Science Blogging. Why we do it.

Jason G. Goldman over at The Thoughtful Animal has written an excellent piece on science blogging and how it benefits both scientists and readers:  Blogging in Academia: What Can It Do For You?

He notes a significant gap left by conventional science journalism which can be filled by science bloggers:

When mainstream media does write about science, it is often (not always) unnecessarily over-simplified, and it often (not always) contains serious mistakes or misleading conclusions. Mainstream science journalists are not always the most qualified people to place a new research finding in its proper context. And even the most responsible reader will have a hard time getting access to the original research papers covered by mainstream media. Many articles do not provide even the article's title or the journal in which it was published, and even if they did, the original research papers are usually stuck behind paywalls.

Helpfully, he gives advice on how to find good science blogs, making special mention of the Carnival of Evolution which I referred to in my previous post.

So have a read. If you're a scientist, it might inspire you get blogging. If you're interested in science, you'll find some great new blogs to follow!

(H/T to Christie Wilcox of Observations of a Nerd.)