New web address

It turns out that some organisations in Ireland are bizarrely blocking access to sites that have the word "blog" in their address - so to make sure everyone who wants to can read this blog I've just set up a new web address for it. And I've imaginatively called it (drum roll, please): sciencecommunicationreview.com

The old address (sciencecommunication.blogspot.com) will still work but feel free to use the new one too and to spread the word...

And this new address is so long that it might even win a prize for worldslongestdomainname!

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Amazing science videos

A great collection of Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos has been put together by Wired.

My favourite only scrapes in at Number 10 - it's an incredible "musical Tesla coil" which has to be seen and heard to be believed. Have a look at it here:



Some of the others are interesting but not great - and I don't think everyone would agree that the Number 1 should go to the CERN rappers. It's a quirky little video and fun to watch if you're into your physics but I think the Tesla coil is better!

At least the Wired team welcomes people submitting their own favourite videos - and you can let me know if you've come across any good ones yourself by commenting on this post...

By the way, I first heard about this Wired special in the Science@Culture Bulletin - which is Mary Mulvihill's always fascinating "eclectic and personal guide to popular science and related events." It's recently evolved into blog format which will hopefully bring it to an even wider audience.

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Updated Science Journalism training guide

I've just heard that the European Commission has issued an updated "European Guide to Science Journalism Training".

It's great the European Commission are promoting this topic - and when Patrick Vittet-Philippe spoke at the AlphaGalileo & IRCSET event in Dublin it was very clear that there is a real high-level commitment to this area.

The updated Guide is available on the Europa website and contains...

... an inventory of the training courses in science journalism across the 27 Member States of the European Union, as well as exchange programmes, scholarships and other initiatives supporting science journalism.

Several interesting trends have been indentified by the authors:

• Science Communication courses at university level are widespread.
• There is a clear recognition of the need to increase the accessibility of scientific information (for example via projects like the “Danish Science Cafés”)
• Programmes explicitly dedicated to providing formal qualifications for Science Journalism are quite rare in EU 27.
• In Eastern Europe, there are fewer formal support structures for those wishing to become a Science Journalist.
• From the information gathered, Germany and the United Kingdom seem to be among the few Member States with comprehensive approaches to science journalism training.

iPhone shakes up science

One of the best things about Apple's iPhone is the App Store where you can download a lot extra software for your phone (and some of it's even free).

It's been great to see that there are plenty of science-related applications available already - and they really could change the way people interact with science.

My favourite is Molecules which shows 3D molecular models that you can spin around by touching the screen - it's featured in this web video review...