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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If You Build It,...

Field of Science is a science blog network. FoS is so named because Field of Science is a good, practical name for a website about science, but also--thanks to a certain movie--said name evokes illusions that are, more or less, analogous to what FoS is all about . . . FoS is home to bloggers who are doing actual science and whose blogging is clearly informed by their work. If you are a science blogger and your blog is powered by Blogger (or you wouldn't mind switching over to Blogger), and you are interested in joining FoS , complete an application and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you want to know more about the nuts, bolts and actuals, watch this presentation .

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.

Are Female Science Bloggers More Likely To Blog Anonymously Than Male Science Bloggers?

Google+'s real name policy sparked a lively debate in the science blogosphere. On the side of anonymity it was observed that women risk more than men when they use their real names. We know that women experience 25 TIMES the amount of harassment online that men do. I light of this blanket disparity in risk you might expect to find--or even assume--that the percentage of women in science blogging anonymously is greater than that of their male counterparts. Sifting through the Census of Science Bloggers data I realized I had a sample with which to test this assumption. But to get there I first had to answer another burning question: I wonder what the overall gender ratio is among science bloggers? The answer, based on the census data, is approximately 2 male science bloggers for every 1 female science blogger. Again, based on the census sample, 15% of all science bloggers post anonymously. Now does that percentage change when you divvy the sample up into male and female?

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