Scientific American Blog Network Opens Shop

Been long under the wraps, but now a project organized by friend and colleague Bora Zivkovic has come to fruition.

THE NEW SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN BLOG NETWORK HAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!!!

As you can tell I am super excited. The caliber and diversity of the inaugural class of bloggers is astounding. Diversity is a big deal in science and even science communication. From Bora’s epic introduction to the network (link above):

“When I put together this group, with such diverse interests and styles, it was not surprising to discover that, without really having to try hard to make it so, they also display diversity in many other areas: geography, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, personal/professional/scientific background and more. This is something that is important for science, and is important in the science blogging world.

So, as I expect that several of you are already counting, let me make this easy for you. We have 47 blogs with 55 bloggers. Of those, our editors and staff make up 13 people (8 women, 5 men), while independent bloggers make up the difference with 42 of them (25 women, 17 men). That is a total of 22 men and 33 women writing on our network. The age ranges from 22 to 58, with the mean around 32 and median around 31 (at least when including those who are willing to admit their age).”

I am also super excited because I will be starting a new project on the new shiny blog network of the very old popular science magazine (166 years old!). At the EvoEcoLab, I will write about the research and concepts at the crossroads of evolution and ecology. Additionally, I will be taking a further look into how studying the principles of evolution continues to provide many tangible benefits for society. I hope you will join me there and check the 38 other fantastic bloggers that Scientific American has hand-picked for its launch!

What does this mean for my long-standing role at Deep-Sea News? I have been with DSN for nearly 5 years and have no plans to change that!I know the summer time has been quiet lately. Everyone is off to meetings and field work, heavy into grant writing and making research deadlines. For me, I am focused on writing more than research these days. Which is why a move to Scientific American makes a lot of sense for me and allows the flexibility to write about more than just the ocean.

I will still remain here as the Assistant Editor and webmaster for DSN and contribute articles, links and other miscellanea to the site as I always do until any further notice. We have an ace team here that are good friends as well as colleagues and I wouldn’t trade that for anything (except maybe a large paycheck). I may occasionally link to my articles over at EvoEcoLab if it is relevant to the sea. But, over at the Scientific American blog network you can find a few bloggers who frequently discuss the ocean, such as:

Science Sushi by Christie Wilcox

Guilty Planet by Jennifer Jacquet

And also of interest to DSN readers should be

Artful Amoeba by Jennifer Frazer

Culturing Science by Hannah Waters

Compound Eye by Alex Wild

And many more!