Journals and peer-reviewed publications are still the most widely used channels through which research is disseminated within the scientific community and to a broader audience. However, social media is increasingly challenging the supremacy of editors, reviewers and science communicators. Blogging about science has become a new way of engaging “the public” directly with researchers whilst [...]

In the popular mind, science is often represented as a profoundly cold and impersonal affair, strictly governed by method, reason and impartiality. It is carried by the notion that the scientific endeavour is propelled by the anonymous knowledge-worker who carries out experiments under strictly controlled conditions behind closed doors.  Steven Shapin, eminent historian and sociologist [...]