A Blog Around The Clock

Anna Kushnir was one of the first bloggers on the Nature Blog Network, she writes a personal food blog and recently started running the JoVE blog. We first met at the Science Foo Camp last August, then at the Foodblogging event in Durham, then at the Millenium conference at Harvard, then at the Science Blogging Conference two weeks ago, where Anna was on the Student blogging panel–from K to PhD.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job?
At least for the next three months, I am a Real Life graduate student in the Virology program at Harvard. My dissertation work focuses on the effect of cellular stress on HSV-1 transcription, with the hope of contributing something, no matter how small, to the puzzle that is HSV-1 latency and reactivation. I will be defending May 6. I expect to exhale sometime around that date.
My background does not differ much from my present. I started working in a Virology lab at 17 (at the NIH) and it stuck. I have worked in Virology ever since.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
Anything but a Virologist. Twelve years is quite enough, thankyouverymuch. Ideally, when I grow up (which I hope won’t be any time soon) I will work somewhere at the intersection of science and the web. While I am way past ready to give up bench work, I do not want to walk away from science as a whole. It’s just too cool. I would like to work with new kids on the science communication block, such as JoVE (pardon the plug), Nature Precedings, and the like.
When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while following the Conference?
I read pretty much every blog on Nature Network, with a couple of my favorites listed below. I started reading Shelley Batts’ blog religiously after the conference. I am a huge fan of her writing.
A Blog Around the Clock, obviously
Bug Girl’s Blog
Mind the Gap
The Scientist
Retrospectacle
The Daily Transcript
Neurophilosophy
You have a science blog on Nature Network, a food blog, and are now running the JoVE blog – how are those three different in the way you approach writing your posts?
My food blog lacks a filter. It’s made up of thoughts and inner monologues that leaked out onto my keyboard. After I started the science blog on Nature Network, I realized that I needed a focus (and fewer expletives). That focus, very quickly and naturally became the culture of science. I find life in science to be so different from the rest of the working world that it deserves comment (if not tranquilizers). The JoVE blog aims to be more of a resource for scientists, an additional tool to help them with their research and with coping with the multiple stresses and demands of science life. The three blogs are related only by my voice and my skewed view of the world.
You have attended Scifoo, organized the Millennium conference, now attended the Science Blogging Conference. And you blog for JoVE. Can you trace for us your history of interest in the way Internet and the Web are changing the way science is published, communicated, taught and done? Where is it all going next?
Coming from a conservative, hard-core academic background, I was woefully under-informed about the open access movement and all the intricacies of the current model of scientific publishing. SciFoo really opened my eyes in that respect (and a few others, to tell the truth). I learned a whole lot more about it by helping (helping! – there were five of us) to organize the publishing conference. I think that open access is only the first – but important – step. The internet, fueled by open access journals, has the potential to make science accessible to everyone in the world (as opposed to a small and self-contained group of academic scientists) and to bring scientists together in a more collaborative environment.
There is great potential for greater communication between scientists, through discussion of manuscripts on pre-print archives such as Nature Precedings, papers on PLoS ONE and of course, science blogs. I hope that those are only the first wave of innovations in science publishing. As academic scientists become more and more comfortable seeing the web for the bottomless resource that it is, they will find that the online scientific community and online resources can do wonders for the rate of progress of the research in real life. And as any grad student will tell you, speeding science along is a very good thing.

At the Conference, keynote speaker Jennifer Ouellette said that she considers her blog her “writing lab.” In your session, you said that writing your blog helped you figure out who you are and what you want. So, is blogging for you more than a writing lab and more of a “life lab”?
It is definitely more of a life lab for me. Blogging helped me find my voice and once found, to accept the fact that I am not meant to be a bench scientist. I like talking about science and the sense of community that blogging has to offer. I have never felt so much a part of something until I started blogging. This may come as a shock to some people (does sarcasm travel well over the internet?), but Harvard is not exactly renowned for its collaborative environment. I found it instead in blogging.
Is there anything that happened at the Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you
think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?
I feel like a bit of a broken record, but I want to emphasize again how happy I was to walk away from the conference with the feeling that I belonged. That feeling is new for me. I have never been the belonging type. I was the sulky alternateen girl in high school who shopped in thrift shops and worshipped Kurt Cobain. I am not used to being a part of something. Now I am, and I love it. I want to promote that community as much as I can through writing on my blog(s) and reading – and importantly! – commenting on other blogs.
