We’re Launching Ten New Blogs and One New Forum This Week!

We've been hinting at this for the past couple of weeks so we're really excited to finally be able to make the announcement today! We are pleased to officially announce that eighteen new science bloggers are joining Scitable blogs. They are contributing to ten new blogs and one new forum which will launch throughout the course of the week. Our new bloggers add to the original lineup, bringing the total number of bloggers on Scitable blogs to more than thirty!

The group blogs deal with particular fields: neuroscience, psychology, geology, oceanography, physics, evolution and environment. The aim of the group blogs is to educate and entertain by tackling the fundamentals of their fields and answering relevant questions that you may have thought of... but never got answers to. For instance, "Are humans the only animals to suffer from decompression sickness?", "How do planets evolve?" and "Are there really as many neurons in the human brain as stars in the Milky Way?".

The individual blogs provide perspectives on scientific research, news, and the culture of science and scientific thinking. Alongside this more personal focus, the new forum will elicit discussions via case studies highlighting ethical issues raised by our growing knowledge of genetics in this era of personalised genome sequencing and clinical testing.

We're doing a gradual rollout every day for the next three days so I'll update this post as the new blogs are launched.

Without further ado, here are our new blogs and bloggers:

Earthbound, geology group blog by Jon Tennant and Jane Robb.

Jon and Jane "connect geoscience and culture" in Earthbound. Jon is a palaeontology PhD student at Imperial College, UK, and is a big fan of dinosaur while Jane is a research assistant in pedagogy at UCL, UK, with a keen interest in geo-heritage science. They probably want me to say that "geology rocks!"

Debut post: How Do Planets Evolve?

Saltwater Science, oceanography group blog by Sara Mynott, Alexis Rudd and Jessica Carilli.

"Perspectives from the vast, deep and unknown" from three bloggers, separated by oceans. Sara is a geoscience communicator based in Germany. On either side of her are Alexis, a PhD student in Hawaii and Jessica, a post-doc based in Australia!

Debut post: Do Whales Suffer from Decompression Sickness?

Why Science Matters, experimental biology blog by Luke De.

With a touch of wit and humour, Luke gives you "the skinny on current experimental biology." Luke is a high school scientist-turned-teacher based in New Jersey and will do some good ol' research blogging.

Debut post: Does Love Involve Addiction Pathways?

Accumulating Glitches, evolution group blog by Sedeer el-Showk and Sarah Jane Alger.

Look out for Sedeer and Sarah Jane as they "explore the grandeur of evolution." Sedeer is a PhD student based in Finland while Sarah Jane is an assistant professor in Wisconsin. I should include a famous quote from Charles Darwin here but Sedeer's debut post snatched one great such quote.

Debut post: Do Species Really Exist?

Eyes on Environment, environment group blog by Kate Whittington and Charles Ebikeme.

An environment blog with a twist. Kate and Charles will look at "the science of earth and human policies that change it." Kate is an Education Communications Assistant at Botanic Gardens Conservation International while Charles, based in Paris, only inserted "science writer" in his biography field! A great, *cough* royal *cough* duo.

Debut post: Seasonal Mismatch - The Fight To Adapt To Advancing Spring

The Success Code, mentorship blog by Bhavana Wiedmann.

Mentoring students and early-career scientists is very important and Bhavana sets out to do just that. Through her interviews, she will provide "career advice from top science mentors." Bhavana is a neuroscientist-turned science writer and is based in Germany.

Debut post: Biotech Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Dr. Christian Tidona

Brain Metrics, neuroscience group blog by Mark Stokes and Bradley Voytek.

With a tagline like "how explaining brain biology can explain the phenomena of mind" you know you're in for a great ride. Both Mark and Bradley are into cognitive science. Mark does his thing at the Oxford Centre of Human Brain Activity while Bradley also dabbles with computational neuroscience.

Debut post: Are There Really as Many Neurons in the Human Brain as Stars in the Milky Way?

Mind Read, psychology group blog by Jordan Gaines and Dana Smith.

Jordan and Dana will "connect brain and behaviour" as they explore what does right and wrong in our brains. Jordan looks at sleep and obesity for her PhD research at Penn State College of Medicine while Dana looks at drug addiction for her own PhD research at Cambridge University, UK.

Debut post: Hearing, Touching and Tasting in Color

Genetics Generation, ethics of genetics forum moderated by Laura Rivard.

Laura moderates our new forum, which makes you think about genetics from an ethical standpoint. By developing case studies with her students, Laura elicits necessary discussions in this era of personalised genome sequencing and clinical testing.

Debut post: About Genetics Generation

Pop, a physics blog by James Keen.

James is a "physicist on physics." He is a postgraduate student at Imperial College, UK, and works with metamaterials (he'll have to write a blog post about this, won't he?). He also regularly contributes to Imperial College's science outreach publication, I, Science.

Debut post: What's The Time?

Postcards from the Universe, cosmology and astronomy blog by Bruce Braun.

"Scouting for life in the cosmos" one blog post at a time. That's what undergraduate student Bruce sets out to do. This blog features a mix of cosmology and astrobiology. Sounds as spectacular as a supernova, doesn't it?

Debut post: Searching for Dyson Spheres

RealScization, wow-science blog by Thomas Nguyen.

Thomas is an undergraduate who wants to be a neuroscientist one day. His interests go well beyond neuroscience though—they span the stars, the cells and everything in between.

Debut post: If a Black Hole is a Dead Star, How Do They Die?

It took us a little over six months to assemble our new bloggers and we think it was well worth it-and hope you will too. Of course, our original team of Scitable bloggers are very much here too and will be blogging ferociously. Let's hear it up for them:

Student Voices (this is the blog you're reading), group blog which hosts students of all ages, managed by Kyle Hill

Bio 2.0, a synthetic biology blog by Eric Sawyer

Labcoat Life, analysing and putting science in perspective by Khalil A. Cassimally

Bioscience eLearning, the future of teaching using technology by Nick Morris

Green Science, a young conservationist's take on, well, "green science," by Samantha Jakuboski

Green Screen, technology's potential impact on the environment-the good and the bad-by Whitney Campbell

The Promethean Cell, regenerative medicine blog by Ada Ao

Our Science, a blog about the science in everyday life by Naseem S

Cognoculture, a psychology and culture blog by Taylor Burns

The Artful Brain, a blog about our neural machine by Dave Deriso

Science In Africa, a forum moderated by Doaa Tawfik

Women in Science, a forum in association with the American Association of Univeristy Women (AAUW) co-currated by Laura Hoopes

ScholarCast, a blog contributed by invited science communicators and managed by Khalil A. Cassimally

ConferenceCast, our conference blog managed by Jonathan Lawson

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To keep in touch with our blogs and bloggers, you can follow @Scitable on Twitter and Nature Education's Facebook page. In addition, here is a Twitter list comprising all of our bloggers.

- Khalil A. Cassimally / Community Manager