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The Roles, Reasons and Restrictions of Science Blogs

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The Roles, Reasons and Restrictions of Science Blogs Forum The roles, reasons and restrictions of science blogs John S. Wilkins* Department of Philosophy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Over the past few years, blogging (‘web logging’) has timely account of news in science, and relies not merely on become a major social movement, and as such includes press releases, which can be terribly misleading, but on the blogs by scientists about science. Blogs are highly idio- personal knowledge and expertise of the blogger. Papers syncratic, personal and ephemeral means of public that would otherwise be missed can be described and even expression, and yet they contribute to the current prac- critiqued within days. Some journals even send notifica- tice and reputation of science as much as, if not more tions to bloggers to ensure that their papers are seen and than, any popular scientific work or visual presentation. commented on. It is important, therefore, to understand this phenom- Blogging is also a way to demythologize science. Unlike enon. laws and sausages, the public should see science during its manufacture, but the lay public is generally ill-equipped to Introduction interpret what they see, and science bloggers play a crucial A blog is fundamentally a continuously updated web page, role here. Bloggers with a deeper knowledge of the topic, or with entries (‘posts’) that have date, time and, if many of science in general, can place studies in a context of prior authors contribute to the blog, author-name stamps work, thereby correcting or avoiding the myths and pigeon- (Figure 1). Each post may be commented upon by the holes of science journalism. In addition, readers can com- readership, and the discussions can range from a few ment immediately, making correction possible. This humorous one-liners to complex and well-written rebuttals provides a contrast to science magazines and columns in or contributions, and everything in between. Blogs typi- the mainstream media and shows that science and medi- cally have a general theme, and most blogs are personal cine are not always about major breakthroughs or immedi- diaries organized around these. Many are focused on single ate applications. Science bloggers can also discuss science issues, such as politics, religion or scientific topics. Science politics (both the politics between the scientists themselves blogs are blogs whose main focus or intent is disseminating and the role of wider politics on science), which are fre- or commenting upon science. quently not touched upon in popular science publishing. Many science bloggers are graduate students, but a Occasionally, major scientific politicking occurs on the number are practicing teachers and researchers. It is blogs, as when Jerry Coyne attacked Olivia Judson on unclear so far how the scientific and educational commu- Carl Zimmer’s The Loom over ‘hopeful monsters’ (http:// nities regard blogging. Some graduate students and early scienceblogs.com/loom/2008/01/24/hopeless_monstersa_ career researchers have complained that they are being guest_post.php)(Box 2). told by advisors and supervisors to stop blogging and Blogs regarding ecology and evolution are often estab- concentrate on ‘real’ work, whereas others have drafted lished to counter opposition to these sciences in the public up later-published papers on their blogs, and taken discourse, especially after the politically motivated so- advantage of an informed and enthusiastic readership called Gingrich contract with America that used obfusca- for critique and suggestions. At times, readers offer refer- tion to undercut confidence in the findings and theories of ences the author might not have found otherwise, especi- various sciences (details of this specific case of a wider ally from cross-disciplinary fields. In this article, I argue antiscience attitude in the West can be found in Ref. [1]). that there are also many other reasons for scientists to Blogs are used by both professional scientists and those enter the blogosphere (Box 1). who support science to counter this opposition. Examples of this include the Real Climate blog (http://www. Readerships and reasons realclimate.org) and Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog There are, it seems, several reasons people have for science (http://www.badastronomy.com). blogging, each of which, in my opinion, is enough to justify However, to become a strong blogging presence, one it. One is the obvious concern of science communication. In cannot focus on science all the time. For instance, a Min- comparison with the usual modes of science communi- nesota professor of developmental biology, Paul Z. Myers, cation (e.g. magazines, newspapers and television), blog- blogs about religion and politics at Pharyngula (http:// ging is more intimate and responsive. It gives a rapid and scienceblogs.com/pharyngula), and these topics attract the bulk of his