Announcing the posts that will be published in The Open Laboratory 2009!

The time has come....the moment many of you have been waiting for, for months!

The most amazing 2009 guest editor Scicurious and I are ready to announce the 50 posts that have made it through a grueling judging process to emerge as winners to be included in the Open Laboratory 2009, the anthology of the best writing on science blogs of the past year.

Out of 760 posts, all of amazing quality (we could have collected something like ten anthologies, all good), the survivors of all the rounds, the posts that will actually get printed on physical, dead-tree paper, are:

Breastatistics, by Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde.
Beyond Energy, by Tom Paine's Ghost.
Making the Archeological Record, by Aarvarchaeology.
I want to be Carl Sagan but Can't by NeuroDojo.
The Weird History of Vaccine Adjuvants by Neuron Culture.
Why you didn't really want the job, the Waiting for Godot Edition at The Oyster's Garter.
Cosmopithicus at The Beagle Project.
Blood and brains - can vampires survive a zombie apocalypse? by Southern Fried Science.
Pressure to Preserve by the Culture of Chemistry.
Bittersweet, from Beyond the Short Coat.
How research saved the large blue butterfly, from Not Exactly Rocket Science.
How science reporting works, from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
Good Head (Don't worry, it's about beer!) from Bayblab.
Brain and behavior of dinosaurs, from Neurophilosophy.
The Origin of Big from the Loom.
Stripped, part II, the Aquiline Nose, by Anna's Bones.
Male chauvinist chimps or the meat market of public opinion? from The Primate Diaries.
Seagulls at Sunset, from Partiallyclipse.
Astronomical art: representing planet earth, from 10 Days of science.
Addiction and the Opponent-Process theory, at Neurotopia.
Academia: slowing down the search for cures? at Respectful Insolence.
It's official: we really have saved the ozone layer, at Highly Allocthonous.
The Cuttlefish Genome project, by the Digital Cuttlefish.
Why social insects do not suffer from ill effects of rotating and night shift work by Blog Around the Clock.
Does faking amnesia permanently distort your memory? from Cognitive Daily.
Why swine flu is resistance to adamantane drugs by the Scientific Activist.
Betting on the poor boy: whorf strikes back by the Language Log.
A sorry saga, the crumbling cookie from the Mr. Science Show.
The rightful place of the science and the African-American community from the Young Black Professional Guide.
Friday (Isaac) Newton blogging: Monday/Newton+Darwin Edition from the Inverse Square Blog.
The glamour of marine biology from Evolutionary Novelties.
Impediments to dialogue about animal research, parts 2, 3, and 4 from Adventures in Ethics and Science.
What exactly am I ambivalent about, parts 1 and 2 from Ambivalent Academic.
Eye-opening access by Reciprocal Space.
Aspartame and Audrey by Bench Twentyone.
The incredible shrinking genome, at Byte Size Biology.
Genital mimicry, social erections, and spotted hyenas, from Wild Muse.
A squishy topic, by Expression Patterns.
Start seeing micro-inequities by Female Science Professor.
Darwin's degenerates - evolution's finest, by Observations of a Nerd.
The first great mammoth, by archy.
In which I ramp up, at Mind the Gap.
Sleep paralysis, from Wired.
Because as we all know, the green party runs the world, by no moods, ads, or cutesy fucking icons.
Deep sea corals and methane seeps, by Deep Sea News.
Maiacetus, the good mother whale, by Laelaps.
More of the science of the influenza "cytokine storm" by Effect Measure.
And The Old World Passed Away... The Geologic History of the Colorado Plateau from Geotripper.
Spermophilus (it's about squirrels, really!) by Coyote Crossing.
The Grid of Disputation from Cosmic Variance.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone whose posts were submitted over the past year.

We would especially like to thank our distinguished panel of judges - people who had to, in short order, read and evaulate many, many posts and provide us with useful comments we needed in making the final decision. The judges are:

Joshua Rosenau of Thoughts from Kansas and the National Center for Science Education.
Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News.
Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog.
Stephanie Zvan of Almost Diamonds.
Comrade Physioprof
Dr. Isis
The Digital Cuttlefish
T. DeLene Beeland of Wild Muse.
Christie Wilcox of Observations of a Nerd.
Suzanne Franks of Thus Spake Zuska.
DrugMonkey
Anne Jefferson and Chris Rowan of Highly Allocthonous.
Brian Switek of Laelaps.
Jean-Claude Bradley of Useful Chemistry.
Peter A. Lipson, MD of White Coat Underground.
Michael D Barton of the Dispersal of Darwin.
Anna Kushnir of Lab Life.
Moheb Costandi of Neurophilosophy.
Revere of Effect Measure.
Liz Borkowski of the Pump Handle.
Carl Feagans of A Hot Cup of Joe
Carel P. Brest van Kempen of Rigor Vitae.
Laurent of Seeds Aside.
GrrlScientist
Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science
Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science.
Greg Gbur of Skulls in the Stars
Pamela Gay of Starstryder
Ethan Siegal of Starts with a Bang
Female Science Professor
Ambivalent Academic
Art Kilner of AK's Rambling Thoughts.
Afarensis

It will take another couple of weeks for all the posts to get edited and 'typeset' and for the book to be ready for sale. Watch this blog and Neurotopia for the announcement.

And in the meantime, while waiting, you can go back and re-read (of course you have them already! Don't you?!) the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions.