There are a lot of good science bloggers out there, but overall we are way behind other areas of academia in the realm of scholarly blogging. Social scientists and law professors, in particular -- that is, disciplines that regularly interact strongly with the larger social context -- seem to have taken to blogging more readily, including at least one Nobel laureate (economist Gary Becker). Here's what looks like a major step: a new blog by the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School.
The University of Chicago School of Law has always been a place about ideas. We love talking about them, writing about them, and refining them through open, often lively conversation. This blog is just a natural extension of that tradition. Our hope is to use the blog as a forum in which to exchange nascent ideas with each other and also a wider audience, and to hear feedback about which ideas are compelling and which could use some re-tooling.
The entire faculty! Taking turns blogging, discussing recondite legal issues within an informal format that is readily accessible to interested nonexperts. Jack Balkin has a good take on the project; it will be interesting to see how it develops. Perhaps, after cautiously observing the experience of their colleagues across campus, more scientists will come to appreciate the fact that they are paid not only to discover new things about the world, but to communicate to others what it is that they've discovered.
