Best of July

I posted only 71 times in July – the all-time low. But there is a reason for that – first there was a great reduction in posting between the moment the Pepsi blog was announced on Scienceblogs.com and the moment I left Scienceblogs about ten days later. Then, since the move, my blog changed – all sorts of daily or near-daily features are now gone. No more pressure to post frequently. My blog is again my own, and I post when I want to and not when I feel like I should.

But I would like to think that reduction in quantity will not mean a reduction in quality. I passed the 10,000 post mark in July but expect it would take much more than four years to double that number again. And I think I did post some interesting stuff last month despite all the crises.

The Big Event of the month was the so-called PepsiGate and the subsequent rearrangement of the science blogging (and scienceblogging) community. I collected the initial reactions in the PepsiGate linkfest. Then wrote a thorough history and analysis of the current moment in my goodbye post at Scienceblogs.com – A Farewell to Scienceblogs: the Changing Science Blogging Ecosystem. This was followed by a ruminating Thank You post which inluded many more links to the subsequent reactions. And then I turned my sights to the future and wrote a Free Guide to Building a Successful Science Blogging Network in Science Blogging Networks: What, Why and How. A particularly bad article on the event in NYTimes Magazine provoked a lot of responses, which I collected all in one place. Oh yes, we also got cartooned (again) about all of this.

These rapid changes motivated many science bloggers and writers to do some reminiscing – you can see some of those in Bloggers, Evolving.

Since I could not do all the blogging myself, I asked for some help and got this wonderful contribution: UC Berkeley Genetic Testing Affair: Science vs Science Education – guest post by Dr.Marie-Claire Shanahan

I got interviewed, and re-posted the interview on my blog – about science, animal research, ethics creep, and more – Seven Questions….with Yours Truly.

I had more time to read books, so I reviewed ‘On The Grid’ by Scott Huler and ‘The Poisoner’s Handbook’ by Deborah Blum.

We self-organized the Zombie Day on Scienceblogs.com, for which I re-posted my old Revenge of the Zombifying Wasp and wrote a new one – Are Zombies nocturnal? (so yes, there was some actual science on the blog in July).

The series of Q&As with the participants of ScienceOnline2010 continues, with contributions from Anne Frances Johnson, William Saleu and Stephanie Willen Brown.

Open Laboratory got a new Editor.

I answered the Blogging with substance meme and tried to collect the links to all the surviving Sciencey Blog carnivals.

Work-wise, I announced the PLoS ONE Blog Pick of the Month for June 2010.