Monday, March 15, 2010

Scientia Pro Publica 23 Now Available





Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).


Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.


Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) blog carnival was just published! The 23rd edition of Scientia Pro Publica is hosted by Bjørn at Pleiotropy. Bjørn writes about this edition;


It has been a pleasure reading all the submitted posts. It always is. I have increased both my factual knowledge about nature - and thus my horizon - in ways that I think would not be nearly as easy if it wasn't for the science bloggers. Thank you all.

This time there was a fair number of submissions (I've used a couple of statistical methods to estimate the number, which gave a value of 263.29 ± 41 SD), so I've separated them into eight different posts to make it easier to navigate them. Use the links above to find the other pages.

As always, let's make sure that each one of us leaves at least one comment on at least one essay that was included in this carnival. The authors write for us for the love of it, and they love your feedback, too. Since these writers are learning how to better communicate about science, medicine, environment and technology with the public -- that's you and me -- they need our help to improve their skills, and they also our encouragement to continue writing for us.




Your host for the upcoming 5 April edition is Andrew, author of 360 Degree Skeptic (formerly; The Evolving Mind). To send your submissions to Scientia Pro Publica, either email your submission directly to Scientia Blog Carnival at gmail, use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right (sometimes that widget doesn't upload when the mother site is nonfunctional). Be sure to include the URL or "permalink", the essay title and, to make life easier for the host, please include a 2-3 sentence summary. Remember, this blog carnival focuses on communicating to the public, so your essays must be understandable to non-specialists. Further, this blog carnival is not a vehicle for transmitting pseudoscience or advertising -- there are plenty of venues available for that.

Since this is a traveling blog carnival, it needs host sites to travel to. If you are interested in hosting this carnival on your blog, please contact me as soon as possible or email Scientia directly. Scientia Pro Publica is published on the first and third Monday of each month, so feel free to choose a particular date, or I'll assign you the first available date. We are in need of hosts for upcoming issues, starting on 19 July (working schedule for Scientia hosts).

Because we've received such a large number of submissions once again (50+), we will follow a weekly publishing format starting on 5 April and going through 7 June, when Scientia will resume its twice-monthly publication schedule for the summer. Of course, this means we will need yet more hosts, so please let me know soon if you wish to volunteer for newly available slots.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Scientia Pro Publica 22 Now Available





Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).


Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.


Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) blog carnival was just published! The 22nd edition of Scientia Pro Publica is hosted by Stephen at Reciprocal Space. Stephen writes about this edition;


Like a barnacle’s penis, this edition of Scientia Pro Publica is long and strange and packed with seeds—for thought. There was a veritable plethora of submissions, ranging from flit-stops that sought only to highlight single point of interest to deeply rewarding essays on the nature of knowledge and the conduct of science. To help you navigate this landscape of riches, I have arranged the posts into sections that arose fairly naturally from the content. Please peruse all the way down to the very bottom; there is, I hope, something for everyone. My own personal favourites I have marked with a pair of asterisks**.

As always, let's make sure that each one of us leaves at least one comment on at least one essay that was included in this carnival. The authors write for us for the love of it, and they love your feedback, too. Since these authors are learning how to better communicate about science, medicine, environment and technology with the public -- that's you and me -- they need our help to improve their skills, and they also our encouragement to continue writing for us.






To send your science, nature or medical writing to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right or you can email it directly to the carnival email address; ScientiaBlogCarnival@gmail.com. Be sure to include the URL or "permalink", the essay title and, to make life easier for the host, please include a 2-3 sentence summary. Remember, this blog carnival focuses on communicating to the public, so your essays must be understandable to non-specialists. Further, this blog carnival is not a vehicle for transmitting pseudoscience or advertising -- there are plenty of venues available for that.

The next issue will be published on 15 March by Bjørn who writes Pleiotropy. I need hosts for editions that will publish after 5 July 2010 (working schedule of hosts is here). Scientia Pro Publica is published on the first and third Monday of each month so hosts have the preceding weekend to work on their edition. Feel free to choose a particular date, or I'll assign you the first available date. Please note that, if we continue to receive as many submissions per edition as we've been getting recently (50+), we will follow a weekly publishing format until the summer months, when Scientia will likely resume a twice-monthly schedule. Of course, if we do make this change, this means we will need yet more hosts, so stay alert to this potential change.