A Blog Around The Clock

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked my SciBling GrrrlScientist of the Living the Scientific Life blog to answer a few questions.
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?
I write the blog, Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted), under the pseudonym, GrrlScientist. I held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the molecular evolution of parrots, a PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) and a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology (emphasis: Virology). I have bred, worked with and lived with a variety of parrot species for most of my life, specializing in the lories (loriinae), which are brightly-colored nectar-feeding parrots of the south Pacific islands. I also have worked as a research technician in cancer research and in HIV/AIDS research.
What do you want to do/be when (and if ever) you grow up?
Good question. Until quite recently, I made many career plans and worked very very hard to achieve them. However, since I have been unemployed for so long, I no longer have the luxury of making any sort of plans at all, or striving to accomplish them. Now, I am quite preoccupied with simply paying my rent. I often feel as though I am writing for my life (sort of like “running for my life”).
That said, I met a friend for coffee a few weeks back, and she said that my career is writing a blog. Professional blogger. Ugh, I hate that word, “blogger”. Until she mentioned that, I had never thought about writing a blog as being a career, nor as an especially respectable career. But her observation does make sense because I work on my blog every day of the week, for 6-15 hours per day — just like when I was working on my postdoc research. My devotion to my blog keeps me from becoming overwhelmed by the worries and realities of the world.
But I no longer know what I want to do when I grow up. Except for my blog, I feel quite disillusioned and disenfranchised, and often
alienated from society. But I would like to be happy and healthy at some point in the future, though. Just to prove it is possible.
What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?
The internet is an amazing way for an intellectual to be exposed to a tremendous amount of new information and different ways of thinking, for communicating this information to others, and for testing new ideas in a public forum. I’ve always enjoyed learning new ideas and sharing this information with others. For me, part of learning includes making new information “mine” by writing about it in my own words. I’ve written for most of my life and had my articles published in a variety of magazines, newsletters and other print sources, but I’ve never before enjoyed the reach and power that I have on the internet.
At the Conference, you led a session about Nature blogging. Is there a distinction between Science blogging and Nature blogging? What did you learn from that session?
Some audience members thought of science blogging as a subcategory of Nature blogging, while others thought the reverse. My own opinion is that science and nature blog writing are separate, but often overlapping, topic areas. My conference co-host, Kevin, and I worked out a series of questions in advance, posted them on my blog and asked my readers as well as the conference participants to write responses to those questions in comments or on a piece of paper, which we later summarized and published on our blogs. After everyone had finished writing their answers, we discussed each question. But the level of passion was unexpected, and the depth and thoughtfulness with which everyone addressed these questions was really inspirational. The
seminar hour flew by, and we did not manage to get even halfway through these questions, but everyone really enjoyed this discussion, and Kevin and I certainly did, too.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
Back in the days when I had a real job, I never wrote while working. Instead, I wrote during the time when I could have been hanging out in pubs. But that all changed when my postdoc funding ended before I managed to find another paying position. But five years out, if you believe that writing a blog can be a full-time job, then I’d say that blogging IS my work, since that is the one constant in my life.
I rely on social networks for two things; rapidly spreading the word about interesting blog entries and as news feeds that provide material for me to write about. Some of you may have noticed that my blogging style has changed somewhat recently — a change that I am not altogether happy about. Currently, I am learning how to balance my need to read and learn about “everything” that pops up on those social networks with my desire to write about such things for others. When I finally manage to establish this balance, my readers will no doubt be the first to know because my blog writing style will once again change to reflect this, it will become something that I am happier with.
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 started writing a science blog in 2004 in complete ignorance of the existence of any other blogs on this subject area. However, I quickly found other science and medical blogs and bloggers and made a tremendous effort to join the community by commenting on other blogs and hosting science blog carnivals, and keeping up an extensive private email correspondence with other science and medical blog writers. That said, I don’t feel comfortable “playing favorites”, especially since there are so many high-quality science and medical blogs out there that I read and enjoy. (I have stopped being a prolific commenter). I did not discover new science blogs while at the conference since I am fairly well-acquainted with most of them, but I DID discover many wonderful people “out there” who write blogs about science and other topics. In my opinion, this is the real gift of conferences like this: fleetingly rare and wonderful face time.
Is there anything that happened at this 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 work, blog-reading and blog-writing?
