Yesterday, I put together a list of my favorite pieces of my own work from the past year. But why not spread the favoritism around? Here’s a compilation of similar lists—some selecting the writer’s own work, some shining the spotlight on others who deserve it—by the science blogosphere’s brightest. I’ll try to update it as I learn of others; please feel welcome to add more in comments.
- David Kroll‘s “Science Writing Sampler Platter” (Take As Directed, PLoS Blogs)
- Jennifer Ouellete‘s “The Year of Blogging Shamelessly” (Cocktail Party Physics; Scientific American Blogs)
- Sean Carroll‘s “A Year Well Blogged” (Cosmic Variance, Discover Blogs)
- Ethan Siegel‘s “The Best of Starts With A Bang: Top 10 for 2011” (Starts With A Bang, Scienceblogs)
- Kate Clancy‘s “Best of 2011: Ladybusiness Anthropology Edition” (Context and Variation, Scientific American Blogs)
- John Dupuis‘s “Best Science Books 2011” compilation of various best books lists (Confessions of a Science Librarian, Scienceblogs)
- Alex Wild‘s “The Best of Myrmecos 2011” (Myrmecos)
- Matthew Francis‘s “2011: A Year of Oscillation” (Galileo’s Pendulum)
- Brian Romans‘s “A Year of Detritus” (Clastic Detritus, Wired Science Blogs)
- David Dobbs‘s “My Top 5 (or 10) Longreads of 2011” (Neuron Culture, Wired Science Blogs)
- Ed Yong‘s “Not Exactly Rocket Science—Favourites from 2011” (Not Exactly Rocket Science, Discover Blogs)
- And of course, Ed Yong‘s “My top 12 longreads from 2011” (Not Exactly Rocket Science, Discover Blogs)
- And, what the heck, Ed Yong‘s “Science writing I’d pay to read” and “I’ve got your missing links right here” ongoing series. Are you happy now, Ed? Is this enough? Will you let my wife go now?
- Surprising Science‘s “Top 10 Science Blog Posts of 2011” and “Ten Great Science Stories You Might Have Missed” (Surprising Science, Smithsonian)
- Daniel Lende‘s “Wednesday Round Up” series from throughout the year (Neuroanthropology, PLoS Blogs)
- Brian Switek‘s “The Greatest Dinosaur Hits of 2011” (Dinosaur Tracking, Smithsonian)
- Chris Mims‘s “Mims’s Bits’s Greatest Hits for 2011” (Mims’s Bits, Technology Review)
- Ivan Oransky‘s “The Year of the Retraction: A Look Back at 2011” (Retraction Watch)
- Matthew Herper‘s “What I Wrote In 2011” (Forbes)
- Alexis Madrigal and The Atlantic Tech‘s “Our Most-Read Stories of the Year (And a Few Personal Favorites)” (The Atlantic Technology Channel)
- Rob Dunn‘s “A Year in the Woods of Our Bodies, Bedrooms and Bathrooms” (Guest Blog, Scientific American Blogs, and www.robrdunn.com)
- Bora Zivkovic‘s “Best of December at A Blog Around The Clock” with links to earlier months’ best (A Blog Around The Clock, Scientific American Blogs)
- … and then Bora turns around and does “ABATC Year in Review – 2011” (A Blog Around the Clock, Scientific American Blogs). D’oh!
- Carin Bondar‘s “The Top 5 Astounding Animal Videos of 2011” (PsiVid, Scientific American Blogs). No, they’re not articles, but consistency is already taking a beating in this list and maybe you’re getting tired of reading?
- Christie Wilcox‘s “Science Sushi – A Year In Review” (Science Sushi, Scientific American Blogs)
- Living Anthropologically‘s “Ten Most Viewed Posts 2011” (Living Anthropologically)
- David (WhySharksMatter) Shiffman‘s “The top 10 shark conservation stories of 2011” (Southern Fried Science)
- Michelle Clement‘s “Memorable links from the first half of 2011” (Crude Matter, Scientific American Blogs)
- Curtis Brainard‘s “Best of 2011: The Observatory” (The Observatory, Columbia Journalism Review)
- Carl Zimmer‘s “2011: A letter from the Loom” (The Loom, Discover Blogs). Not exactly a “best of” list but a great retrospective on the year and Carl’s work.
- Jason Antrosio‘s “Anthropology Reflections on 2011” (Anthropology Report)
- Deborah Blum‘s “The Chemical Me (2011 edition)” (Speakeasy Science, PLoS Blogs)
- Maryn McKenna‘s “2011 in the Rear-View Mirror: What You Liked” (Superbug, Wired Science Blogs)
- Slightly more meta-, there’s also Bora‘s “Most Popular #SciAmBlogs Posts of 2011” (The Network Central, Scientific American Blogs)
- And elsewhere in meta-, via Bora comes a pointer to end of year lists by the many terrific students in the graduate journalism SHERP (Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program) at New York University, where I teach: “2011: A year of contradictions,” “Better luck next year,” “Questions you never thought to ask,” “The Indiana Jones of 2011,” “Under the lab coat,” “Not your average visit to the zoo: the wackiest animal stories of 2011,” and “Apocalypse 2012: What’s left on our science to-do list before the Mayan doomsday” (Scienceline)
- S. E. Gould‘s “Best of Lab Rat 2011” (Lab Rat, Scientific American Blogs)
- Daniel Lende and Greg Downey‘s “Neuroanthropology—2011 Highlights” (Neuroanthropology, PLoS Blogs)
- And, what the heck, Andrew David (Southern Fried Scientist) Thaler‘s “The top eleven science hashtags of 2011” (Southern Fried Science). I’ll justify it on the grounds that the hashtags lead to more great writing.
My apologies to anyone I’ve managed to leave out; if this exercise in compilation shows anything, it’s that the science blogosphere is rich in wonderful voices and remarkable writing. Thanks for lots of great work, everybody.