It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview.
Thank you so much for a wonderful conference, Bora! It was a treat.
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Check out all the interviews in this series.

Jennifer Ouelette runs the delightful blog Cocktail Party Physics . She has published two popular science books: The Physics of the Buffyverse and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats and was the Very Special Blogging Star Speaker at the Science Blogging Conference two weeks ago.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job?
I’m Jennifer Ouellette, a self-employed science writer specializing in physics and associated topics, although my interests veer into other scientific disciplines from time to time. My blog is called Cocktail Party Physics, and it’s populated by my avatar/alter ego Jen-Luc Piquant, who is far more stylish and snarky than I could ever be. My Real Life Job is somewhat ironic, because I majored in English and suffer from math-phobia (although I’m working on countering the latter); most science writers have at least one degree in a scientific field. I was also raised by hardcore fundamentalist Christians, and was pretty much steeped in that world through college. Somehow I found my way into science and rational thinking. And tied it all together with my love for writing.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
In my fantasy life? A forensic pathologist! Blame my fondness for C.S.I. and Bones, and all those forensics documentaries on The Learning Channel before it was over-run with reality shows.
When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while following the Conference?
I discovered them by accident. I started Cocktail Party Physics somewhat reluctantly at the advice of my publisher just before my first book came out, and found I loved it. One of the reasons I loved it was because there were all these other science blogs out there, having substantive, fun, lively conversations about science. I read a lot of blogs, and skim the SEED ScienceBlogs combined feed to keep at least marginally abreast of what’s going on in other fields (perhaps pointing out Neurophilosophy for its good writing and an interest in history of science). My new favorite blog is Tom Levenson’s Inverse Square blog. I met him at the conference, and we have a shared love of quirky science history. Plus, he’s a fine writer!
Your blog is very popular. What’s your secret? And what good did blogging do for you?
I forget sometimes that the blog is popular, so it’s nice to hear. 🙂 Probably the smartest thing I did starting out was to keep the focus sufficiently narrow so my topics weren’t all over the place, but sufficiently broad so I didn’t run out of stuff to write about in the first 6 months. Especially since my definition of “physics” kind of bleeds into things like chemistry, neuroscience, epidemiology, science communication, and the like.
In terms of raw traffic, I probably get fewer hits than the biggest science blogs out there: I write longer posts, and post less frequently, and that translates into lower traffic. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think there’s room in the blogosphere for all kinds of different bloggy formats, and different approaches draw different readers at different times. I find that folks tend to check in on Cocktail Party Physics less frequently, but when they do, they come prepared to sit back and enjoy a good read. And hopefully leave some substantive comments. So find your niche, a format that works for you, and isn’t too onerous, so you don’t burn out, and stick with it for as long as you love it. It takes time to build up a solid readership.
As for what I personally get out of blogging — well, certainly I’ve made lots of new friends because of it, and yes, I did meet my shiny new husband, Caltech cosmologist Sean Carroll (of Cosmic Variance), because we read each other’s blogs. I was actually a confirmed singlet, quite happy in that state, and not “in the market” for a spouse at all. Ditto for Sean. But it was such an obviously perfect match, we succumbed to the inevitable. 🙂 And now I’m living in sunny Los Angeles instead of the frigid Northeast.
Most importantly, the blog gave me back my writer’s “voice.” When I was first starting out as a science writer, I didn’t have as much confidence as those with actual degrees, so I tended to write more stiffly and seriously. Can you say “over-compensation”? But I’d always write lengthy, lively personal letters and (later) emails to friends, who would sometimes comment, “Why don’t you write like that about science?” Maybe science writing wasn’t ready for that back then, but it is now. I think I was always a blogger at heart: I just had to wait for the format to be invented. I suspect lots of people feel the same way.

At the Conference, you said that your blog is your “writing lab”. What does that mean?
Well, it certainly has improved my writing by loosening up my style a little — for better, or worse, I leave to the discretion of the reader. 🙂 It certainly makes for a more appealing, populist approach to science writing. The blog is also where I explore concepts, topics and ideas that catch my fancy. I do a bit of background research, write up a blog post, and sometimes discover there’s enough substance there to spin into a larger article for a magazine, or work into a book. I’d have to do that initial research phase anyway to write a compelling “pitch” for an editor, and writing a blog post on a topic helps me get my thoughts straight, particularly if it’s a new area for me.
