Blogs, Discussions And Communities: Introducing SciLogs.com’s New Bloggers

Today, I’m super excited to introduce some great new science bloggers who are joining us here on SciLogs.com. Our new bloggers will complement our initial group of bloggers, inject even more enthusiasm, zest and quality to our network and broaden the scope of SciLogs.com, in terms of the science covered here and blogging style.

But before unveiling the list of new bloggers, I’d like to talk a little bit about blogs, the discussions they sprout and the communities which form around those discussions. If you’d rather go straight to the list though, just scroll down!

Bloggers elicit discussions, through which communities form

SciLogs.com launched three months ago, with the aim to form a community around discussions elicited by genuinely passionate and interesting science bloggers. Our first step toward this aim was to regroup some fantastic bloggers from Nature Network and SciLogs.eu and provide them with a good platform where they can just concentrate on blogging about various aspects of science and elicit discussions.

Because that’s what bloggers, including science bloggers, do: they cover topics they feel strongly about and elicit discussions. And through discussions, communities form. Those communities are powerful in terms of their propensity to arouse further exchange of views, opinions and ideas—that is, knowledge—and their ability to disseminate the discussions to more and more people. Those discussions may happen in comment sections or on social media but they may also happen with friends at Starbucks or around the dinner table at home (yes, by talking).

The science blogosphere is one big community of scientists, science enthusiasts and some not so science-savvy readers. That big community consists of independent voices who typically form small communities around their individual blogs as well as science blogging networks, like Scientopia, Field of Science and those of Scientific American, PLoS and The Guardian, to name a few, who amass larger communities. Yes, it’s fair to say that taken together, the science blogosphere is a pretty big community which discusses and disseminates science.

And the science blogosphere keeps growing and growing as more and more people around the world gain access to the internet. With more people coming online, it goes without saying that more interesting voices, who will want to elicit discussions of their own, will emerge. And more people will come online hungry for more science content.

Which brings me back to our new bloggers. Many of them are emerging voices in the science blogosphere and will now elicit discussions, and share and add to SciLogs.com’s community. Others are more experienced writers who will elicit discussions around topics not initially covered on SciLogs.com. All in all, these discussions will create a community which will disseminate science to more and more people. And this, if you recall, is the exact aim of SciLogs.com.

Our new lineup

To avoid an outpour of introductory blog posts from enthusiastic bloggers today itself, not all bloggers will publish their first post today. Some will post tomorrow while others will post on Friday. I will include links to the introductory posts here as they get published.

1. Amy Shira Teitel (@astVintageSpace) has a very cool job: she is a space historian turned freelance science writer. In her blog, Vintage Science, Amy will, in compelling narratives, tell all about space races, shuttles and astronauts. Amy regularly contributes to Discovery News and Motherboard.

First post: Muttnik, the Little Traveling Barker

2. Matt Shipman (@ShipLives) is a science writer and public information officer at North Carolina State University. In Communication Breakdown, Matt will blog about different aspects of science communication.

First post: Statement of Purpose (or, Why I’m Launching a SciComm Blog)

3. Akshat Rathi (@AkshatRathi) is a science writer based in the UK. He recently completed his PhD in organic chemistry at Oxford University and now writes for The Economist and Chemistry World. His blog, Allotrope, will cover the awesomeness of science, with a slight bias for chemistry.

First post: Stay sharper for longer

4. Victoria Charlton (@VicCharlton) is a science graduate and ex-accountant based in the UK. Mixing her science and business backgrounds, Victoria will blog about the business of science in Science Means Business. Her blog is a continuation of her columns for Imperial College’s I, Science.

First post: Electronic cigarettes: smoke without fire?

5. Boris Haenssler (@robotergesetze) is a freelance journalist from Germany. Boris focuses on trends in military technology, information technology, the internet and robotics, amongst other topics. The title of his blog, Laws of Robotics, gives a good hint on the focus of his writing here!

First post: The Laws Of Robotics

6. Jalees Rehman (@jalees_rehman) is a cell biologist and physician at the University of Illinois. He initially trained as a chronobiologist in Munich before opting to do his research in stem cell science. His blog, The New Regeneration, will discuss the latest developments in stem cell research and regenerative biology. Jaless has previously contributed to Scientific American and the Huffington Post.

First post: The Importance of Being Embryonic

7. Lauren Fuge (@ScienceSoup) is an undergraduate student based down under in Australia. She published a fiction novel before turning her attention to writing about cool science. Lauren will cover mind-blowing science in Science In A Can.

First post: How far will Curiosity take us?

8. Kelly Burnes (@kiburnes) is a policy analyst based in New York City. Her research focuses on childhood care and education. In Science Fair, Kelly will look at the impacts of science policy and education on different societies. She also contributes to Australian Science.

First post: Education Air

9. Danny Haelewaters (@dhaelewa) is doing his PhD at the Farlow Herbarium at Harvard University. He is originally from Belgium and will convince you all that fungi are really quite exciting in his blog, Life Off The Edge.

