'Cosmic' blog impacts media, perceptions of science

Once or twice a day, University of Southern California physics professor Dr. Clifford Johnson takes a break from trying to understand how the universe works to let the rest of the world in on the secret lives of physicists.

Since joining four other physicists and astrophysicists from different universities as a contributor to the group blog Cosmic Variance, Johnson has discovered many advantages of blogging.

By writing about science issues in an accessible forum like an Internet blog, Johnson said he hopes to raise the public's level of science awareness and bring science discussions into everyday conversation.

"One of the things scientists complain a lot about is the fact that the journalists who write in the media about science don't do a very good job," Johnson said. With the blog, readers can "just hear it directly from the scientists."

The blog, launched in July 2005, gets about 2,000 hits daily and has already had an impact on coverage of science in the media, Johnson said.

"Science journalists are now coming to our blog to see what we're saying about stuff," he said. His posts have received comments from various members of the media, including Annabelle Gurwitch from National Public Radio and K.C. Cole, a science writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Times who is now joining the USC Annenberg School for Communication as a visiting professor of journalism.

Johnson said he hopes he will be able to collaborate with Cole to create "better training of journalists in this specific area of science coverage."

Reading Cosmic Variance also allows site visitors to understand physicists' lifestyles.

"People have a strange view about who scientists are," Johnson said. "All the images of scientists in the media ... are that scientists are the 'other,' scientists are not normal."

"We're just doing regular, stupid stuff like everybody else," he added. The posts on Cosmic Variance are often observations and commentary about everyday things, from shopping in Hollywood to the political news of the day.

"I actually don't like to call it a science blog," Johnson said. "I think of it as a blog that happens to be written by scientists."

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