05 February 2010

When Scientists Attack! The Times Online list of 30 best science blogs

David Nolan here again, and I was going to just provide a link to a 30 strong list of Science Blogs composed by Times Online, that can be found in their Eureka Zone. WOW! I thought Paul gets some great comments over here at Kitchen and Residential Design. Their list generated a heated response from what appears to be enraged scientists and science writers, given the size of the words they are using and the imaginative phrasing. Nothing like a Global Warming Denialist blog to get scientists of all types in an uproar!

How did the Times Online include the offending blog in their list I wonder? Surely they must have read "Watts Up With That?" by Anthony Watts before they included it. Maybe Times Online is trying to get a bump in web traffic to charge more for advertisement. Enraging your readers might not be the best methodology to increase traffic, but it certainly makes for interesting reading.



If you do read the comments in the Eureka Zone, here's a definition of an abbreviation used:

AGW (anthropogenic global warming) - global warming caused by the actions of humans, not natural causes.

The reason I wanted to post the list though, is to bring a little something different to the loyal readers of Kitchen and Residential Design. I love when Paul breaks down scientific information in his posts so that everyone can understand and relate to it in their everyday life. A lot of science blogs have writers who do the same thing, and just as well.


My favorite from the list is by Ed Yong called Not Exactly Rocket Science. Ed Yong published a book by the same name, as pictured above. He focuses on new discoveries and has an easy-to-understand writing style, while not dumbing down the details or leaving out data. I find it refreshing to read about science from the perspective of an educated journalist helping me to understand complicated ideas and theories, rather than bone-dry drivel delivered down a researcher's nose at me.

Check out the list if you like. The "Eureka Team" is looking for reader suggestions on other science blogs to compose a "Best 100 Science Blogs" list. Let's see if we can get Kitchen and Residential Design on there. I would love to read the comments then!

3 comments:

  1. That's funny David, get K&RD on a list of science blogs and watch as all hell breaks loose. That's a great list and thanks for putting together this post. I don't think I could start my day without checking in with PZ Meyers' Pharnygula or Phil Plaits' Bad Astronomy. I'm happy that those two made the list.

    The Times, like a lot of news outlets has an obsession of representing "both" sides to an issue, even where there aren't two sides. The non-scientific thinking behind such concepts as climate change denialism, the anti-vaccination movement, the whole alternative medicine scene and creationism, get swept up in this quest for "the other side."

    I say this is due to a need to generate some controversy for controversy's sake but at the same time, it's due to an inability to recognize valid arguments. Science is based on empirical thinking. It deals in data that can be observed, measured, repeated and predicted. It's pretty simple really and that's why I love it so.

    So thanks for this list, I think I may just have to add a few things to my reading list based on it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What do you mean Paul - that my copper-wired crystal necklaces won't protect me from the H1N1 vaccine and rising meltwaters as I wait for the second coming? Blasphemy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, if you subscribe to the school of magical thinking, all you have to do is believe. Then when your method fails, you can blame yourself for not believing hard enough.

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me!