The blog also gives me a chance to latch onto one aspect of a science story in the news, and explore the underlying science a bit more in-depth: e.g., a new nanotech device that exploits capillary forces inspired a post about capillary action and ice flowers — I stumbled on ice flowers while looking into capillary forces, was fascinated, and though it wasn’t “newsworthy” according to our current 24/7 media cycle, I felt it was still worth exploring, just for personal curiosity. The blog gives me the leisure to do things like that. In the long run, I’d argue that it makes me a better science writer.
There are blogs and then, well, there are blogs…. How would you design a system in which deserving bloggers get paid for their work?
This notion seems to be more controversial than I’d expected. There will always be a place for the unpaid idealistic blogger — I count myself among them — but increasingly, blogging is moving into professional circles, with a corresponding need for establishing credibility and authority. This is especially true of science blogs, and/or blogs written by science writers. To do that will require a much greater effort at quality control. Those willing to put in the extra effort to meet that higher standard should be reasonably compensated for their efforts. Not all science bloggers have the kind of day jobs that give them the freedom to do this for free indefinitely.
It takes a lot of work just to dash off a reasonably factual post at Cocktail Party Physics — I spend a minimum of four hours on each post, sometimes longer. It would take twice as much time, at least, to bring the quality up to what I’d consider a professional standard. People sometimes compare my posts to actual published magazine or newspaper articles. They’re not. They’re subjective, a bit snarky, a bit unfocused, with lots of extraneous personal details woven into them. Plus, there are still typos, there’s no firsthand interviews with scientists, the links are mostly to Wikipedia and a handful of online resources that I find credible, but they’re not exhaustive and, well, I could be wrong! I’d rather make my errors in a blog post and be corrected immediately, than make them later on in a published article. But if I were blogging professionally, these are all things I’d have to correct.
I doubt at this point that I’d take the cocktail party professional; I enjoy the breezy informality and the right to ramble on and bore my readers if I so choose. Right now, the intangible payoffs outweigh the lack of economic payback. I’m just saying, for those who want to become professional bloggers, they should be able to do so, and should be fairly compensated. I don’t have an easy answer, or a template for doing so. But I think one will evolve. And soon. It shouldn’t just be folded into an existing job description as an afterthought: “And by the way, on top of all your other duties, we expect you to produce a professional-grade blog.” That’s just not realistic.
Is there anything that happened at the Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you
think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?
The informal discussion format was a terrific idea. I gained some new perspectives in the session on blogging and journalism, and wish I’d been able to hear more of the discussion on blogging in education, because I think that’s going to be a powerful tool in the near future. I found the whole conference so energizing, and I’m honored to be part of such a smart, vibrant community.
It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview.
You too!
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Check out all the interviews in this series.

Graham Steel attended the Science Blogging Conference last week – but only virtually! He has been a strong proponent of Open Access, frequent commenter on PLoS ONE articles, a patient advocate and, more recently, a blogger on his own.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job?
Dear Squadron Leader Zivkovic. Thanks for inviting me to contribute.
I remain a McNative and McResident of Glasgow, Scotland. For the last 20 years, my real life job has been dealing with motor insurance claims. Crash, bang, wallop, ouch, compo…
I suppose I’ve always been interested in science and technology though and as of 1999, for personal reasons, medical matters too. In some of my spare time, I decided to become involved in the charitable sector in 2001. Here is some background. Also see my profile at Nature Network for my current specific interests. Glycobiology is what I am particularly interested in.
Connecting people is my strongest attribution. I started doing this when I was four. Whilst I had completely forgotten, my Mum reminded me last week that when I grew up, a neighbour a few doors up (“Aunty Mamie”) most generously included a four year old kid in her Will.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
To be honest, I would dearly love to be a full time professional lion tamer or maybe I simply have watched too much Monty Python… But seriously, I’ve started to get involved in formally collaborating with scientists/researchers and have a handful of manuscripts under construction. One of these includes a collaboration with someone from Sb…
If some or all of these get accepted for publication, judging from any feedback received, I’ll take it from there. Since I’m interested in wide readership, all of these manuscripts are destined for OA Journals.
