There has been a significant uptick in the number and quality of chemistry related blogs during the fall of 2006. In my case, I was motivated to start by following the blog “Tenderbutton” maintained by Dylan Stiles, a Trost grad student. This genuine and charming blog was abruptly discontinued earlier in the fall. The blog was somewhat revealing- though never negative- with regard to the lab culture and the chemical supplies of this world-class research group. In all likelihood, the advisor called a “come to Jesus” type of meeting where he was reminded of his pending thesis defense. I could be completely wrong, but it is the kind of thing a research advisor would do.
Some blogs are operated as a node- that is, the blogger will collect and comment on interesting links elsewhere on the web. Other blogs are more pedagogical in nature. The blogger will write on various topics with the intent of carrying on a kind of blog lecture series. There are more than a few blogs that follow the chemical literature, publishing analyses of chemical transformations. I think that these in particular are great blogs, but they do seem to be a lot of work for the blogger. The blog “Totally Synthetic” is a good example of a solid meat and potatoes style of synthesis blog. You leave this satisfying blog feeling like you’ve been in the literature that day.
Some blogs seem to be platforms for broadcasting various kinds of outrage. I have even done this myself. Sometimes a person just has to vent. But you also need to know when to stop. It is easy to step across the line from amusing to pathetic.
Some bloggers are prodigous writers, shoveling out great steaming heaps of output on whatever topic catches their fancy. Obviously, this is where “Lamentations on Chemistry” is parked. My interest is in writing essays on science and politics. Others are more talented at reviewing the chemical literature than I. I view the human enterprise as a kind of tragic comedy and I take no small delight in reducing slices of it to words.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
Tenderbutton got me started too.
I for one am very happy to see the rise in the number of chemistry blogs. I wish that there were more from industry folks as well as from those people who are not getting a degree from one of the swanky schools (Ivy League, MIT, Stanford etc….).
I agree with your comments on venting. It is easy to be pathetic. I am sure that my blog qualifies for that on occasion. The beauty of the whole blogging phenomenon is that if you don’t like reading it, it is really easy not to.
Yeah, Tenderbutton was great. I just can’t help but think that Trost put the hammer down on Stiles. Blogging with your own photos is a big time sink. And Dylan is(was) a 5th year grad student, so any decent advisor is going to ramp up the pressure to graduate.
One of the main problems with blogging as a public writing activity is there is no editor to slap you around and make you write at your highest level. My sentence construction tends to be poor, so I really have to be careful. Split infinitives and dangling participles are a real problem for me. Or at least, so I’m told. I don’t know what the hell they are!
I’m certainly not getting a degree from anywhere remotely swanky. Considering that I’m not a grad student, though, I don’t count 🙂
“those people who are not geting a degree from one of the swanky schools”
Hi there.
From looking at things like Google Analytics and my sever’s logs, I find it interesting that the chemistry blogs are also read mostly by people at the “swanky” schools. My guess is that people at these schools are intrinsically more interested in chemistry and thus more likely to read blogs (or write them) in their spare time.
Dylan must have spent a looong time making his posts. The volume of pictures was amazing. I can’t imagine doing hood work and stopping every 15 minutes to take my gloves off, grab the camera, and document what was happening. The ear wax feature was another post that probably took forever to write. I look forward to the day when C&EN pays someone to be a professional blogger so that we can see a blog that is written with the same dedication.
oops. sorry for the double post! i guess it takes a while to show up. or i am brain-dead from finals.
Dylans earwax post was a classic. It should be in the Blogger wing of the Smithsonian. My hat is off to him on that one.
Dylan Stiles is now writing a monthly column called “Bench Monkey” for the RSC’s award-winning magazine Chemistry World (http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2006/December/OpinionBenchMonkey.asp). Check out their blog while you’re there (http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw): it’s updated daily with the latest chemical science news from all over the world. And where the featured research is published in one of the RSC’s own journals, you can link through to read the primary article for free for six weeks after the post!