Hello Steemit, thank you for welcoming me into your blockchain tribe! I’m fairly new here, but I’ve been observing this blockchain for some time and having seen its potential, I’ve decided to move my blog here.
I believe that while the Steemit platform has its problems, the blockchain technology underlying it could hold a lot of potential for fixing serious issues within the scientific world. Over my first few posts I’m going to explain how and why, but, first things first.
Who am I?
I'm Simon Oxenham AKA Neurobonkers AKA Brain Scanner. You may know me from my blog post “Meet The Robin Hood of Science” that went viral in 2016.
I’m a science blogger turned freelance science journalist with a passion for correcting bad science and the misinformation that is so prevalent in the press. I started blogging nearly ten years ago to debunk false claims about neuroscience and psychology. Since then, my work has evolved, covering science more broadly at publishers including Nature, New Scientist and the BBC but little has been as rewarding as my good old-fashioned blog which is one reason why I’m deciding to start blogging again here on Steemit.
Here are a few of my favourite topics according to my blog:
My road to science blogging began after realising that a big reason why so much science journalism is so poor is that journalists in most of today’s newsrooms simply aren’t given the time to cover science properly. Science journalism has broadly become the blind regurgitation of press releases and little more. Furthermore, a journalism model that depends on page views doesn’t create incentives to report the news accurately, it does the opposite.
Now I know this introduction post is where I’m meant to persuade you why I’m worth your follow on here, but I’m sick of blowing my own trumpet already. Instead, I’ll simply paste some nice things people have said about my blogging.
The New York Times called my blog part of a “backlash against what is sometimes called brain porn”. Guardian columnist and journalism professor Paul Bradshaw described my debunking of a bad news article as “the best piece of bad journalism debunking I’ve ever seen”. Dr. Ben Goldacre (my not so secret source of inspiration, author of Bad Science and Bad Pharma) said of the same post: “This awesome takedown should win some kind of prize… Bravo”. The authors of Pearson’s textbook of psychology recommended my blog for its “excoriating reviews of bad science”. Neuroscientist and blogger Neuroskeptic, another big source of inspiration for me, called my blog “consistently excellent”, they later interviewed me about it here. The Brain Science and Early Intervention Research Project at the University of Southampton recommended my work for its “critical analysis of misinformation". My blog posts have been referenced and used as sources by publishers including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York, The Huffington Post, The Conversation, Upstart Business Journal, The LA Times, and Scientific American.
In the next few posts I’m going to explain how you too could have a similar impact using this platform as your tool. I chose the quotes above because they are from people who I respect enormously, if you’ve not discovered their work already you should check them out.
Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the next in this four-part series, explaining how Steem works, and why I think it has potential for fixing deep-seated problems in how science is communicated. I’ll release each new part daily at 1PM BST (8AM EDT) over the next four days.
PART 1: I Have a Dream for Science on Steem
PART 2: What Is Steem and Why Do I Think It Could Be Revolutionary?
PART 3: Why Science Blogging Needs Saving
PART 4: How Blockchains Could Fix Science
I hope you give me a follow on here even if you’re not someone who normally follows science. If that’s the case I’m willing to bet I can change that, give this post a read for starters. If you share my passion for fixing scientific communication and debunking misinformation then say hello in the comments and post links to your favourite science blogs already on here. I’ll kick us off with the wonderful folks over at @SteemStem!
Don't let me down Steemit, I have very high hopes for you.
You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to weekly email updates on my posts.
Postscript: I want to take this opportunity to thank Daniel Himmelstein (@dhimmel), the scientist who introduced me to Steem. Daniel shares my goal of freeing scientific data and is at the forefront of this movement. Daniel has been so kind as to mention the impact of my blogging in his recent research on the subject.
Full Disclosure: I’ve made what seems to be ballooning into a substantial investment in Steem Power so I can help encourage and reward the best science content on here and earn curation rewards for myself in the process. I’ll be using some of that investment to promote this series however that’s something I won’t be doing in future. I’m going to promote each post a few hours after it’s released to give you hard working science curators out there a good shot at the curation rewards. If that was gobbledegook to you, then check back here tomorrow when I’ll explain how this all works.
Credits: Microscope via Wikimedia Commons. Word cloud created using Tagxedo.
I should capitalise on this opportuniity
Any science / STEM professionals or just enthusiasts who want greater visibility for their hard work are welcome to:
See you there peeps =)
XD nice opportunism mobbs
nice post.
Everything is said there! Welcome to steem!
We are working on this very problem. Please read our post: https://steemit.com/decentralizedpeerreview/@labledger/the-scientific-journal-industry-is-monopolized-and-broken-here-s-how-blockchain-can-fix-it and you can learn more about our project at LabLedger.net
Welcome to Steem @simoxenham! I'll be especially looking forward to PART 4: How Blockchains Could Fix Science as a Blockchain enthusiast. Your science journalism will be well rewarded in this Steem ecosystem and I hope that you'll become a good example for your colleagues in the field, leading them to join Steem as well :)
Hey @simoxenham, welcome to Steem! It's great to have you here! I'm a friend of @dhimmel and also a Steem witness. It sounds like you have a good understanding of how everything works already but if you have any questions about anything feel free to give me a shout.