First post: Exserohilum rostratum, the killing fungus

10. Joe Dramiga is a neurogeneticist based in Germany. In his blog, The Sankoré Scriptures, Joe will dwell into the news and issues of neuroscience, but will also look at a myriad of other topics including game theory, evolution and history of science, to name but a few.

First post: Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)

11. Nathalia Holt (@nathaliaholt) is an HIV fellow at MIT and Harvard University. In Backstory, Nathalia will give us an insight into the working lives of the researchers behind the papers that are making the news, through firsthand interviews.

First post: How the touch of a baby girl led to life-saving technology

12. Troy McConaghy (@TroyMc) has a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University and will blog about... wait for it... space exploration in Outer Space. Of note, Troy’s Nature Network blog about SecondLife is now archived on SciLogs.com.

First post: SpaceX Launched RazakSAT. Wait, What?

In addition to those twelve new blogs, we’re also adding two group blogs and one editorial blog.

13. Joel Winston (@joelwinst), Rayna Stamboliyska (@MaliciaRogue), Akshat Rathi (@AkshatRathi) and Khalil A. Cassimally (that’s me, @notscientific) will be blogging at Beyond The Lab. In Beyond The Lab, we will explore emerging cultures in science—crowdfunding, citizen science, startups—and highlight science projects being done by people without lab coats.

First post: Charting New Waters

14. Rayna Stamboliyska (@MaliciaRogue) will also blog at The Aggregator where she will produce exhaustive links to content around specific science news. The aim of the blog is to be a place where you can educate yourself and read comprehensive articles about the bigger science stories.

First post: Women in Science: Still Thin on the Ground But Not For Too Long

15. Khalil A. Cassimally (still me, @notscientific) will be blogging here on the Community Blog. This blog is like SciLogs.com’s office and will feature announcements about SciLogs, linkfests from our bloggers but will also include some musings about the science blogosphere. And probably a lot of other things too.

First post: Blogs, Discussions And Communities: Introducing SciLogs.com’s New Bloggers (this is the post you're reading right now!)

Our new bloggers add to our initial group, who are as great as ever. You already know them but this post would not be complete without listing them. So here’s a rundown:

16. Graham Morehead (@grahammorehead): A Mad Hemmorhage

17. Mićo Tatalović (@MTatalovic): Balkan Science Beat

18. Farooq Khan: Complexity Science

19. Pete Etchells (@DrPeteEtchells): Counterbalanced

20. Karen Vancampenhout (@k_oron): Down To Earth

21. Anne-Marie Hodge (@aubiefan): Endless Forms

22. Paige Brown (@FromTheLabBench): From The Lab Bench

23. Liz O'Connell (@FrontierSi): Frontier Scientists

24. Kris Hardies: Gender Is Not Sex(y)

25. Michael Khan (@go_for_launch): Go For Launch

26. Markus Dahlem (@markusdahlem): Gray Matters

27. Kausik Datta (@kausikdatta22): In Sciento Veritas

28. Thomas Grüter (@th_grueter): Irrationality Rules

29. GrrlScientist (@GrrlScientist): Maniraptora

30. Ivana Gadjanski (@ivanagadjanski): Metacognitive Oasis

31. Tom Webb (@tomjwebb): Mola Mola

32. Markus Völter (@omegataupodcast): Omega Tau Podcast

33. Stephan Schleim: Psychophilosophy

34. Suzi Gage (@soozaphone), Neil Davies (@nm_davies), Dylan Williams: Sifting The Evidence

35. Viktor Poór (@strippedscience): Stripped Science

36. Jim Caryl (@jacaryl): The Gene Gym

37. Lee Turnpenny: The Mawk Moth Profligacies

38. Michael Blume (@BlumeEvolution): The Nature Of Faith

39. Lowell Goldsmith, JID Journal (@JIDJournal): JID Jottings

40. BASF Research (@BASF_Research): Reactions

41. The Fourth Paradigm authors: The Fourth Paradigm

Grab the RSS feed for the entire network here and follow the Twitter list of SciLogs.com’s bloggers.

A glimpse into what’s next on SciLogs.com

Introducing new bloggers to our lineup is but our second step toward creating a great community and propagating science far and wide. SciLogs.com is a dynamic network and we will continue to invite quality bloggers as we move forward, albeit perhaps not 15 in one go! Furthermore, it is inevitable that some bloggers decide to move on—perhaps because they no longer have time to blog or because they want to explore new avenues. When this happens, we will transition their blogs to the archive section of SciLogs.com where their entire blogs will be preserved and accessible to all. If they decide to resume blogging on SciLogs.com later down the line, the door is always open.

In the future, we will also experiment with some new ways to further our community beyond this network and open up discussions throughout the science blogosphere. So keep a lookout on here. In the meantime, click on the links, read blog posts, leave comments and share away!