massive readership of over 300 000 visitors Corresponding author: Wilkins, J.S. ([email protected]) per week. In between these populist posts, his science * John blogs at Evolving Thoughts (http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts), part of the Seed Magazine stable of bloggers known collectively as Sciencebloggers (or posts, usually on developmental biology, are works of Sciblings). All links active as of 16 May 2008. art. By contrast, as a philosopher of biology, my blog 0169-5347/$ – see front matter ß 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.05.004 Available online 1 July 2008 411 Forum Trends in Ecology and Evolution Vol.23 No.8 Box 1. How to start a blog There are both commercial and free blog site providers. Of the free ones, Blogger (https://www.blogger.com/start) is the most widely used. To start a blog, the user logs on, creates an account and names the blog. Thereafter, entries are written and posted using either the web browser interface or a blogging tool. Only very IT- proficient persons should try to set up a blog server themselves. What skills does a blogger need to get the message across? Basically not more than what is needed to teach freshmen students, although one should not presume that the readership will know even the basics of the field. Some argue that science communica- tion requires training, but as authors like E.O. Wilson show, a scientist can be an excellent communicator without specialty training. All kinds are needed, and none should be excluded. However, a blog is not written like a science paper or a lecture. It has to be engaging, if not entertaining, as well as opinionated. Although there are group blogs, this is a personal medium, and the ‘voice’ of the blogger, their personality and obsessions, has to come across. One excellent example of this is Moselio Schaechter’s microbe blog, Small Things Considered (http://schaechter.asmblo- g.org/schaechter), which features ‘Talmudic questions’ such as ‘Why haven’t protists become multicellular?’ And to get the really big readerships, controversy is essential. What is the most efficient way to reach the audience? There is an ongoing fight over a technique of popular science communication known as ‘framing.’ Proponents of this technique argue that science should be tailored to the audience. The argument is based on communication theory and on observations of how the neoconserva- tives in the United States have skewed science to their own ends. Whereas proponents of framing think that one should fight fire with fire, others argue that we should present the science as it stands in our professional opinion, without special concern for the readers. In my mind, this debate stems from a difference in opinion of what science blogging, and communication in general, is for. It is my view that one cannot make up for bad science education through popular media; at Figure 1. The life cycle of a blog. Sources include other blogs, news services, best, one can only inspire and rebut. And of course one must not speak journal articles, popular media and the personal knowledge of the blogger. In the case of science blogs, posts are often based on recent science announcements above the level of comprehension of one’s audience. But I am a firm and, more rarely, recent articles. Sometimes science bloggers blog about their optimist on this matter—if you challenge the popular audience, it will own research, whether science research or research about science (e.g. often rise to the occasion. Many science enthusiasts will recall being philosophy, history or sociology of science). Political and policy influences of similarly challenged by the best communicators of their youth. So I do science are often discussed; for example, the ‘ScienceDebate08’ campaign aims to not think we should trim the message when the message is relevant. get either presidential candidates or their campaign representatives to present firm policies about scientific research (http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/ index.php). Blogs can be deleted when their authors decide to stop maintaining them, but the convention is to leave them available for as long as the service Box 2. A hopeful monster controversy provider allows. At least one blog that contained a considerable amount of useful information, a Philosophy of Biology blog at Florida State University (http:// In a New York Times blog and opinion piece on 15 January 2008, philbio.typepad.com/philosophy_of_biology), was deleted when it ceased to be entitled ‘The Monster Is Back, and It’s Hopeful’ (http://judson.blogs.- active, and it has now been taken over by a ‘cybersquatter’ who uses it to sell nytimes.com/2008/01/22), Olivia Judson revived, in a way, Gold- merchandise. schmidt’s Hopeful Monster. Citing upstream regulatory genes that can mutate with large effect downstream on morphology and general phenotype, Judson proposed that many changes occurred attracts a mere 10 000 visits per week. Still, the well- in a single radical step, with no intermediates.
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