Top of the blog 2012
Twenty-twelve: not just a number, not just a ‘year of sport’. It’s been another bumper crop of exciting stuff in the world of science, medical history, public engagement and all the stuff in and around our wonderful Wellcome world.
These were the most popular blog posts published this year:
Ben Ambridge’s entry to the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize proved a hit with animal lovers across the interwebs, garnering plenty of discussion and pingbacks from the likes of Hacking News. The WordPress blog network also picked it as one of their highlights of the month.
How does the brain interpret information about social hierarchy? Our Senior Media Officer, Dr Jen Middleton picked out this gem from her daily clutch of science papers, telling us a bit about her adventurous early school life in the process.
Scientist does research in zoo, includes public engagement as part of it, writes peer-reviewed paper evaluating the public engagement, then blogs about it. Perfect.
“Wall of vaginas”. That is all.
When games and science combine, it’s often great. Our games consultant Tomas Rawlings is also a developer. His research into the medical practices used in the field during the Great War not only improved the historical accuracy of one of his games, but made for a fascinating blog post. This was also one of the WordPress team’s highlights for the month.
Scientist Katherine Lougheed tried journalism for a few weeks. It’s harder than it looks. This post was understandably popular with science journalists everywhere, especially those at Nature News…
Lots of people are trying to find better ways to share open research data. We asked those at Figshare to explain what their approach is.
The Malaria Atlas Project combines maps and data to find new insights into malaria control measures. They’re now sharing everything through their open web portal.
May was Action on Stroke Month, so we dedicated the whole month to an in-depth look at what stroke is and how scientists, doctors and others are working to treat and prevent it. Long-form features, infographics, videos and interviews. Read all about it.
Meet television’s Dr Kevin Fong. You might remember him hanging around NASA or plunging himself into icy waters in the name of science documentary. He’s also one of our first Public Engagement Fellows. We did the meta thing and got our other Fellow, Dr Richard Barnett, to interview him about his unusual career and how two doctors ended up doing very different things. We included some audio so you can also hear their lovely voices!
And finally, some of our personal favourites, you may have missed:
- Interview with Paralympic gold medalist Ellie Simmonds
- Piano plague in D minor – with a fabulous aural tour of historical pianos
- Metacognition – I know (or don’t know) that I know
- A burst from the blue – is bulimia nervosa really a modern disease?
- Neglected tropical diseases – a new handle on old problems
- Plague (and giant gerbils) in Kazakhstan
Happy holidays to all. See you in 2013!
