Scienceblogging

i-09c00e3daa328afc1765686aefa4aaba-PSSsquaredCthulhu.jpgAt the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference today, I ran into Professor Steve Steve. Panda's Thumb denizens Tara Smith and Reed Cartwright accompanied various of Prof. Steve's avatars. As you can imagine, the presence of so much dogmatic (pandamatic?) Darwinism in one location unleashed pandamonium, and Prof. Steve Steve's dreaded nemesis, Department Chair Cthulu, burst through the resulting rift in the structure of space and time itself.

As proof that the universe had lost its bearing after this cataclysm (pandaclysm?), a session on framing science, headed by Jennifer Jacquet and Intersection co-bloggers Chris and Sheril failed to result in ritual sacrifice, and the suggestion that scientists should enlist religious leaders in efforts to assemble a science debate in 2008 resulted in no protest at all.

After the framing discussion, Jennifer Ouellette gave a fascinating talk about the state of science blogging and the future of the medium. I think she may have been overly optimistic about the possible unification of science blogging and science journalism. Like a sifaka trying to befriend a panda, the two may simply be trapped in different worlds, but that shouldn't stop us from trying.

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Coming later: a discourse on why aye-ayes rock, and assorted other thoughts.

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