girrafes before. Fresher eyes will no doubt be puzzling over the continuing references to this unorthodox mode of ungulate transport. Either way, the unicycling girrafe has become something of a mascot for Nature Network thanks to the inventiveness of the family Gee. Here, a legend is born, when Henry discovers a note from his daughter, appended to his back door:
NO GIRRAFES ON UNICYCLES BEYOND THIS POINT Apart from the obvious misspelling (I’m entirely aware of it, so please don’t write in), what struck me most about this notice was the qualifier ‘beyond this point’ — as if giraffes on unicycles are entirely acceptable elsewhere, or that dismounted giraffes (or giraffes employing some other mode of transport, such as skateboards or roller blades) might be exempt from this proscription.
The Scientist – Richard Grant
Finally, in a post that really deserved more comments (hint, hint) Richard walked us through an atypical day in the lab. After all the struggles, failures and blind alleys of research, finally, emphatically, something wonderful emerged from his data:
…one afternoon you sit down to look at some very preliminary data: incomplete, waiting on the proper controls and still shy of the experimental nirvana that comes from n = 3; and you really don’t know what you should be doing with this program but you fight it because by God it’s not in you to give up, and you realize that you’re reading the wrong strand of the chromosome but when you finally get the numbers to match six bases SHOUT at you from the Ensemble web site and you echo the shout to the office as you realize that here, indeed, is an Answer.
DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE:
Contemplating the Road Taken……