I have spent years hiding my blog’s existence from everyone, and denying that I was the author in those rare circumstances when asked about my blog. This created a huge disconnect between my online life and my “real” life. The overall gestalt of the conference transformed me because I met so many readers — mine and other blog readers — and found that they are so astute and intelligent. This experience added depth to my perception about blog readers in general from being “people” in an abstract sense to being warm and caring individuals — friends I have not met (face to face) — yet. That was the single most positive aspect among many about this conference that daily affects how I think about blog reading and writing and about my readers.
It was so nice to meet you and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
Thank you for the interview. One of my goals for 2010 is to return to North Carolina to share in the fun and the discovery.
==========================
See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked Eva Amsen, a participant at the 2007 and 2009 meetings, to answer a few questions.
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?
Hello readers of Bora’s blog! I’m Eva, nice to meet you. I finished a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto in December, and before that I studied Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in Amsterdam.

What is your Real Life job?
That depends… At the time I’m typing out these answers, I still have a few days left at my job at an undergraduate biology program, where I created/developed/ran a new website and did some other education support tasks. But by the time this goes live, I probably won’t be there anymore, and depending on when Bora posts this, I might even be traveling. Traveling’s not a job, though, although I do tend to plan my trips as meticulously as if I was a travel agent. But I am also doing some part-time freelance writing, so I guess that is my only consistent Real Life job at the moment. I’m also currently in the process of searching for a new full-time job. I would like to find a job in which I can coordinate communication between scientists, rather than a job doing research itself.
What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?
I’m fascinated by the huge shift from offline to online communication in research that happened in the 1990s. The very first people to communicate online *were* scientists: the first internet connection was between research groups! I’m of the very narrowly defined generation who got their first e-mail address as they entered university: e-mail already existed in academia, but high school students weren’t using it yet. At the time, not all journal articles were online yet, but by the time I graduated, I only *rarely* needed to physically visit a library. The web has made searching the literature so much more simple than it was before. But now, it seems to have come to a point where the web is making things *more* complicated. Should you blog? If so, who should blog? Do you publish your data online or not? Are people blurring personal lives with professional lives, and is that inevitable or do we need to separate the two again? Why are some people completely obsessed with all that has the suffix 2.0, while others just want to sit back and quietly read a paper? These are the things that I like to think about, and why I fly out to events like ScienceOnline.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
Well, that depends which “work” we’re talking about. It has always been entirely separate from my work in research – blogging was just a hobby. It still is. I blog because I like doing it, and meanwhile ended up with three science blogs. (Expression Patterns, Easternblot and Musicians and Scientists)
For the job I just finished, I implemented a content management system that lets the staff update the website in a really simple way, very much *like* a blog, although we don’t allow comments on the news posts because moderation would be too much a of a time commitment. We have talked about ways to use Twitter in the classroom, but I haven’t used that in an education setting myself. For freelance writing, my blog has been crucial. I don’t think I’ve ever had a paid writing job that wasn’t directly or indirectly related to my blogging. I tend to not explicitly recommend blogging as a career move unless someone says they want a career in science writing.
As for FriendFeed and Facebook, I am very skeptical about their use in a work setting. Once you start to mix your work network with your private network, things get confusing and messy. But as I said, I’d like to find a job where I can think more about how scientists interact online, and what is *best* for them, so my opinion shouldn’t matter so much. I’m more interested in the *facts* – are researchers getting more or less work done when they use a particular service? Are they better for it, and how do you define “better”? There are a lot of factors involved in this, and I think the scientific community is starting to wonder these things more and more. I can talk about this for hours, and sometimes blog about it, so lets just move on…(related blog posts: Scientists and Web 2.0 and From the Vault – The FriendFeed Attitude).
What are some of the similarities and differences between ScienceOnline and the conference you organized in Toronto?
SciBarCamp, which I organized twice in Toronto, is based on the BarCamp/SciFoo model, where participants create the schedule on the opening night. Since we had a lot of guests who were very interested in new, web-based ways to communicate science, we did have some topics (and participants!) that also came by at ScienceOnline. But we’ve also had broader sessions, about using science to save the environment, or science in poetry, or demonstrations of Mars Rovers or hydraulic music instruments. Whatever the participants want to talk about on the first day, that ends up on the program.
It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
Bye! And I hope to see *you* at the next SciBarCamp!
==========================
See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked Betul Kacar of the Counter Minds blog, to answer a few questions.
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?
