This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors.
The Nature Network week column is archived here.
The field of metabolic engineering and systems biology is rapidly growing; Jose Manuel Otero has started a forum as a resource for young and experienced scientists and engineers alike.
What was your first-ever scientific experiment? Anna Kushnir‘s was “designed by myself and another student (Hi Aisha!), who to this day remains a very close friend as part of a biotechnology class. We chose to assess the effect of antioxidants on the growth of cloned African violets.” Read the illustrated protocol at Anna’s blog, and if you can remember the momentous occasion, contribute your own first-time attempt at being a scientist.
Engaging with the public is much in the news, so here is Jennifer Rohn on judging her first science fair: “But what I and the other three judges found most interesting was the fact the projects split clearly into two camps: those that were merely descriptive and literature-research based (“What is acid rain?”) and those that actually tested a hypothesis (“Do different kinds of music affect heart-rate differently?”). We judges especially favored those that sought to answer a question, but even as I felt strongly that this should be the case, I couldn’t help remembering my own long ago blue-ribbon effort: a diorama of the solar system made out of paper mâché. It was only much later that I must have learned that science wasn’t actually about demonstrating what was already known to be there, but was about adding some new knowledge to the world.”
The Science Blogging 2008 conference now has an official website. Here you can find the programme, a list of who is attending, location and accommodation advice, and, of course, register. If you want to attend, please register soon, as at time of writing the conference (which is free) is rapidly reaching capacity.