Anne and Anna, the similarly-named subset of the inkycircus collective, have launched their shiny new online science magazine, Inkling. Aimed at women, but everyone is welcome. (Unlike much of professional science, which is aimed at everyone but only welcomes men!)
One of their first features is to collect some science New Year’s resolutions. For example,
- Not publish, in the same week, two major epidemiological studies on the health benefits of eating fish that givetotally contradictory advice.
- Not call something a planet unless I’m really really really really sure.
You get the idea. But they need more physics in there! Public input is solicited, so go do your part.
Elsewhere in internet/reality crossovers: Physics World has come out with a special issue on physics and the web. It includes a piece by me on the joy of blogging (with a few run-on sentences that crept in during the editing process, I swear), and the first of what promises to be a regular feature reviewing individual physics blogs, starting off with Uncertain Principles (this one I managed to come up with all by myself). And on this side of the puddle, the American Institute of Physics has put together what looks to be a great new cosmology-themed site, Cosmic Journey. If you have universe-curious friends, you could do worse than point them there.
It’s extremely refreshing. Every article I’ve read at Inkling has left me smiling or laughing, as well as up to date on something interesting. Those women have a sense of humour as well as an interest in science and technology, which you don’t find in male science writers. (Men who write about science write too seriously and the few facts end up buried in dull text.)