I am Betul Kacar, originally from Istanbul, Turkey, living in the USA. I actually came here to get a PhD but now that I am graduating, I am starting to feel that I am here only to steal an American’s job. My doctoral studies structured around biochemical work on a teleost enzyme (MAO). Now I am getting ready for an exciting project for my post-doctoral work: “resurrecting and evolving 4-billion year old proteins”. Interested? More can be found here.

What do you want to do/be when (and if ever) you grow up?
I don’t want to be a grown-up when I grow up. That said, I don’t want to lose my ambition and passion for scientific research and I think that is possible if one has the curiosity and courage of a child.
But if you insist, I want to see the Earth from a space shuttle that is headed to Mars.
What is your Real Life job?
Well.. I spend my day time in the lab doing research but I guess people no longer consider academia as real life. Therefore, in my -other- life I dance & teach tango. I am also a volunteer for the IRC (International Refugee Committee). Many refugees come to the US and they need help in many ways, if you’d like to help see this .
What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?
I am learning. Nothing excites me more than new ideas and thoughts. Therefore through blogging I think I found the right place for me. Not that I get hundreds of hits everyday, but it is just nice to feel a part of the club, plus, all the interesting people (like you) I got to meet. Some people from Turkey reached me through my blog, and now I am writing articles for a popular science magazine called NTV-Bilim in Turkey. So yes, blogging does open you new doors and raises opportunities. One shall not underestimate the power of the Web.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
I have friends who read my blog.. well at least they tell me they do so. My graduate advisor wanted me to keep my work limited to publications therefore I have not been able to write on my project details on the blog. I try to write some real-time campus happenings, that way when people see me around, they share their comments and thoughts. Mostly fun. These days I can not blog as often due to my dissertation writing but I promise to strike back starting August. — I don’t use Twitter.
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?
My dear friend and collegue, Karen Ventii PhD (science to life), introduced me to the blogging world. I am very glad she did. I like to communicate and I like doing experiments, however laboratories are not the perfect place to be talkative (learned the hard way). Blogging helped me to release my words, my thoughts and everything else that I could no longer keep to myself.
This year was my first time at a SciBlogs Conference, and I had limited time, so I tried to read as many name tags as I could and go talk to sciblings. Therefore I had a lot of “oh so, this is him/her” moments, some disappointing, some surprising but always fun. I got to meet Stephanie Zvan for instance, after reading and following her blog for so long, her blog name has become like a brand in my mind. I called her “almost diamonds” for a while then switched to her first name eventually (I hope this doesn’t make me sound like a weirdo)
Is there anything that happened at this 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 have never thought of the copyright issues or the problems that I might encounter with my employee based on the things I put on my blog. Conference made me realize that my blog is not my secret diary, it is out there and people actually read it. I was more careful on what I put or say in my blog afterwards, though I am still working on it. Like, one way to control myself is not to write when feeling too emotional or frusturated so to not regret later – and for a Mediterranean, that is a challenge.
Eh, I know! Mediterranean myself. Was there an event that marked your first year at blogging?
Definitely, blogging helped me to make a voice on Turkey’s censorship of evolution. I even made it to the news in Turkey. So instead of sitting at home and being frusturated on my own, it was a good feeling to be actually doing something. It was also amazing to see how evolution can gather so much attention on one’s blog! Some creationist was threatening me and he even told me to behave (or else). A lot of action and drama for a small blog, right?
After all I feel happy with the crowd I gathered. I always feel happy when a new reader stops by. I have no big ambitions on blogging (like being a blogging super star), as I said earlier, having fun and learning new things: priceless.
What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?
Vanilla
It was so nice to meet you and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
My pleasure Coturnix, thanks for all the fish (and baklava).
==========================
See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked Dr. SkySkull of the Skulls in the Stars blog, to answer a few questions.
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?
First, the name: I seem to have evolved many different aliases over my time in the blogosphere! My usual moniker is simply “gg”, though I am occasionally referred to by my blog title, “Skulls in the stars”. A friend of mine somewhat sarcastically started referring to me as “Dr. SkySkull”, as well, and I’m rather fond of that title.
With the name out of the way, I can say that I’m an assistant professor of physics at a Southeastern University. More specifically, I am a theoretician with an emphasis in “classical optics”, which means that I am more interested in the wave properties of light than the quantum-mechanical particle aspects of light. I actually started my career in experimental particle physics as an undergraduate, and made the change in grad school. There’s an amusing story behind the change that I’ve promised to tell on my blog at some point…
What is your Real Life job?
