I’ve been seeking an outlet for a while where I can firm up ideas and potentially start discussion with others in a way that is perhaps more widespread than one-on-one conversation, but simultaneously doesn’t force my train of thought on others if they’re not interested, which I find can be a problem with certain social media platforms. I suspect blogging is by no means a perfect setup, but it seems like a good place to start. I’m hoping to write about more professional aspects of my life – science communication, research that’s interested me, and things I’m learning while working in publishing (at least for now) – as well as more personal things, which I hope will be a space to organise my sometimes chaotic bumper-car thought process. This might be about cultural notions I’ve engaged with, travel adventures, or (apologies in advance) political or philosophical ramblings. In any case, I decided that the number of half-formed notes and ideas clogging up my ‘personal’ folder should at some point be translated to fully-fledged readable and accessible posts.
A key motivation is the realisation that science as a social construct is only as robust as it is because of systematic peer review. Putting results and conclusions into the hands of your peers and (potentially) rivals is a sure-fire way to make sure you are critical of your own ideas before others even see them, and my feeling is that in putting one’s ideas and thoughts into a more public space should only serve to hone and improve those viewpoints. Disagreement is important, as is debate – I would welcome any reader (if indeed there are any) to pick me up on or criticise anything I write; I’m not married to any of my own ideas, and I can only see discussion as healthy.
Robert Emberson 