The Science Blogospheric

Scenic points on my journey into and through the scientific blogosphere.

Exploring the science blogosphere comes with the territory when founding and editing a science website whose aim is to elevate the profile of science bloggers. My initial suspicion that the search for good science blogs might become a not-so-looked-forward-to ritual chore has instead turned into what I can honestly describe as a regular pleasure. Simply put, the science blogosphere is proving to be the antithesis of the rest of blogosphere in that where you would expect to sift through mountains of dreck in order to find the occasional gem; you instead find mountains of riches with only the occasional vein of intellectual sloth trying to worm its way in. As an experienced blog surfer, I've actually had to retrain myself to assume the unexpected and reorient myself to the atypical, parallel blogosphere science bloggers have made for themselves. The bad news is there's precious little time in the day to devote to the never-ending procession of science blog that are thoughtful, smart, honest and above all, interesting. But then that's the good news too.

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The Science Habit

3+ years ago I left FieldofScience to fend while I (read: my wife) had babies. To my relief, FieldofScience managed just fine without me. There was some attrition, and a scatting of broken links, but otherwise I was not really needed. When I started FieldofScience back in 2008, I gave myself the title of Founding Editor . But looking at it now, that was mistaken. Turns out there is nothing here to edit ( duh! ). The better title for what I do is Founding guy who pays the annual domain registration . Of course I do tweak the templates, tidy up, and when I have time, make an effort to grow FieldofScience's ranks. But all of those things are second to what is my most important job--doing nothing. I have been slowly reengaging with FieldofScience over the last few months. Doing little things here and there, and letting plans for redesigns simmer in the back of my mind while I reacquaint myself with my tools and with the state of science blogging. One of the things I am st...

A New Wave of Science Blogging?

One can imagine science bloggers would be a (the) primary beneficiary in a landscape where Google ranks sites based on the correctness of factual information provided by the [blog] . What's more, it is not a stretch to conclude that science bloggers could very well be in the vanguard of a new wave of bloggers who earn Google’s trust by blogging within the confines of what is known. The news that Google is working on a system of ranking sites based on the quality of their facts should be greeted by science bloggers everywhere as a game-changer.

640 Style Guide: Wider Videos and Images

YouTube video and Blogger image uploading and formatting specifications. [Note: These instructions are written for the classic Blogger post editor, composing in the Edit Html tab.] Instructions for posting wide screen YouTube videos. To embed wide screen videos, go to the video's url on YouTube . To the right of the Embed code, click on the Customize button. In the menu that expands below the Embed code, select 640x385 . Copy the Embed code and paste it into your post. Instructions for uploading images to be 640 pixels wide. [Note: These instructions work for images that are wider than they are tall.] In the image uploader, Choose a layout: "None", Image size: "Medium" To upsize images, double the width and height specifications of the image (width: 640px; height: XXXpx;) and change s320 to s640 in the image url. Advanced Image Editing: To place two "Medium" images side-by-side, delete the return break between them. Blogger's picture uploader d...

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