Recognition in the 2012 Science Blog Prize

We were runners up

We’ve had some great news – last night this blog was recognised in the Good Thinking Society’s first ever Science Blog Prize.

Set up by authors Simon Singh and Ben Goldacre, the prize aims to reflect the enormous growth in high-quality, free, online science writing over the last few years.

The overall award was shared between the excellent Suzie Gage, a Bristol-based PhD student who blogs about addiction and epidemiology over at Sifting The Evidence, and Professor David Colquhoun, author of the quack-busting blog DC’s Improbable Science.

We were among three runners-up, along with our former colleague Ed Yong’s excellent Not Exactly Rocket Science, and Professor Dorothy Bishop’s BishopBlog, which covers a wide range of topics from neuroscience to science communication and the media.

Over a hundred blogs were put forward, so we were obviously delighted even to make it onto the final shortlist of ten.  And on top of this, the list included many influential bloggers who have been an inspiration to us over the five years we’ve been writing Science Update, and it was fantastic to be considered alongside them.

At the award ceremony, several of the nominees spoke about why and how they blog. We were particularly struck by Suzie’s thoughts on blogging as a PhD student, the welcome break it gave her from “gazing into zeros and ones on a spreadsheet”, and how it allowed her to engage with a wide range of like-minded people working on related issues around the world.

And it got us thinking. If any Cancer Research UK-funded PhD students are reading this, and fancy having a go at blogging about their work, we would absolutely love to hear from you. Do drop us a line at [email protected]

Finally, we thought it would be worth publishing the shortlist in full – these are all excellent science blogs, and you should check them out.

• David Colquhoun – DC’s Improbable Science
• Suzi Gage – Sifting the Evidence
• Dorothy Bishop – BishopBlog
• Ed Yong – Not Exactly Rocket Science
• Stuart Clark: Across the Universe
• André Tomlin: The Mental Elf
• Athene Donald: Athene Donald’s Blog
• Neuroskeptic: Neuroskeptic
• Dean Burnett: Brain Flapping

Henry