Did I Entertain/Educate You? Nominate Your Blogger for Inclusion in Open Laboratory 2009

by Jennifer Frazer on November 29, 2009

UPDATE: Broken links fixed!

UPDATE2: Oops — It looks like the deadline is actually Tuesday at midnight. You can still submit if you like, but the organizers ask you don’t submit anything that’s already listed here. Thanks! : )

Hi everyone. Sorry this is a bit last-minute, but I didn’t realize the deadline for this was upon us. The Open Laboratory is a dead tree book containing “The Best Writing on Science Blogs”, and YOU can nominate posts for it. The deadline for this is Nov. 30 (i.e. Monday) at midnight, which I just learned thanks to a gracious post by Psi Wavefunction. If you particularly enjoyed any of my posts this year, consider nominating one for the book. They do stipulate

Make sure that the submitted posts are possible (and relatively easy) to convert into print. Posts that rely too much on video, audio, color photographs, copyrighted images, or multitudes of links just won’t do.

which is unfortunate, because I try to make an effort for every post to include video, audio, color photographs, and multitudes of links. Isn’t that what writing for the web is about? Still, please consider nominating anything you particularly enjoyed. It’s fast and easy to do right here.

Posts that might be suitable include Moss that Swings Both (All?) Ways and its sequel, The Six Million Dollar Moss: Why Biology is WAY Cooler than Nuclear Physics, More Bad News for Bats: Marburg Virus Edition, and When Plesiosaurs Ruled the Sea, but really, knock yourself out if you have a particular favorite.

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Psi Wavefunction November 30, 2009 at 2:55 am

Your links are broken, just fyi ^_~ I think you linked some internal version, that requires logging in. Alternatively, you could just give us your login + password, to save the effort of fixing links. =P

Jennifer Frazer November 30, 2009 at 10:19 am

You are right! They are fixed now. Sorry for the goof! Zees Vordpress . . . she is qvirky.

Oroboros November 30, 2009 at 11:46 am

I went ahead and nominated your first blog. I thought I’d share that nomination with you so you know what I value too. I know that writers often like feedback to help them determine if they are on the right path.

This blogger’s inaugural post demonstrates much of what I like about her. She usually approaches her subject from a couple different angles to create little composite snapshots.

For example, in this first blog I felt a connection as a backcountry hiker. I’ve witnessed in others the projectile and explosive results of Giardia and they aren’t pretty. Still, I can appreciate the humor in that reference and she usually makes me chuckle.

Then she makes me think about how people elsewhere in the world get their water before teaching me several fascinating things in a very short space. The last fact of the dual nuclei in Giardia left me no choice but to go back and follow the link to learn more.

There are other longer posts on The Artful Amoeba that might be more worthy of submission, but I think this first one is representative of what I generally like.

In a culture that is infatuated with charismatic macrofauna, it is refreshing to find someone who is a little infatuated with charismatic microfauna and willing to extol their virtues so eloquently.

Oroboros November 30, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Gah! This is why I shouldn’t ever write before that third cup of coffee. Of course, I really meant “charismatic megafauna”.

Jennifer Frazer November 30, 2009 at 2:53 pm

Wow! Thank you. I’m honored. : )

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