Next Generation Science

• ScienceFeed: Interview with Ijad Madisch | Gobbledygook

  Martain Fenner Interviews Ijad Madisch, co-founder of the new microblogging service ScienceFeed, which is similar to FriendFeed but adds features specifically for scientists.

• Are Any Social Networks for Life Scientists Gaining Traction? | Biotechnology and Life Science Marketing Consulting: Comprendia

  Mary Canady evaluates a number of social networks for scientists and reports that some of them are increasing in popularity.

• Impact Factor Boxing 2009 | O’Really?

  What's more important: the impact of a scientific journal or of individual articles? Duncan Hull posts a table of bioinformatics journal impact factors and compares journal citation report data (impact factor, immediacy index, etc) with eigenfactor metrics.

• How do you read papers? 2010 will be different | Gobbledygook

  Martin Fenner discusses some recent developments in how scientific papers are and will be read in 2010.

• Social filtering of scientific information – a view beyond Twitter | bjoern.brembs.blog

  Bjoern Brembs reviews the micro-blogging service FriendFeed and discusses some of the features that make it useful for the online scientific community.

• The Life Scientists at FriendFeed: 2009 summary | What You’re Doing Is Rather Desperate

  Neil Saunders uses R and Ruby to craft a 2009 summary of activity in The Life Scientists room at FriendFeed.

• Knowledge Plaza, a Collaborative Platform for Researchers and Experts | tigressse

  Tigressse reviews Knowledge Plaza, a knowledge management and social search platform.

• Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up | Wired

  There’s no success quite like failure. The problem with science, however, isn’t that most experiments fail, it’s that most failures are ignored.

• Twitter science list categories | Sciencebase

  If you’re searching for other scientists on Twitter, look no further than the ~700 compiled by David Bradley. An incredibly useful resource, David has organized “scientwists” in one of eight different categories, including archaeo, bio, chem, earth, physics, sci-comms, tech and space.

• Tweeting expressly prohibited at American Society of Cell Biology annual meeting | Terra Sigillata

  At this year’s meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology, Tweeting has been banned. Abel Pharmboy reports on the prohibition.

• On giving a talk about Open Access in my department | Gobbledygook

  Martin Fenner posts slides from his talk on Open Access in Medicine.

• Interview with Scientist and BenchFly founder, Alan Marnett | BioData Product Blog

  Alex at the BioData Product Blog interviews Alan Marnett, founder of BenchFly, a website for scientists that offers science videos, laboratory techniques and current protocols.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• A brief analysis of commenting at BMC, PLoS, and BMJ | I was lost but now I live here

  Shirley Wu assesses the problem of scientists and comments (or rather, the lack thereof) at PLoS, BMJ or BioMed Central. Check out her perspective on Article-level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact with Cameron Neylon at PLoS Biology.

• Reflect | Cell Press Beta

  Reflect is a semantic enhancement tool that identifies and highlights proteins and small molecules mentioned in Cell articles. It is being piloted in two articles from the November 12th issue of Cell.

• First Anniversary (and the scientific method revisited) | Metamodern

  Eric Drexler weighs in on the problem with data-driven science (as opposed to the traditional hypothesis testing science).

• Nature Communications Q&A | Science in the open

  Cameron Neylon interviews Grace Baynes from the Nature Publishing Group communications team about the new journal Nature Communications, an online-only journal that will have an open access option.

• Promoting Open Source Science | WalterJessen.com

  Yours truly was interviewed about Open Source Science for Linux Insider recently. I published the entire interview on my blog since many of the questions and answers were left out of the final article. I trust I did the movement justice.

• Open Source Science? Or Distributed Science? | Common Knowledge

  John Wilbanks reflects on the open source software model and the problem with applying the terminology to science.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• Buying PDFs: Truth and Consequences | The Open Source Paleontologist

  The journal PDF markup is ~3,000 percent for people buying a single article (i.e. non-subscribers). The Open Source Paleontologist asks if the pricing scheme serves science or the interests of the authors who just want their work to be read.

• Should You Be Tweeting? | Cell

  An analysis for scientists. Why do it? Tweeting from meetings. How does it work? Too short?

