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Victoria Costello at the PLOS network lists "Ten Essential Qualities of Science Bloggers," with examples. On respecting readers: "The best science bloggers demonstrate respect for readers by not opting for over-simplifications, and by doing their utmost to simply communicate complexity. They acknowledge the essence of science is an open ongoing exchange. Said another way, they show us that (in science, at least) there’s rarely (if ever) a 'last word' on anything."

Curtis Brainard at CJR writes about several major bloggers leaving Discover's network just as the print magazine packs up and moves from New York to Waukesha, Wisc., with a new staff. Gone soon to National Geographic are Carl Zimmer and Ed Yong. Also leaving are Phil Plait for Slate and Sean Carroll for his own site. Writes Brainard: "The changes in Discover’s blog lineup reflect increasing competition among different outlets to capture the best science bloggers."

Travis Saunders at Science of Blogging surveyed his readers about the blog sites they visit most often, and he posted the results last week: "Scientopia and Scientific American appear to be the big winners, with Scienceblogs, Wired, Discover and PLoS BLoGs packed slightly behind, and the other networks getting a few votes each." One respondent: “I go to SciAm for the science, Scientopia for the culture, and SciBlogs for a sense of nostalgia.”

There are 51 entries (50 essays and one poem) in the Open Laboratory 2012, a compilation of great science blogging. Roughly a third of them are NASW members (it's hard to be exact because there are some pseudonyms). You can read the list at the Scientific American blog network and read comments about the selections on the Knight Science Journalism Tracker and from Ed Yong (a winner) who lists some runners-up.

Last week's World Science Festival prompted Jeanne Garbarino to post this on a panel titled “Telling Science Stories in Print and on the Web,” with moderator Cristine Russell and panelists Emily Bell, Carl Zimmer, Andrew Revkin, Seth Mnookin, and Bora Zivkovic. "Open research will force scientists to be held to a higher standard," she wrote. "Science blogging has already added – and will continue to add – a level of rigor to this process."

There's the analyzer, the explainer, the linker, the reviewer, the short blurber, and other, Rhett Allain writes on Wired.com's Dot Physics blog. He classifies recent posts from eight science blogs. (But how did he overlook On science blogs this week?) "I guess the next step would be to create some keyword-based algorithm that could automagically classify each blogger’s posts," Allain concludes. "Then you could generate some blog-scale score."

Bloggers Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong and Hillary Rosner discuss how science blogs are evolving in a one-hour-plus video from the Cambridge Science Festival. Topics include bloggers' perceived influence on reaction to the report of arsenic-gobbling organisms in California's Mono Lake and how reporting on sexually ambiguous chickens illustrates new ways for scientists and the public to communicate via journalists. Zimmer, Rosner and moderator Cristine Russell are NASW members.