You were not physically at the Conference, yet you followed it virtually – by watching the streaming video of sessions in real time, participating in the chatrooms, reading and commenting on the participants’ blog and on the Conference wiki. Next year we will try to stream all the sessions in real time – will that dissuade you from travelling or is there something about physical presence that you have missed by being thousands of miles away?
Well, I really enjoyed the Conference despite not attending in person. As you know, I blogged about my experience here . Whilst I got quite a buzz from “attending” my first Conference online, I personally would have preferred to have been there in person as I intend to be next year. That said, from my experience, from a technical perspective, what the organizers achieved was second to none and anyone interested in attending next year who is unable to be there in person, I can highly recommend virtual participation.

When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while followin the Conference?
I have an interesting response – Shakespeare!!! It was this blog posting by Tara C Smith that was my introduction to science blogs. I think I spotted this about 18 months ago. I was alerted to the Macbeth/Prion story about 4 years ago by the then head of the UK’s National CJD Surveillance Unit so I found it interesting that the story had come up again.
Yes, I have a several favourite science blogs and have included most of them in my blogroll . Following the Conference, I have indeed discovered some more cool science blogs. Overall, there’s so much to choose from at Sb’s and elsewhere and since I’ve now got such a diverse array of interests, it’s kinda hard to keep up with it all really…. “Refine” springs to mind.
The blogosphere is awash with science blogs. A quick check confirms that over 40 posts have been posted in the last hour alone… I just spoke to my rocket science contact (Prof F. Magnet) who said that statistically, that’s almost one per minute. Mazing !!
How did you end up being a blogger and where does the pseudonym ‘McDawg’ come from? You have your own personal blog and have recently joined the crew on the JoVE blog. What do you want to accomplish with your blogging?
A film-maker friend of mine from Kent, UK spent a year in Minnesota with wife and son in 2006. He set up a website and blog about their travels and recommended that I started my own blog.
Largely thanks to Coturnix, I picked up some of the basic required skills and I now blog about something at least every couple of days. Indeed I do also now contribute to the JoVE blog and it’s cool to be part of the JoVE crew.
When I started blogging, I was keen to retain my Scottish identity, hence why I chose McDawg and McBlawg as my blogger name and the name of my personal blog respectively.
I much enjoy the two-way interaction with a blog as opposed to a ‘traditional’ website. I wanna have fun with my blogging but also want to cover some important issues too. This has been reflected in my blogging thus far.
I want to achieve as much as possible and who knows what might, will or won’t come out of all of this.
You are a strong proponent of Open Access (OA) publishing. Why? What is your personal history regarding scientific publishing?
This one reminds me of a classic British “The Young Ones” episode from the 1984 called ‘Time‘:
“RICK: Eh? [laughs, gets the joke] Well, what can I say? Have you got a spare couple of days?
NEIL: Yeah.”
Yes I am Bora. My in depth thoughts/experience in this regard are contained in a Paper currently under construction – I completed my contribution a couple of months ago. In the meantime, it is worth flagging up this McDawg blog post which is very relevant and remains the most linked thus far. PLoS Pathogens was the first OA Journal that I came across mid 2006.
Not only could I access the Paper I was looking for, but the real eye opener was that I was able to access the entire Journal!
I recently did an extensive interview about my interests in open collaborations, OA etc. and the edited MP3 is scheduled to be broadcast/uploaded fairly soon here.
One of my main eternal frustrations remains not being able to share my extensive library of papers due to Draconian copyright restrictions. Creative Commons is a dream come true….. Indeed, I’m wearing one of my PLoS t-shirts right now =) Prof Lawrence Lessig, you remain a STAR !!
You do a lot of experimenting with music and video online. Can you tell us more about it?
Again, this (the music stuff) was covered in the afore-mentioned interview. I suppose the geek side of me is interested in experimenting in seeing what sizes/quality of files can be uploaded and streamed etc. Thanks to the Conference, I made contact with Deepak Singh since we share a lot of common interests.
Is there anything that happened at the Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you
think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?
Nothing in particular really jumps out as it was all so interesting. What I did learn though is, much more than before, how significant blogging is these days and how the role of a blog/blogger is going to continue to become a really important one. This is especially so in many important areas such as science. I’m all in favour of Science Debate 2008
It was so nice to see your online participation in the Conference – I hope you come in person next year, and thank you for
the interview.
I had been looking forward to the event for many months so I wanted to be as involved as possible via the 2.0 world wide interweb. Thanks Bora and we will hopefully meet in person next year.