• From Web 2.0 to the Global Database | Nascent

  Timo Hannay presents text and slides from a talk he gave at the 2009 Microsoft eScience Workshop at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

• Stitching science together | Nature

  Cameron Neylon explains how Google Wave offers a big step for science using robots and versions.

• Massively collaborative mathematics | Nature

  The Polymath Project is a great example of Open Source Science. It demonstrated that many people could work together to solve difficult mathematical problems. Timothy Gowers and Michael Nielsen reflect on the lessons learned for Open Source Science.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• The science of Google Wave | Nature News

  The science of Google Wave, how an online application could change research communication. To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment. Ironic, isn't it?

• ‘Bloggers’ vs ‘Audience’ is over? or, Will the word ‘blogger’ disappear? | A Blog Around The Clock

  Journalists take heed, new media empowers your audience to talk back. Bora Zivkovic focuses on the word 'blogger' and its connotations.

• Scientific discourse as an epic FAIL | I was lost but now I live here

  Yet another example of what's wrong with the current system of scientific publishing.

• Science publishing on the fast lane, plus optionally in journals | fundscience.org

  Remember Google Knol? PLoS Currents is using the platform for the rapid preprint submission of research results to the public. Daniel Mietchen points to a furture where information traditionally communicated only at scientific conferences will be searchable and accessible.

• Mendeley: An interview with Victor Henning | STweM

  Andrew Spong interviews Victor Henning of the popular academic research management tool Mendeley.

• Genomics: The next generation | Wellcome Trust

  There are a variety of platforms currently available for DNA sequencing. From Sanger to Illumina to 454, Mun-Keat Looi at the Wellcome Trust reviews the technologies.

• The evolution of scientific impact | I was lost but now I live here

  Shirley Wu takes a look back at the evolution and digression of impact factors and how the Public Library of Science (PLoS) is slowly changing how the significance of scientific merit is determined.

• OpenFF

  With the announcement of the sale of FriendFeed to Facebook, there's now a movement to create a free and open client and server for FriendFeed-like social networks.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• Liveblogging Science 2.0 | Serendipity

  The Science 2.0 Conference: What Every Scientist Needs to Know About How the Web is Changing the Way They Work [link] was held in Toronto on July 26th. Steve Easterbrook blogged the conference in real time.

• Science 2.0: Choosing Infrastructure and Testing Tools for Scientific Software Projects | Global Nerdy

  Joey deVilla's notes from the July 29th Science 2.0 conference in Toronto. First up: C. Titus Brown's presentation, Choosing Infrastructure and Testing Tools for Scientific Software Projects.

• Science 2.0: A Web Native Research Record – Applying the Best of the Web to the Lab Notebook | Global Nerdy

  Joey deVilla's notes from the July 29th Science 2.0 conference in Toronto. Second up: Cameron Neylon's presentation, A Web Native Research Record – Applying the Best of the Web to the Lab Notebook.

• Science 2.0: How Computational Science is Changing the Scientific Method | Global Nerdy

  Joey deVilla's notes from the July 29th Science 2.0 conference in Toronto. Third up: Victoria Stodden's presentation, How Computational Science is Changing the Scientific Method.

• Inspiring non-scientists | Nature

  A recent editorial in Nature focuses on the engaging style of TED talks and suggests that scientists wishing to inspire non-scientists learn a thing or two from the presentations.

• Open Access Week – October 19-23, 2009 | Open Access Week

  Open Access Week is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public.

• 5 Atrocious Science Clichés to Throw Down a Black Hole | Wired Science

  Wired Science selects five of the most annoying and ubiquitous clichés that should be banished from all future descriptions of science.

• 100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists | Best Colleges Online

  BestCollegesOnline presents a lists 100 incredible lectures, full of cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• Welcome to the Streamosphere | Nascent

  Euan Adie introduces his pet side project called the Streamosphere, which lets readers track scientific discussions on the web in real time.

• Google Wave in Science and Medicine | ScienceRoll

  Berci Mesko posts a compilation of some of the best posts and articles focusing on the medical and scientific implications of Google Wave.

• New Search Engine Lifts Veil on NIH Grants | ScienceInsider

  The National Institutes of Health grants database CRISP is (finally!) being replaced with a new database called RePORTER.

