Scientists & Social Media; A Popular Subject

In the past few months, the topic of scientists taking to the netwaves to broadcast their ideas, opinions and research has been a popular topic. Here’s a list of some of the different discussions that I’ve found regarding scientists participating in social media.

Christie Wilcox (Cell & Molecular Biology Grad Student)  – Science Sushi

Christie did  a series of excellent posts on the topic, explaining why she felt that all/most scientists should try and reach out in some manner.
Part 1: It’s Our Job
Part 2: You Do Have Time
Part 2.5: Breaking Stereotypes
Part 3: Win-Win

Being scientists, other bloggers had differing opinions on Christie’s series, and made interesting counterpoints.

Steven Hamblin (Evolutionary Biology Post-Doc) – A Bit of Behavioural Ecology
Science communication? I wish it were that easy…
The economics of science blogging

Kevin Zelnio (Marine Biologist) – EvoEcoLab
On Naïveté Among Scientists Who Wish to Communicate

It’s not just science bloggers expounding the need for researchers to take to social media, with two short opinion/editorial pieces recently published in Nature highlighting social media’s role in scientific discourse.

Time to Tweet – Gaston Small, Nature 479, November 2, 2011
The press under pressure – Editorial, Nature 480, December 8, 2011

My fellow insect bloggers have also chimed in of course!

Bug Girl (Internet Insect Pundit/Comedienne) – Bug Girl’s Blog
How to become an online social media goddess (and transcript)

Alex Wild (Formicidologist/Insect Photographer) – Myrmecos
So you want to be a bug blogger

The Geek in Question (Insect Ecology Grad Student) – The Bug Geek
Information exchange (and stuff, too) via social media

At the recent Entomological Society of America meeting, University of Guelph graduate student Laura Burns spoke to several entomologists interested in social media, and the video of these talks was just shared on the Entomological Society of America YouTube channel.

I’m sure that this list isn’t nearly comprehensive, so if you have written science & social media, or know of someone else who has, please let me know and I’ll update the list!