Readers may have noticed that we've gotten a bit of a slow start to blogging in 2008. Sure, Sheril's been traveling and Chris has been, well...slacking, but we weren't actually being lazy. We've been plotting and scheming and setting an agenda for this blog in the new year and beyond! One that connects closely to the ScienceDebate2008 project, and we're finally ready to share our plans...
Introducing our new project called (gasp) "The Intersection." But it's a different beast than what you might expect. You see, when Chris originally created a blog with that name in 2003, he was referring specifically to the intersection between science and politics. But there's just so much more to understanding our world. The new "Intersection" that we plan to cover here fosters many, many more collisions. Eighteen car pile-ups...that kind of thing. We're talking about the intersection between science and everything--politics, literature, the arts, music, law, business, culture... Life. We think there's something wrong with science today because too often, it fundamentally fails to connect with the rest of American society. Science needs ambassadors, Intersection personalities, if you will, who combine science with something else--some other type of endeavor--making it much more broadly relevant. These individuals foster science that resonates across American society. Just consider ScienceDebate2008--a fundamental "Intersection" endeavor--originally organized by a lawyer, a philosopher, a physicist, two screenwriters and, well, us. American science ought to be systematically supporting Intersection personalities rather than just watching them sprout up spontaneously now and again. And now the direction of this blog in 2008 and beyond will be both to celebrate the "Intersection" and the people who occupy it. We'll continue covering politics and science, and we'll also be making the case for why we need more folks bridging gaps between worlds. We also plan to launch an "Intersection" award--highlighting particularly innovative combinatorial personalities who combine science with something else. And we plan to blog constantly and make our argument publicly--beginning with our back to back presentations at the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference this coming Saturday. Whew. So that's what we're up to. We're going to leave this post up top for a while, so we welcome your thoughts on this new blogagenda!