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Check out all the interviews in this series.

Sheril Kirshenbaum took the science blogging world by storm last year when she guest-blogged on The Intersection while Chris Mooney was traveling. When he came back, he had to face the outcries of his commenters, begging him to keep Sheril permanently as a co-blogger, which he gladly accepted. If you attended the Science Blogging Conference last week, you saw Sheril speak at the panel on Framing Science.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job?
Hi Bora, Thanks for inviting me to A Blog Around The Clock!
I work at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. Before I landed there, I was a Sea Grant Fellow for Sen Bill Nelson (D-FL) where I advised on ocean, energy, and environmental policy. In grad school I studied marine biology and policy at the University of Maine where I studied the reproductive biology, population dynamics, and associated socioeconomics of the sea cucumber. I also spent a few years as a radio personality. These days I host The Intersection with Chris Mooney and contribute to Correlations for Wired Science. The coolest thing I’m involved in now is ScienceDebate2008 and I’m proud A Blog Around The Clock is part of the growing blogger coalition supporting the initiative. Chris and I are on the steering committee along with all sorts of interesting folks. It’s pretty amazing.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
I haven’t decided yet. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be done growing up for that matter.
You started blogging relatively recently, yet immediately became a scienceblogging star. How did that happen?
Well I’m not sure I’d call myself a ‘scienceblogging star’, but I’ll take the compliment. I began blogging after November 7, 2006 because I promised my students I’d begin writing if the Dems took the House and Senate. When Chris and I were introduced, we immediately recognized we were kindred spirits and while I’m not a practicing Bokononist, I’m certain we share a karass. Chris has been a tremendous mentor and friend throughout this adventure in blogging and taught me a great deal over the past year. I think readers may enjoy our blog in part because it’s obvious we have a lot of fun collaborating and exchanging ideas.
You have been one of the movers and shakers behind the Science Debate 2008. Can you tell my readers more about it?
Of course! ScienceDebate2008 is a collective nonpartisan Call from everyone to make science and technology a priority in the national dialog. From human health to climate change to the genome, science impacts our lives in a myriad of ways. A debate wouldn’t be a pop quiz, but rather an opportunity to find out where the candidates stand on arguably the most significant issues we will face as a nation and global community. Our co-chairs are Vern Ehlers and Rush Holt–scientist congressmen across party lines. Cool, eh? The initiative was started by my friend Matthew Chapman – Darwin’s great great grandson and screenwriter on films like Runaway Jury. We’re a volunteer motley crew of writers, scientists, and leaders in business, religion, congress, and beyond. Everyone is encouraged to get involved. I’m very proud to be part of this effort and it’s also been incredibly fun! Readers can expect more exciting news on ScienceDebate2008 over the coming weeks 😉
Can you explain what Saving Species initiative is all about?
Sure. My friend and colleague Stuart Pimm began a wonderful nonprofit called SavingSpecies.org which reforests habitat in developing countries in places we call hotspots–where there is the greatest biodiversity, generally in the tropics. In short, he’s selling carbon, but what makes this different from the ‘feel good’ carbon offset programs is it’s completely transparent and real – translation: it does something tangible. It’s one of very few such efforts I believe in wholeheartedly and the land also supports a tremendous number of endangered species so the benefit is twofold. All the details are on the website and there’s a 60 second PSA that gives you the general idea. Here in the blogosphere, we’re about to begin a large scale effort to raise funds for Saving Species. It’s a wonderful opportunity for all the folks who often write in saying they want to ‘do’ something, but don’t know how. Here’s a way to take action in a very visible and real way!
What are your plans for the future (at least what you are willing to disclose) in your life and work?
Writing. Music. Art. Working toward better conservation in practice. Changing perceptions and expectations. Encouraging young people to pursue science and think independently. I’m enjoying where I am now and not quite making a plan. I really like not knowing what’s next… it keeps life interesting!
When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while at the Conference?
I discovered science blogs through Chris. It opened my eyes to a new world of new media! Blogging has been an amazing experience because I’m challenged everyday to learn and grow and think and turn ideas upside down and reexamine what I thought I knew. From there and back again, a blogger’s tale. My favorite blogs include A Blog Around The Clock, Gene Expression, Evolgen, Shifting Baselines, Zooillogix, and so many more! I love the science blogs that offer interesting information and manage to make me laugh in the process. At the conference I discovered Jonathan Gitlin’s Nobel Intent.
