A couple goodies for geeks that the new year has ushered in...
- SciBook—Social Networking for Life Scientists. After you've improved your image by deleting all the unattractive friends from your Facebook profile, you can lower your reproductive fitness again by adding this fun application. SciBook matches scientists with prospective friends and collaborators on Facebook based on their research interests, favorite journal articles, disciplinary training, research methods, "favorite proteins," and "favorite scientists of all time." I'm unsure whether to describe it as "a breakthrough tool for collaborative research," or "kind of like eHarmony for people who don't get out much." You be the judge.
- io9.com—Strung Out on Science Fiction. Gawker Media, the people who brought you Wonkette and Lifehacker, has officially acquired io9.com, a snarky blog that threatens to do for science fiction what engadget did for technology. The site is full of snarky and incisive commentary, along with plenty of random and hopelessly inside jokes. It also contains a healthy dose of science writing alongside science fiction, and according to the site's editor, Annalee Newitz, it aims to celebrate the blurring of the line separating the two. She told the New York Times, "The present is thinking of itself in science-fictional terms. You get things like George Bush taking stem cell policy from reading parts of Brave New World. That’s part of what we are playing with. We are living in world that now thinks of itself in terms of sci-fi and in terms of the future." Whether you buy Newitz's idea here, enjoy snarky humor, or you're just one of those people whose subscription to Omni got canceled every time the magazine went under, io9.com is probably worth checking out.
