Scientific American Guest Blog

Since November, Scientific American's Guest Blog has been humming with activity, with multiple posts every week covering a wide range of scientific topics. Today my own contribution is up: How to Name a Dinosaur, a look at the ways a layman tasked with naming a new taxa might go about it. It includes Matt Van Rooijen's awesome Diabloceratops portrait, too!

The Guest Blog's heightened profile is due to the tireless work of Bora Zivkovic, who took the job of Chief Editor and Community Manager of the SciAm blog network earlier this year. I'm new to the science blog community, having been writing here for about a year and a half. A true watershed moment came this July when PepsiGate happened at ScienceBlogs. At that moment, my eyes were opened to just how vibrant and resourceful the science blogging community was, and I saw that Bora was one of the chief players, promoting the value of science blogging and writing insightful pieces of his own exploring the way science blogs fit into the larger media picture. It helped me think smarter about what I do with LITC and what I want to do with my future in communicating science. Head to his website and follow him on your social media of choice. You will not regret it.

Thanks again for inviting me to post at the Guest Blog, Bora. This has been a year of unexpected good fortune for me as a blogger, and being able to join in the conversation at SciAm is definitely the cherry on top of the 2010 cake.