Is there anything that happened at the Conference – a session, something someone said or did, a new friendship – that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?
I made several inspiring new friends involved in all sorts of interesting projects and have some ideas for exciting collaborations…
It was so nice seeing you at the Conference and thank you for the interview.
Bora, you’re incredible! Blogging aside, I’m so happy we’re pals! Thanks for inviting me to visit A Blog Around The Clock!
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Check out all the interviews in this series.

Deepak Singh blogs on business|bytes|genes|molecules and, as the cartoon below testifies, has built for himself quite a reputation as an authority on the questions of Open Access and the future of science communication on the Web. We first met at Scifoo last summer and it was great pleasure to host Deepak here on my home grounds at the Science Blogging Conference last week.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job?
That’s a great question. I am a bit of a nomad having lived in three countries and eleven cities (currently living in the Seattle area). My scientific background is in quantum chemistry and molecular simulation, but I consider myself a bit of a hybrid between a structural biologist, computational chemist and bioinformatician. Over the past seven years, I’ve worked in the bioinformatics/scientific software industry as a developer, product manager and now as the strategic planning manager at Rosetta Biosoftware.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
I used to remember what the answer to that was, but now I am just trying to figure out when I’ll grow up.
When and how did you discover science blogs? What are some of your favourites? Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while at the Conference?
I’ve been a web junkie since 1994, so science blogs came along the way. Been reading some regularly for over three years. My favorites include Public Rambling (Pedro Beltrao), What You’re Doing is Rather Desperate (Neil Saunders), Discovering Biology in a Digital World (Sandra Porter), Freelancing Science (Pawel Szczesny), and In the Pipeline (Derek Lowe). But there are so many more. If you ask me tomorrow, you might get a different answer. I discovered Ryan Sasaki’s ACDlabs blog at the conference, which was really cool. It’s good to see a software company actively encourage blogging and Ryan has a fine blog.
How is scientific publishing going to look like in 20 years from now? How will this affect the way science is done in the first place? And, how do science blogs fit in that ecosystem?
Anyone who has read my blog can probably guess my answer to this one. I strongly believe that scientific communication in 20 years will look significantly different from what we see today. My hope is that we have multiple avenues for publishing scientific information, including peer-reviewed publications, blogs, wikis, etc and the media will vary as well. In some cases people will use more traditional forms, in others video may be used. I hope this means people do science for the sake of good science, and not to get a publication done, or in the hope of finishing a PhD fast, or getting tenure. I am also convinced that the vast majority of (if not all) scientific publishing will be open by that time.
Science blogs will be one part of a highly interlinked ecosystem. Actually, I’ve stopped thinking of blogs as an entity by themselves. They are just another avenue for writing and publishing, one particularly suited to individuals or small groups
You developed Bioscreencast – can you tell us more about it?
Well, it’s not quite correct to say that I developed it. That credit goes to my friend Suresh who has written most of the code. The idea of Bioscreencast happened when an old friend of mine Hari (harijay.wordpress.com) and I started talking about his new passion for screencasting and the traffic some of his screencasts had seen on YouTube. Bioscreencast was the result of those discussions. There are five of us involved, with backgrounds in structural biology, molecular biology and engineering, so it’s an interesting mix. In our minds, Bioscreencast is an avenue for informal scientific communication. Lets say you have your favorite application and want to share your workflow with the rest of the world. You can turn on your favorite screencasting tool and record your actions with a short narrative. It’s simple, yet very powerful. Our hope is that over time, young graduate students and even undergrads will use the service to learn workflows and share them with each other.
What are your plans for the future (at least what you are willing to disclose) in your life and work?
I am passionate about open science and the role of the internet and computing in the future of science and hope to be actively involved in those areas, both professionally and personally. One of my 2008 goals is to start programming again and doing some science as a hobby, but also to develop proofs of concept that highlight open science and the web as a platform for science. Of course, work and travel keep me busy, so hopefully there will be some opportunity to sleep along the way. We also have some big plans for Bioscreencast, which should come to fruition this year. And some day, I want to make a trip to Africa and spend time at Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti. It’s a childhood dream.
Is there anything that happened at the Conference – a session, something someone said or did, a new friendship – that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?