Looking forward to your upcoming posts!
Thanks a lot, could be fun to do an interview at some point on the role of witnesses on Steem and perhaps have a little debate on the role bots are playing on the network.
Would be happy to do something like that, let me know!
Great, I'll be in touch!
@simoxenham These bots on steemit are poorly made. It's like dealing with the American SSA (Social Security) lol
Can't wait to read the next three posts and learn more about your vision! While I'm a scientist and a steem user, those two worlds seem to rarely overlap. @simoxenham, I think you're the first person I know who independently of #steemphilly and has now started using Steem. A network effect in its infancy!
Anyways I'm excited for more scientists to start using Steem, which could eventually replace centralized services such as Twitter and Medium.
Great point. It seems like the titles for many news stories are chosen not by their authors but their editors. I've seen lot's of good articles with exaggerated or incorrect titles. The incentives to produce click bait are so strong. Steem is not immune to click bait titles (see for example the plague of ALL CAPS titles), but at least here you can downvote if a title is misleading.
It's early days, that's for sure! Yes indeed, without wanting to give too much away from tomorrow's post, I'm hoping that with the launch of Steem communities the users here that are interested in high-quality science content will be better able to moderate the content they want to read, as users do on Subreddits, downvoting the clickbait trash.
Great. It sound interesting.
dhimmel!? You're on here! This is so cool - we don't really know each other but you once helped me setup a hetionet instance on Stackoverflow. So cool to
run intosee you on another platform. Thanks again for all the help!Also.. I just uploaded a geeky video I had been working on for over 9 months. If you have some down time/are curious about how pixels work learn here :)
the reason why they are poor journalist covering science is because most people nowadays are engaged in entertainment rather than science, so only few people are engaged in science that means a few audience the fewer the audience the smaller the impact, so we need to figure out how to teach people about science in an entertainment way. :)
Welcome to Steem Community @simoxenham! As a gentle reminder, please keep your master password safe. The best practise is to use your private posting key to login to Steemit when posting; and the private active key for wallet related transactions.
In the New Steemians project, we help new members of steem by education and resteeeming their articles. Get your articles resteemed too for maximum exposure. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch
Just discovered you man, you seem to be very interesting STEM Steemian :)
My dream for science is rewarding scientist, publication research papers & peer review based on blockchain. Without this horrendous prices for reading scientific paper. Science SHOULD be for free to benefit further development but also scientific awareness in society!
Absolutely, indeed I think we've been having the same dream!
Unfortunately I didn't choose a path of doctorate, but damn, I would love to join this revolution :D
All aboard! :)
As I already said it many many times, some scientific communities are already there, with all papers freely available. If some did it, all could do it (in principle). :)
Welcome to steemit and to steemstem. Great to have an excellent blogger joining our steemstem community and look forward to reading the series.
Thanks for the kind words!
Welcome to Steem(it), @simoxenham! I'm glad to heave you here. We always need more people who promote and write about science, especially on platforms like this where there is a lot of misinformation that gets circulated (such as some pretty powerful users that are anti-vaccination).
Seeing as I'm a bit late to your introduction, I guess I can already go and read most parts of your first series, so I'm going to be doing that now. Anyway, nice to meet you!
Best regards from @valth
Wow really forward to your authentic work on Steemit! I agree science journalism is flawed and can be incorrect. I want someone with a strong background both in science and writing to read articles from. You have a fun repertoire. Welcome to Steemit :)
Thanks!!
Welcome to Steemit, @simoxenham! 😊
I believe that you made a great decision to move your blog here. Some people say that Steem is a balloon, but I like to say that, unlike Bitcoins that are mined by powerful computer solving otherwise useless algorithms, Steem is mined mostly by real people writing useful/interesting/informative articles, so it's one of the rare cryptos that have a real value behind it.
I've followed you and I'm looking forward to your science articles.
Thanks @lifenbeauty, I agree it's nice to know the value being created is going to a worthwhile place. Your blog looks very interesting, I'll give it a follow and check it out too!
Thanks, we do kinda like similar topics, I'm mostly into psychology and fitness from a scientific perspective and morals & ethics from a non-scientific, personal perspective.
I'm looking forward to our discussions, enjoy the day!
Awasome that we have that kind od people on Steemit.This is what our community needs.More active people with great ideas.Steemit has huge potential but a lot of people do not care about the community and good quality content but just about💵💵💵😕
Thanks! Yes, in some ways it can certainly magnify some of the problems of traditional networks. I'm hoping as it evolves and matures it will become more resilient and attract a wider user base. I think it makes sense early adopters would be drawn in by the dollar signs. Now it's been up and running and properly tested and shown to be stable I expect we'll see more serious writers and creators gradually joining the fold.
