The Guardian launched a new blog network yesterday, with a strong lineup: GrrlScientist covering matters evo and orni (bird lovers, take note), Evan Harris covering policy and politics and such, Martin Robbins bringing the Lay Scientist to a new banner, and Jon Butterworth of UCL talking life and physics. I understand they’re planning to expand. You can follow them separately or all at once.
This makes a welcome and prominent addition to the growing clusterfield of blog networks emerging post-PepsiFizz. A couple more excellent new networks, including my own new blogging home, will emerge over the next week or so. Perhaps more yet after that. I think this new emerging model, with a sky full of different, interesting, and slightly overlapping constellations, stands to produce a rich and actually more accessible exchange about science.
Meanwhile, if you feel all this science blogging is a bit overwhelming, the Guardian launch announcement offers a reason for that. I’ll let John Hawks, who is well worth a regular read, bring that one on:
The Guardian now has a small network of science blogs. Their launch announcement includes this surprising factoid:
You would not know it from general media coverage but, on the web, science is alive with remarkable debate. According to the Pew Research Centre, science accounts for 10% of all stories on blogs but only 1% of the stories in mainstream media coveage. (The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at a year’s news coverage starting from January 2009.)
I’m not sure that science accounts for 10% of stories on science blogs, but the idea is irresistible. Just think if all the effort we spend on grant applications could be directed toward productive work!