As a faculty member, I’m required to do research, write grants, teach courses, supervise graduate students, and help keep the department running. I’m also currently working on an optics-related textbook, which I’ll explain more about when it’s closer to being done!
What do you want to do/be when (and if ever) you grow up?
Well, hopefully “growing up” includes getting tenure, which I’m up for this year! Other than that… heck, I never know what will interest me next. I jump out of airplanes, play guitar, and ice skate as hobbies. There are certainly days when any and all of those appeal to me more than academia!
In all seriousness, though, I really love my job. Doing scientific research, and trying to educate people about it, is a blast, and I hope to keep at it for a long, long time.
What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?
I really like the fact that the Web opens up a direct line of communication between scientists and the general public. If a member of the public had a science-related question in times past, the best they could do was seek out a popularized book on the subject and hope that the explanation would suffice. Now that same person can find an answer in a (free) science blog post, and can ask follow up questions directly to the author.
With that in mind, all of my science blog posts these days are written primarily with an eye towards a non-technical audience. I work very hard to try and explain concepts without mathematics and in a manner that would be understandable without a major science degree.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
As it stands, blogging does not directly figure into my work. It does provide many indirect benefits for my research, though. For one, blogging provides an additional motivation to keep current in the scientific literature. When I read journals now, I’m not only looking for research relevant to my own but also for good blog-fodder.
Blogging also pushes me to read, and understand well, topics outside of my immediate area of expertise. I’ve found that trying to write a post on a subject, especially for a non-technical audience, forces me to learn the material at a level much deeper than I otherwise would have bothered.
My ‘history of science’ blogging has also proven unexpectedly beneficial to both my research and teaching, but I’ll say more about that in a moment!
I haven’t used any of the social networking resources in my work at all. I use Facebook, but purely as a means to keep up with distant friends and family. Twitter is something I can never see myself using – I give myself heartburn enough trying to blog several times a week, I can’t even imagine posting several times daily!
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 still can dictate exactly when and how I was drawn into the science blogosphere! I read Al Franken’s book “Lies” when it came out in the first Bush term, and that made me a fan and a regular listener of Air America Radio in its early years. From there, I got turned on to many different political blogs. Somewhere along the way, there was a reference to Pharyngula, which put science blogs on my radar. I started there, found myself drifting over to Science After Sunclipse, Good Math, Bad Math, and Uncertain Principles, and I was hooked from there.
It’s really hard to pick favorites, because I like so many and visit them regularly! Many of my favorites are curiously not even in my field: Neurotopia, Laelaps, Magma Cum Laude, Science After Sunclipse, Swans on Tea, Cocktail Party Physics and White Coat Underground are just a few.
I started reading White Coat Underground after meeting PalMD at the Conference. Neurotopia I was already familiar with, but started reading much more regularly after getting a chance to hang out with the uber-cool Scicurious. I met Tom Levenson at the Conference and now regularly check out his Inverse Square Blog.
You run the Giant’s Shoulders blog carnival – can you explain what is the motivation for doing this, what is the goal? Why are you drawn to history and why do you think others should as well?
The carnival began almost by accident! I’ve always had a significant respect for the history of science, which was instilled in me by my Ph.D. advisor, but I never really expected to make it one of my big “things.” I try to be very thorough in my science posts, however, and I found myself hunting down some very old, classic papers in an introductory post on how the speed of light is measured. In April 2008, I thought it would be fun to “challenge” other science bloggers to go and read a classic paper in their own field. I was expecting a few people to pick it up, but surprisingly (and in no small part due to A Blog Around the Clock), lots of people decided to pick up the challenge.
I realized that lots of bloggers have at least some interest in blogging about historical topics, and it seemed natural to have a central “focus” for their efforts – hence, the carnival. Overall, my goal is to promote an understanding of the history of science amongst both scientists and the general population – and that understanding can be beneficial to both groups.
There are a lot of interesting stories in the history of science, and those stories – and the people behind them – can help humanize science in the eyes of the public. Too often scientists are viewed as humorless curmudgeons working alone in some dark lab on scientific minutiae. Historical tales such as Tom Levenson’s new book Newton and the Counterfeiter can counter that perception – who could have imagined Isaac Newton matching wits with a crime-lord!
