Writing

I’ve been blogging here for a few years, so I thought I’d pull out some of my personal top ten pieces. In no particular order:

1. How the refrigerator got its hum – I think technological change is done by people, and can be redone and undone by people too. A classic study in the social studies of technology used to make that point.
2. The Myth of Scientific Literacy – every now and again, the term scientific literacy gets wheeled out and I roll my eyes. This post is an attempt to explain why. Here’s an updated audio version for the BBC.
3. Thatcher, scientist – based on great bit of history of science policy by John Agar (his paper is better than my post, but this is free to read and shorter). Sorry, there isn’t any evidence for that Mr Whippy story…
4. A brief history of awesome – thoughts on the history, philosophy and politics of invoking wonder (based on some of my PhD). I also did a follow up post on the technological sublime and the politics of gawping at Milan Central station.
5. A tour through my collection of children’s books about poo. Includes link to short video of a book farting. Who wouldn’t want to hear a book farting?
6. Unlocking the future of higher education – a post about on being on an anti-fees march. I’ve also done a few photo-heavy pieces of other demos – anti-cuts and electoral reform – as well as walking to Brixton one day after the riots.
7. BBC Trust Review – write up of some research I helped work on examining the science coverage for the BBC.
8. Taking science journalism ‘upstream’ – write up of a presentation I made at the 2010 Science Online London conference, a call to report science as a process not the (pseudo) event of a paper being published. Great comment thread.
9. William Crookes – something bugged me about a charity shop sign on the Caledonian Road, so I reached for a copy of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. For some more history of science/ London blogging, a piece about Crystal Palace Park.
10. Does my brain look big in this? – write up of a really lovely piece of research on women in science media (again, the original paper’s better but this is shorter and paywall free).

If you want to read more by me you can check out my Guardian contributor page and the Popular Science UK archive. I’ve also co-authored several pieces with Adam Corner: on the idea of “greens vs science“, “geek chic” and freedom of information. Versions of most of my academic work are below. I usually link to stuff I’ve written with a blogpost, if you’re finding it hard to find something by me, email me (gmail is same as blog url).

• (2012) “ScienceBlogs is a High School Clique, Nature Network is a Private Club”: Imagining the Communities of Online Science, Canadian Journal of Media Studies, special edition on experts and amateurs in communication and culture. Fall 2012: pp240-265. [OPEN ACCESS]
• (2011) Science as “Horrible”: Irreverent Deference in Science Communication, Science as Culture, special edition on childish science, vol. 20 (4): 491-531. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2011) Has blogging changed science writing?, Journal of Science Communication special edition on future of science journalism, vol. 11(1):1-5. [OPEN ACCESS]
• (with F Mellor & S Webster, Stephen (2011) Content analysis for BBC Trust’s ‘Impartiality Review’ into science, 20th July 2010. [SEE APPENDIX A]
• (2010) ‘Communicating Science to Children’ in Priest, S et al (eds) Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology Communication (Los Angeles and London: SAGE Reference), 162-165. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2010) ‘Popular Science, Overview’ in Priest, S et al (eds) Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology Communication (Los Angeles and London: SAGE Reference), 585-589. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2009) ‘Steampowering the Silent Spring: New Ambivalences of Critical Children’s Ecology Literature’, in Harding, J et al (eds) Deep into Nature: Ecology, Environment and Children’s Literature (Lichfield: Pied Piper), 84-99. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2009) ‘The Anachronistic Fantastic: Science, Progress and the Child in ‘Postnostalgic’ Culture’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol.12(1): 5-22. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2008) Science as Pantomime: Explorations in Contemporary Children’s Non-Fiction Books, PhD thesis, Imperial College London. [THESIS WITH IMAGES REMOVED

   email me if you want to see full version]

• (with SR Davies and F Mellor) (2008) Introduction to Science and Its Publics (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing). [ORIGINAL]
• (2008) ‘The Childish Nature of Science: Exploring the child/science relationship in popular non-fiction’, in Science and Its Publics, 79-98. [ORIGINAL PAPER]
• (2007) ‘What Albert did next: The Kuhnian child in science writing for young people’. In Pinsent, P (ed) Time Everlasting: Representations of Past, Present and Future in Children’s Literature (Staffordshire: Pied Piper Publishing) 250-267. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2007) ‘The Branded Book: Power, Children’s Literature and the Logos of Consumer Culture’, Journal of Children’s Literature Studies, vol. 4(2): 88-106. [PERSONAL DRAFT]
• (2007) ‘Chasing the Cheshire Cat: ‘Invisible’ boundaries of credibility in children’s science literature’. In Ramone, J and Twitchen, G (eds) Boundaries (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing) 48-65.  [PERSONAL DRAFT]