• Science journalism: Breaking the convention? | Nature News

  FriendFeed, Twitter, blogs, streaming video – direct-to-web exposure of data presented at scientific meetings is the way of the future. Are you ready?

• Science influence on Twitter – June update | 2020 Science

  Are you a science-focused Twitter user? Andrew Maynard posts an update on how SciTweeps' influence has evolved over time.

• Scientists: Is Modesty the Best Policy? | San Diego Biotechnology Network

  When it comes to defining and communicating your abilities as a researcher, do you come across as confident and clear?

• How to close the digital divide among scientists | Gobbledygook

  Martin Fenner ruminates about the digital divide among scientists and brainstorms ideas to increase the use of online communication tools.

Are you a Twitter user? Tweet this!

• Nanoscale control: Leveraging biology | 2020 Science

  Andrew Maynard discusses the factor of sophistication and it's effect on the manipulation of biology at the nanoscale.

• Wolfram Alpha and Its Medical Powers | medGadget

  medGadget spotlights a few of the many medical uses of Wolfram|Alpha.

• Why people do not comment online articles? | FriendFeed (Science 2.0 Room)

  Online conversation happens where the people are, not where the content is. It's ironic then that this is the first time I've ever spotlighted a conversation and not an article.

• Scientists and social media | Pharma Strategy Blog

  Sally Church posts a slide presentation by Richard Grant on researchers and social media.

• A Catalog for Nature.com | Nascent

  Searching Nature magazine just got a lot easier. Earlier last month, Nature.com implemented an OAI-PMH service (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), a standard for retrieving metadata from digital document repositories.

• RSS readers modeled after email clients are fundamentally broken | Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life

  RSS is not email! Is it any wonder that people are abandoning RSS for Twitter, Friendfeed or Facebook?

• “Real Time”: The next big thing or a pointer to a much more interesting problem? | Science in the open

  Cameron Neylon reflects on the problem with the "real time" web – the lack of ability to control the flow of information.

• conversations: local realtime versus global asynchronous – as applied to FriendFeed | Science Library Pad

  As FriendFeed launches it’s Twitter-like real-time design, Richard Akerman reflects on two different modes of operation: real-time and asynchronous.

• Anthropology: The Art of Building a Successful Social Site | ReadWriteWeb

  Stack Overflow is a free question and answer site that has experienced incredible growth of its user base over the past year. How did they do it? By thinking like an anthropologist.

• Will Wolfram make bioinformatics obsolete? | john hawks weblog

  John Hawks suggests that Wolfram Alpha, a computational knowledge engine, could be used for intelligent and interactive genome analysis. "Tomorrow's high-throughput plain-English bioinformatics tool will do the work of ten thousand 2009 graduate students."

• How Distracting are Social Media Tools? | Technology Review

  Research shows that users tagging articles remember less after typing in tags than after simply reading the article.

• Science journalism: Supplanting the old media? | Nature News

  Science journalism is in decline and science blogging is growing fast. Geoff Brumfiel asks if one can replace the other.

• It’s good to blog | Nature Editorial

  Nature is clearing at the forefront of Science 2.0. It’s refreshing to see a journal as prestigious as Nature encouraging researchers to blog.

• Science Blogging: The Future of Science Communication & Why You Should be a Part of it | Biochemical Soul

  What is a science blog, why should you follow science blogs, and why should you start a science blog? Daniel Brown has all the answers.

• When the net works for networking | I was lost but now I live here

  Enjoying herself in science’s digital sandbox, Shirley Wu extols the ease and benefits of science social networking on FriendFeed.

• Automating scientific grunt-work | Mailund on the Internet

  Thomas Mailund discusses the importance of structured thinking — combining an understanding of biology, mathematical modeling and statistics — to work with large-scale biological data.

• Zotero: Interview with Trevor Owens | Gobbledygook

  Martin Fenner interviews Trevor Owens from Zotero, a Firefox extension to collect, manage and cite research sources.

• Twitter rant number 1: shouldn’t you be paying attention? | Bench Marks

  There are times when science shouldn’t be a conversation. David Crotty rants about people Twittering when they should be listening.