As an educator, I find that understanding the historical origins of a discovery helps immensely in explaining it to a class. In physics, at least, we tend to highlight the major breakthroughs but leave out a lot of the “connecting tissue”. This can give students a misleading view of how science is actually done and make it look much more mysterious than it needs to be. Also, fun little historical anecdotes can make the class a lot more fun!
As a researcher, my historical readings give me a better understanding of how major discoveries are made, and what sort of “mental blocks” kept other researchers from making them. What distinguishes an Einstein from a less successful researcher? There’s no easy answer to that, but one can partly see the oversights of Einstein’s contemporaries by reading the old journals.
It is also fascinating to see how scientific discoveries percolate their way into the popular culture. I also blog about classic weird fiction on my blog, and shocking discoveries such as quantum mechanics and relativity made their mark on the fiction of the time. H.P. Lovecraft, for instance, was a voracious science reader, and the weirdness of Einstein’s relativity permeates much of his writing.
You led a session about History of Science online. What did you learn from running the session?
One indirect thing I learned from it was how wonderfully democratic blogging is! As a professor, I was sharing the stage with a graduate student (Scicurious) and an undergraduate (Brian of Laelaps), and I thought that it was great to have all those perspectives presented simultaneously! Folks like Sci and Brian are the future of science education, and it was very energizing to see their enthusiasm and hear their views.
Is there anything that happened at this 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?
It’s hard to pin down any single event that really left a mark. Mainly, it was a lot of little things that I internalized, like the different ways that people look at science communication. One thing I’m already taking back to my job, though, is that the blogs are a powerful tool for such communication, and I’m already trying to get more of my colleagues involved.
It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
Likewise! I’m looking forward to it!
==========================
See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.

The series of interviews with some of the participants of the 2008 Science Blogging Conference was quite popular, so I decided to do the same thing again this year, posting interviews with some of the people who attended ScienceOnline’09 back in January.
Today, I asked Glendon Mellow of the The Flying Trilobite, to answer a few questions.
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?
I’m yet another Canadian atheist artist-illustrator recovering goth-punk who blogs about incorrectly drawn fossil arthropods. We should have a lobby group. I grew up and live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and attended York University for Fine Arts. I’ll actually be returning to complete that degree this fall after many years away. Evolution was always an interest, but after reading River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins, I was far more inspired by that book than post-modern painting. It’s been pretty much a straight line from there to where I am now, blogging at The Flying Trilobite: art in awe of science. I’m also a contributor at the group paleo-art blog, Art Evolved: Life’s Time Capsule.
What do you want to do/be when (and if ever) you grow up?
Making a full time career out of illustrating and art-making is my eventual goal. It’s getting closer all the time, and I desperately would love to illustrate a book with surreal scientific images. Perhaps for children. I’d like to work on another degree, and I’m torn between a biology undergrad and post-undergrad concept art courses. I could see myself using my management background to become an art director for a scientific group or institution.
What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?
Massive online amateur research programs like BioBlitz I think have a potential to somehow become fused with a game like World of Warcraft or maybe Facebook groups. People join WoW and Facebook groups for a sense of accomplishment and belonging -they make a statement about you- so I could see amateur research projects fusing with those in some way. That’s been on my mind since hearing GrrlScientist at ScienceOnline09 and Joel Sachs at SciBarCamp Toronto.
Relating to art, I think the quality of scientific illustration and indeed all illustration is rapidly going up. You’re competing with everyone. Artists are better at younger ages because there is a higher bar. And with something like Art Evolved, even though it’s only a few months old, we have enthusiastic, largely unpublished (thought that’s changing) artists engaging in a debate about pterosaur wings with paleontologists. That’s not something I would expect to see outside the blogosphere.
You are an artist – why is your art science-related? What motivates you and what are your goals?
People enjoy the feeling of the sublime, like you’re in the presence of something greater than yourself, and art has often dealt with that through myth and metaphor. I like exploring what new, awe-inspiring visual metaphors can be created with this wealth of real information and imagery that science gives us. Why use an image of a halo to enhance beauty in a portrait when you can use diatoms?
Your most famous picture is the Darwin Took Steps, features already in many places including the cover of Open Lab 2008. What gave you the idea for this work? What does it mean?
That Open Lab 2008 cover came out lookin’ sweet, thanks to David Ng.
