Relaunched Nature Network
Tuesday was a big day for Nature Network; we launched a completely redesigned, much improved site. As well as a tidy new reskin, the site now sports a scientific Q&A section, improved personal profile pages, and a workbench to which you can save widgets that help focus your online scientific activities.
We’ve created a series of posts that guide you through the various new features, including a look at the Workbench and new Q&A section section. Further posts will follow including how to get the most from your personal profile, and tips for using the site to make new contacts.
Please do explore the new features and let us know what you think. If you find any bugs, or have suggestions for new features, please leave a comment in our feedback forum. Now that the new site is live, we’re moving down our “to fix” list (which includes outstanding issues on the new blogging platform) with increasing speed. Yesterday we were pleased to announce that commenting on blogs should now take approximately 4 seconds. Keep an eye on the feedback on the new blogging platform forum for updates about more progress.
Blogs
Nature Network also got its first geographically based blog in over a year, with the launch of the Cambridge Blog. The blog is headed up by Taylor Burns of the University of Cambridge, who will cover events, news and scientific gossip from that city that will be of interest to all. He kicks off with a report of Richard Dawkins’ recent talk on the evidence for evolution, and the foolishness of those who ignore it. We’d also like to highlight the relatively new blog of Nick Schafer, whose early posts on biophysics have concentrated on novel techniques to monitor the movement of cells. And a welcome back to Anna Kushnir, whose absence of several months raised a few worried eyebrows: her previous posts chronicled the increasing deterioration of her partner’s arm after receiving a smallpox jab. Fortunately, all is well, and the punctured site is now healed following a ‘gross and only mildly entertaining’ few months.
Elsewhere on the blogs, Richard and Jenny almost caused an international incident by throwing tea ( a la Boston, 1773) into London’s River Thames. Their good-natured protest was to highlight the frustration felt by overseas scientists working in this country who are unable to vote. Revolutionary zeal out of her system, Jenny then settled down to some novel bench work with the ‘fission yeast people [who] are inherently cooler than your average biologist’. Finally, Austin Elliott continues the criticism of Sir Paul Nurse for his ideas on science funding, and Eva Amsen uses her new Wednesday post on scientific art and craft items to show us a necklace pendant that only a bench scientist would fully appreciate.