Science bloggers and their readers are a picky lot: we watch television only for entertainment and we're ruthless skeptics about what we read. So in these days as the news business turns closer to entertainment and propaganda, it is interesting to see the Guardian adopting a small stable of science bloggers. (Naturally I got wind of this on Twitter.) The British paper has begun running blogs by a physicist, a political scientist, a science-news critic and a biologist. A fifth slot will feature a rotating cast of science bloggers.
As more news entities and agencies adopt house bloggers, I am reminded of ancient single-celled organisms engulfing each other in hopes of a lasting symbiosis, the way that chloroplasts and mitochondria are thought to have become part of every higher species. I wish them all success. Maybe the day is closer when the first geo-blogger can make a full living at it.
The cast of science writers
Geology blogs
Futurity.org, the press-release group blog
Comments
As usual in the UK and Europe where reason and science is more appreciated, the media are publishing for a responsive and enlightened audience. Some in the USA would rather have us descend into “a proud to be ignorant”, insular, anti-science, ideologically pure, supernatural fantasy land if the loony tea-baggers and fundies have their way. The way our politics and culture is unravelling lately they may just get their wish.
Our local paper has a science section on Mondays that has highlighted sciencebloggers, but the editorial pages and letters to the editor reflect a large segment who could care less about reason and scientific reality.