Blogs

This week’s guest post on the Soapbox Science blog comes from Aaron Clauset of the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He examines and compares two very different ways of reporting science – statistically and with narrative:

It seems to me that for science, the correct emphasis should be on the statistics. That is, we should be more worried about observing something that is not really there. But as humans, statistics is often too dry and too abstract for us to understand intuitively, to generate that comfortable internal feeling of understanding. Thus, our peers often demand that we give not only the statistical explanation but also a narrative one.

His excellent (narrative) account can be read on Soapbox Science – a blog that features one-off posts from scientists with interesting viewpoints. Do get in touch if you would be interested in contributing or want to recommend somebody.

Ayusman Sen returns to the issues of women in science, with an excellent post on gender imbalance in the scientific classroom. Jane de Lartigue, meanwhile, presents a colourful history of microscopy and cell biology.

Our endeavours to map the key scientific locations in cities around the world continues apace. Dr Paul Groth of VU University of Amsterdam adds the twelfth instalment to that series with a map of the Dutch capital. We’re still looking for further additions, so do get in touch if you’d like to map your own city’s highlights (see world map for places covered so far).

Over on the Fourth Paradigm blog. the editors continue to introduce themselves with David de Roure and Tony Hey stepping to the plate. The blog explores the increasingly important area of data-intense science. The editors welcome questions about the subject, or the purpose of the blog itself, so do stop by.

Elsewhere, Linda Lin watches the chaos surrounding an Honours student deadline, Nicolau Werneck creates an intriguing graph of changes in research expenditure per country, Sohini Mazumdar dissects the word networking, and Barbara Ferreira keeps an eye out for asteroids.

We also say goodbye to blogger Anthony Fejes. Thanks for sharing your thoughts over the past year, and best wishes for the future.

Science Online 2011

Plotting and preparation continue towards next year’s Science Online conference in North Carolina (January 13-15), which this year stretches out to three days. The wiki is now open for session suggestions, for anyone who would like to attend.