science

Remember #Pepsigate?

May 18, 2011
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What’s new to me is the potential for science blogs to be a serious alternative to the often superficial coverage of science in the mainstream media. The panel talked about the way Nature/Science dominate their respective coverage. One of the most attractive things about science blogging is how by sharing ideas, by articulating ideas and by being exposed to ideas, it creates a fertile space for innovation.

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Opening science’s books for the crowd

February 3, 2011
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Researchers can slave over their work, publishing modest increments for years before something really connects, and sometimes it’s not even then – it can be years later, when someone else makes the connection. But paying for that time can be politically tricky, and in any case the funding tends to come with the political cycle and with the tide of political opinion. Seems like a bit of a gap between what researchers need and what they’re getting, so what’s the answer?

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Caught in an information rip?

January 12, 2011
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Being interconnected and tapped into the global flow of data has its risks. Personal risks, global risks, fundamental challenges like the mass extinction of Australia’s biodiversity. But there’s also the very real chance of good – the ability to understand each other, to have richer, far more fulfilling experiences, to come up with new ideas, to solve some of these big problems. Finding the balance is crucial.

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Three great things I came across this year

December 30, 2010
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I love lists. They can be arbitrary, but there’s something to them: a look back, before leaping into a new year. I’m a science writer and researcher, arts broadcaster and music obsessive, and a compulsive reader, so there is a  lot to draw on. So I focussed on three great things I came across this year and haven’t been able to stop talking about: Tipping Point, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Brisbane’s Other Film.

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Science blogging, a rethink

December 16, 2010
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The NASA astrobiology debacle is a chance to rethink science blogging. People think of blogging as amateur or DIY media, which it can be. But I reckon it would help if scientists started to think about blogging as an extension to what they do at conferences.

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