Blogs and science - 2

Two other blog-related stories also highlight the way that blogs are getting noticed.

1. PhD student Shelley Batts was threatened with legal action for posting figures from the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture on her blog. The Society of Chemical Industry, owners of the journal, later apologized to her, saying that it was due to an over-enthusiastic staff-member. The Scientist has the full story.

2. Another PhD student, Reed Cartwright, posted some thoughts he had about an alternative explanation of results reported in a genetics paper. It was a little outside his field so he didn't attempt to pursue the idea. Six months later someone else had the same idea and seeing it also on Cartwrights blog he got in touch to invite Cartwright to be a co-author. Again the full story is in The Scientist (this one needs a subscription, or see the print version - Vol 21, Issue 4; page 21). They also mention some other similar tales.