I’ve a few minutes to kill before the shuttle to Scifoo…
I believe the chemical blogosphere is among the leaders in domain-specific blogging and I’ll be bouncing this idea off the SciFooCampers (where the blogosphere is seen by many as a central part of the new scientific commincation process). I’ve been blogging for somewhat under a year, with a hiatus of about 3 months when the muse of code got the better of the muse of blogs (do these entities have names?). And so I have followed – in a rather haphazard way – some of the chemical blogs. There’s a complete site devoted to them, Chemical blogspace, run by the tireless Egon Willighagen. Even if you aren’t a chemist, Please have a look – I can’t cut and paste much of it as it’s interactive or autogenerated. But some snippets:
Chemical blogspace collects data from tens of scientific chemistry blogs and then does useful and interesting things with it.
(PMR: there’s certainly more than 100 chemical blogs now)
With Chemical blogspace, you can:
- Find, read and subscribe to new science blogs
- Find out what scientists are saying about the latest books and papers
- Read mini-reviews, conference reports or even original research
- See the buzz surrounding different websites
- Browse different subject areas – chemoinformatics, organic chemistry
PMR: and goes on to provide:
PMR: this list is autogenerated and these are REAL molecules (not just pictures) as they link to resources with full connection tables, InChIs and RDF. Then:
Most active blogs (annotations mine)[petermr’s blog]
PMR: Not necessarily the “best”, just those whose muses continue to drive them to produce. The site contains many of the tools for ranking and presenting blogs. So:
Popular posts this weekDays after the release of OSRA last week, I saw the optical chemistry structure recognition on the front page of my favorite Dutch /. equivalent, Tweakers.net, Duitsers leren computer chemische structuren herkennen, written by Ren Gerritsen. The article discusses…Hey, the new Scientiae is up at Twices! So much to read that I’m glad the weekends alomst there….For those of you who know me you are likely aware of the fact that I have worked at Advanced Chemistry Development, ACD/Labs, for over a decade, with the past few years as their Chief Science Officer. During that time I have had the privilege of working with…
linked to by 2
PMR: presumably these have more links, hits than others.
PMR: The blogosphere covers a great spectrum. Factual reporting of chemicals in the news, chemical and pharma industry, personal views on what it’s like to be a grad student, postdoc, etc. Recent controversies. New chemical, informatics and otehr technology. How to create and manage chemical content on the web.
And conventional journalism. Here’s ChemBark (Paul Bracher). ChemBark focusses on comment, and in one very long thread he explored a recent appointment (hiring) at Princeton. This generated nearly 200 comments and debate including some from senior faculty who wouldn’t normally have entered the blogosphere. I shall not comment on the rights or wrong of the issue (I don’t have strong feelings) nor on the rights or wrongs of the type of debate (bordering on the gossip columns of newspapers of the sort we have lost of in the UK). The main point I want to make is that the whole of the debate has been openly readable and is (I hope) semi-preserved. That means that historians, linguists, rhetoriticians, have a wonderful view of issues in the early C21.
What follows is my analysis of the issues discussed in “The Floor is Yours” and “The Week in Preview.” I have closed both of those threads and directed visitors wishing to continue the discussion to come here. I think it makes the most sense if I start by reviewing the news and talking about the “professional” issues in play. I’ll conclude with a revoltingly pompous dissertation on ChemBark as a medium for chemical news and a venue for subsequent analysis and discussion.
PMR: ChemBark presents a long and argued apologia for one type of chemical blogger. If you’ve a few minutes read it and form your own conclusions.
So where are we? A very vibrant community (sic). Probably only Egon has a complete oversight of the blogosphere we all interact with some of the others. There have been analyses before – sorry not to quote them, I’m in a rush. I’d love to see a map.
The main thing that frustrates me is the lack of decent tools. We are getting there slowly. With InChI, RDF, CML, etc we are starting to see chemistry embedded in blog posts. But the technology has certainly stopped me writing as much about chemistry as I would want to have done. Wikipedia has a set of guidelines : Wikipedia:WikiProject Chemistry/Structure drawing and has an activity on drawing molecules (Wikipedia talk:WikiProjectChemistry/Structure drawing workgroup) – when these technical barriers are overcome Wikipedia and the blogosphere will work very well together.
So given all the things above, I’d like to see a scientific discipline that has done more and better!
Yeah … Egon … is my personal ‘blue obelisk’ hero ! He is the living major connection part of several communities, ChemicalBlogspace, ChemicalDevelopmentKit, Bioclipse, … and probably many more ….
Cheers, Joerg
Chemistry blog is an alternative way to communicate to public, especially to chemists, and chemistry lovers. It is easy to read (with less complicated words) which may encourage other readers (with less chemistry background).
(3) Thanks Ms Buckyball. I love your coloured flasks and I wish you success in spreading your ideas