A Temporary Hiatus

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that the rate of blog posts has decreased over the past twelve months. There have been some nice posts which I'm very happy with but I simply haven't had the time to devote to writing posts at the frequency I have in the past.
Like everyone else, pressures of a regular (and very enjoyable) day job,combined with trying to spend time with family and friends has meant something had to give. I also have one, very important project to complete.
For these reasons, I've decided to take a positive step and put the Communicate Science blog on hiatus for a couple of months. I'm sure this won't make a huge difference in anyone's life but my own - I do enjoy the enforced distraction of writing the blog- but can ensure readers that this will be a temporary ceasefire rather than the end for this corner of the internet.
Like the daffodils, I'm going underground for a few months to get some work done and will return, triumphant, in a blaze of glory in the Spring. If you simply can't wait that long, then I'll still be knocking around twitter @blogscience

Blog Awards Ireland - Science Nominees

I'm delighted to say that Communicate Science has appeared on the long-list of blogs nominated been shortlisted for an Irish Blog Award.

The shortlist can be viewed here.

The blog was nominated in the Best Science/Education category alongside a host of other top Irish science blogs including: Science Calling, Scibernia, Deirdre Kelleghan and The Frog Blog.

The award ceremony will take place on 13th October. Thanks to everybody who reads, shares and reacts to the blog, I couldn't (and wouldn't want to) do it without you!

**post updated 11/09/12**

Science Online

Good news for those interested in Irish science news and views: you can now get all of the latest posts from Ireland's best science bloggers in one place at the new Irish Science Blogs Tumblr.
Set up by the Frog Blog's Humphrey Jones, you can also follow the stream on Twitter @IrishSciBlogs

In other science communication developments, a new group called Online Media Group for Science (OMG Science; great name, right?) has been set up to share information in the form of case studies on how various people and organisations (in the UK for now) use online media for science communication.
It looks like this will be a useful source of ideas and inspirations with case studies already posted from the Ideas Lab, Wellcome Trust and Guardian News and Media all well ahead of the curve on online science communication.

Don't trust this blog

This blog, I think, is well written and edited. I think that each post I produce is based on solid evidence and often, it is based on one or more peer-reviewed papers which are particularly newsworthy. Nevertheless, you can't trust it.

Try as I might to be totally balanced, this is just my representation of scientific news stories and peer-reviewed work.

I suppose what I'm saying is that my blog, like all other blogs, is not a replacement for peer-reviewed literature and the blogosphere is not an alternative to peer-reviewed scientific journals.

As a scientist, I recognise that the peer-review system works. Of course, there are problems with it and a few high-profile cases where it seems to have failed us, but overall it has stood the test of time. The British Government has recently announced a review of peer-review, but I would be confident that it will be shown to be the best method at our disposal to verify scientific findings.

Unfortunately, it would seem that some commentators feel that peer-review is definitely old hat and that a new system is needed. Of course, I'm talking about James Delingpole.

In a recent interview with Paul Nurse, for the BBC programme Horizon, Delingpole argued for the use of what he called 'peer-to-peer' review.

As you'll see from the video clip of the interview below, Nurse first made an analogy between accepting the consensus scientific viewpoint on the treatment of cancer and accepting the consensus scientific view of climate change. Writing in The Telegraph, Delingpole, a well known climate change sceptic, subsequently described this analogy as "shabby, dishonest and patently false".

"The consensus on climate change; and the consensus on medical care", says Delingpole, "bear no similarity whatsoever". You can judge for yourself whether the analogy  makes sense or not.

Having been flummoxed by Nurse's astute line of reasoning, he was subsequently asked about his use (or not) of peer-reviewed climate change literature.

"One of the main things to have emerged from the climategate emails was that the peer-review process has been, perhaps irredeemably corrupted" replied Delingpole.

"What I believe in now...is a process called peer-to-peer review. The internet is changing everything. What it means is that ideas which were previously only able to be circultated in the seats of academe, in papers read by a few people can now be instantly read on the internet and assessed by thousands and thousands of other scientists; people of scientific backgrounds and people like me who haven't got scientific backgrounds but are interested."

What he's talking about of course is the blogosphere. Now, as keen as I am on this whole blogging lark, I do not believe that the ability to switch on a computer and type entitles anyone (including myself) to begin to interpret scientific data for which we are wholly unqualified. Sure, we can have opinions and ideas about the findings but, as the old adage goes,"we are not entitled to our own facts".

Delingpole however seems to have no time to even begin to interpret the data correctly:

"It is not my job to sit down and read peer-reviewed papers because  I simply haven't got the time, I haven't  the scientific expertise. What I rely on is people who have got the time and the expertise to do it and write about it  and interpret it. I am an interpreter of interpretations."

All well and good, and it's to his credit I suppose, that he admits that his opinions are not based on the real, original data. However, if he is to interpret the data (or the interpretations of the data... you know what I mean) then he must interpret all of the data and that means the overwhelming volume of research that points  to a global warming phenomenon caused by human interventions.

I may blog, but blogs are not real science. You can trust me on that!