Nothing specific comes to mind, but I’ve been thinking a lot about science communication in the days since the conference, especially how we, as scientists, can communicate with the non-scientific community, and how we can leverage different media forms, especially video.
It was so nice seeing you at the Conference and thank you for the interview.
Always good to see you and thanks for organizing the conference. I hope to be back next year.
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Cartoon by Pierre Lindenbaum
Check out all the interviews in this series.

Talking Science is a new non-profit that’s dedicated to bringing the latest discoveries, innovations, controversies and cures out of the lab and to the public. It was founded by Ira Flatow, host of NPR’s Science Friday. As a part of this effort, Talia Page is one of the bloggers for Science Friday and Talking Science Abroad. Talia came to the Science Blogging Conference as a part of the Science Friday delegation.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your scientific background? What is your Real Life job?
Scientific background? Uh, oh. I really don’t have a scientific background, Bora. My formal studies are in French literature and I only recently discovered a passion for science. My interests have always tended to lean heavily towards the arts and it was only last year, thanks to a meeting with Ann Marie Cunningham (the Executive Director of Talking Science), that I realized how much more interesting the arts can be with a dash of science. Now I am working as a Project Manager for Talking Science, so I have the good fortune of talking to scientists and science film makers every day. I had no idea that a real job could be so fascinating …I think I’m pretty lucky.
What do you want to do/be when you grow up?
I would like to be an astronaut and a writer when I grow up. I’m happy to report a good amount of progress: I have one of those “space pens” that can be used to write up-side down and a reservation on the Virgin Galactic, so I feel fairly well prepared.
Something I, unfortunately, learned only after the Conference was over (or I would have asked you in person) – you will be flying to space! How did that happen?
I was boring a friend of mine about a book I am writing about globalization and third world countries. When I asked him if he would read such a book, he was obviously tired of hearing about land mines in Cambodia and said, “You should launch yourself into space–it would be a fascinating chapter for your book. Let me know when you’ve written about that, Space Cadet, then I’ll read your book.” His words rang true, and also cured my writers block. I was having some difficulty deciding how the book would end, and an excursion to look at Earth from above will be a perfect ending.
Did you always dream of going into space?
Yes.
Tell us more about the trip: when, how long, who else is going? What do you know about the spaceship you will be traveling on?
The first launch will be in late 2009 if everything goes as planned, and the trip will be short and sweet. From start to finish, it’s scheduled to last 2.5 hours, 5 minutes of which will be spent at zero gravity.
The spaceship itself (White Knight Two) features lots of enormous windows, for viewing pleasure of course. There’s room for six passengers, plus two pilots. However, the ship is not made solely with space cadets in mind–the idea is to launch other payloads into space as well. In terms of structure, the White Knight Two will be comprised completely of composite materials and fueled by a hybrid rocket. I’ll write a blog entry soon about Branson’s plans to make the ship as environmentally friendly as possible, so stay tuned…
There are around 200 interesting characters signed up. Here are some highlights: Stephen Hawking, Victoria Principal, Philippe Starck, Professor James Lovelock, and Alan Watts (who bought his ticket by cashing in on two million air miles).
You have just started a blog (Space Cadet ) to cover your preparation for the flight and to tell us your experiences afterwards. Do you think you will be able to push another boundary and be the first person to liveblog the flight from space?
Sure! Why not?
Are you scared?
No, but I probably should be though. Richard Branson said it would be as safe as going on an airplane built in the 1920’s!

When and how did you discover science blogs?
I actually found science blogs through Museum of Life + Sciences on Facebook. Troy Livingston always posts great stuff.
What are some of your favourites?
There are about a dozen that I enjoy browsing on a regular basis. Your blog, The Intersection and OmniBrain are the first ones I check, though.
Have you discovered any new cool science blogs while at the Conference?
There are so many intriguing blogs and bloggers that I came across at the conference, and I hope to follow up with as many as possible. I am particularly interested in Karen’s blog about the Beagle project.
What was your overall impression of the Conference?
The conference was brimming with ideas, encouragement, and good company. I am already looking forward to the next one.
Thanks, Bora!
It was so nice meeting you in person and thank you for the interview. I hope you will keep coming back to the Conference and, after the space trip, I hope you will come and tell us everything about your adventure in person.
Related: Watch this video interview (Talia is the one on the right): Scientist and astronauts with blog rolls
Check out all the interviews in this series.