The painting is about the pattern of thought the starts building a memetic structure, taking those first steps up into the idea of evolution by natural selection and through Charles Darwin’s thoughts, elevating the rest of us into that place so we can build on the idea with evidence. I could have used any amount of stairs, but I chose 5 to represent Darwin’s main lines of evidence: biogeography, morphology, embryology, and paleontology, with the last step open to represent natural selection, or the elevation of reason over dogma. That’s the type of symbolism I don’t think a viewer could get from the painting itself, but it is important to me to make sure I have a reason in mind.
The concept actually came from a much older painting I did for a never-saw-print cd cover, with “random old wise man” with a staircase head. Marrying the idea to Darwin produces a strong reaction of familiarity in people who understand his theory. I didn’t set out to create this painting to be popular, or to resonate more than my others. I just thought it was a neat drawing, Darwin Day was coming up and I wanted to try speed painting. I painted it in three hours. It’s since appeared on numerous websites, a magazine and a couple of book covers. It caused a ruckus on DeviantArt as a featured painting this year and led to a full-on argument between the science crowd and creationists.
If I can throw in a plug, I’m donating portions of the sales bearing this image to The Beagle Project, and I have cards, prints and shirts available in my Reproduction Shop. Let’s build a ship.
How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook?
The various options online can be daunting for a new artist. It’s so easy for people to rip off artwork and claim it as their own, but on the other hand, it’s an unparalleled medium for sharing images. There’s never been anything close to this in history. After Science Online I was waiting with other participants at the airport, and Henry Gee asked me if blogging had changed my life. It absolutely has. It yanked me out of a deep, lightless artistic depression. I’d been sitting on paintings for years, occasionally making something new, frustrated with work that few people I knew liked. Using the blogging platform, I can display my, um, let’s say niche artwork and still have a decent audience.
I tried liveblogging a painting for Darwin Day shortly after the conference. I burned out on it. Painting for two hours, then 20 minutes of uploading and colour-correcting the image, then painting 2 more hours…I spiralled into a strange place with that image. It felt as though I let people following down. It’s sitting in my studio glaring me.
I participate on DeviantArt, LinkedIn and RedBubble which has an excellent online print shop. Twitter has actually gotten me back into Facebook. People who’ve never commented on my blog were becoming fans on Facebook: are they lurkers, quietly enjoying the paintings? I don’t know. You start thinking about all of the eyes on you. It becomes a responsibility to become a better artist. I began posting new art every Monday as a way to discipline myself toward my blogpeeps.
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?
Being a Richard Dawkins fan, I really discovered blogs through links on his website, maybe 5 years ago.
Arriving at the hotel, Kevin Zelnio, Southern Fried Scientist, and Miriam Goldstein yanked me into conversation, and I let some of my imposter syndrome fade away. Karen James exudes cool. Talking with Stephanie Zvan between sessions helped me remember this was real somehow. I follow a ton of the blogs from the conference attendees. Anything in my sidebar.
You led two sessions at the conference – what did you learn from that experience?
The unconference format took the edge off, easier to be yourself. In the first session, the audience wanted to overwhelmingly move past the “two cultures” discussion about art and science – a huge contrast to the group at SciBarCamp here in Toronto in May. It hit me during the talk that maybe the distance of art and science is something you only see when standing in your own present – looking back across the decades of art past, it’s easy to see art inspired by science standing tall above its history.
I brought up what I had largely been thinking about at the time – that much of art based on scientific inspiration is somewhat parasitic, not giving much back. The group was vocal, emotional about the contribution of art to inspiring scientists. I’m still trying to absorb that.
The second session artist/scientist/force of nature Tanja Sova and I tried to lend some tips on image making. The unconference format was good, but if we do a follow-up next year, I think blogging some step-by-steps in advance, a call for potential volunteers for a step-by-step would be helpful. I also learned that the best way to close a conference with laughs is to have your volunteer tech-person accidentally pull up nudity onscreen due to a mis-typed url.
Is there anything that happened at this 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?
Roger Harris’s session and comments from Greg Laden made me re-think my whole blog look. I changed it immediately. Follow-up email exchanges after the conference have my mind ticking about visualization.
Bora, there was so much – ! If blogging changed my life, then Science Online 09 did just as much. I have been massively discontented since leaving the unconference. Casting about for a new direction. There was a heady optimism in the attendees. The feeling of being around that many people doing what they love to do left me frustrated and hopeful that I can do the same with illustrating some day soon.
It was so nice to meet you and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.
Great to meet you too!
==========================
See the 2008 interview series and 2009 series for more.