Im sure that we will see a lot od the new users.In my opinion the advertisment based on idea of earning money attracts too many people that doesn't have idea about the blockchain possibilities and potential,and all they care about is "easy money".However the only thing that we can do is to stay active and do our best to promote quality content and brilliant ideas.Cheers!🤗
I'm in!
Am en eye doc (also with a degree in Neuroscience). Worried about the disenfranchisement amongst so many in empirical science.
You should be using the steemstem tag and using your neuroscience skills instead of those bidbots! We value skilled users such as yourself =)
(Also join the awesome discord community)
I would love to, and it is a very noble venture.
Nevertheless, I (and many others who are recent additions to the flock) have to take the rough with the smooth here. Bots are sadly part of that as without them the chances are that any piece one writes (however good or bad) will get no traction...
The community-orientated anarcho-capitalist principles of Steemit has a lot of potential, but it is not intrinsically meritocratic right at the beginning - one needs time and patience to get any attention or build up a following. There's little more humiliating (if you enjoy writing) than putting your heart and soul into an article, trying to promote it using the usual routes and then getting one view....
Then someone who is an early adopter can write simply "I like herrings" (paraphrasing) and get tens of thousands of views and upvotes. I'm pretty sure a Pulitzer-prize winner can anonymously come here and write dozens of insightful multi-layered articles or an expert can write dozens of scientific pieces and get ignored completely if they don't know the intricacies of how the place functions.
I feel you aren't fully aware of what SteemSTEM is. We more or less guarantee recognition for posts that fit our quality standards in STEM. Join the discord and find out =)
Ok, now thats what feels like a valuable contribution to steemit developments! Thank you.
You are welcome to steemit and most importantly the best community on this platform. Thats Steemstem.
Looking forward to your next posts
Hi @simoxenham Interesting intervention. Very clear and precise. I will be waiting to read you and so learn little by little from this jungle of codes and information that is already generating strong passions.
I will follow you from today.
Good greetings
Good vibes
Ahora en español:
Hola @simoxenham Interesante intervención. Muy claro y preciso Estaré esperando para leerte y así aprender poco a poco de esta jungla de códigos e información que ya está generando fuertes pasiones.
Te seguiré desde hoy.
Saludos gratos
Buena vibra
Thanks Angelica! I never expected Steem would help me improve my Español!
Hello @simoexenham, welcome to steemit.
Can't wait to read the next post about it and I'm really happy learn more about your post!
This is one of the greatest vision I've read on Steemians vision so far. This is why my last post when first use steemit blog, I said that When student and netizen search some information they would find on steemit which has posting by steemian all over the world. @simoxwnham you are an inspirator.
Great
Hah what a surprise seeing you on top of trending. Quite the use of the bots! I'm gonna have to try and take advantage with steemstem lol.
But yes, welcome and we're more than happy to have such an esteemed author join the ranks of scientific journalism. You already know we share more or less the same goals in changing the way STEM is perceived in the mainstream's eyes, so hopefully we can make something of it together down the line =D
sciences always fascinates me (i studied chemistry at university ) your blog sound very promising ..and it will definitely bring something new to the steemit community .
Keep the good work and good luck 🍃
Thanks!
Welcome to Steemit @simoxenham. I also joined Steemit recently, I think this is very a nice community. Hope you enjoy and contribute more value post. Very interesting introduce yourself
Thanks! @ethant109
Wow, I'm not a science journalist but your plans inspire me to want to do something really impactful on steemit. I'll be going back to the drawing board to cook up ideas. Thanks already @simoxenham
That's great to hear! :)
It is impressive how people like you (who should be called "characters") decide to start and share in this community.
For my part you have a faithful reader.
I look forward to your next work, greetings from Venezuela
haha thank you!!
if you can execute well you can dream big. All the best
Amazing post and welcome to steem !!
Saludos, espero poder leer buenos artículos de tu autoría.
Saludos!
Grandioso, bienvenido a la comunidad de bloques más emocionante que existe, sin duda las demás redes sociales serán absorbidas por esta nueva forma de interactuar, también soy nuevo, recibe un saludo de mi parte.
¡Muchas gracias!
With blockchain technology, many innovations have entered our life. it will be a platform that will be effective in the world of science.
I really hope so!
Your vision seems to be great I hope we can create a common vision and do some great work in future.
Dreams are made for them to come true !
First off, welcome to the community! I am new as well and this is exactly the kind of posts I expected before joining in.
I have great hopes on this place to find more people like you. People who care about facts, and use all of their passion to make the world a place with more accurate knowledge.
In my case, this is the first time I am blogging, but hopefully I can get to express my belives and my work in a way that it could help society similarly to you.
Enjoy the ride!
Dude! Thanks for your efforts. We need you desperate in this age of "America gone stupid". We so need people like you debunking "false facts" and "ridiculous uneducated arguments" when it comes to science. Thank you, thank you. I look forward to reading all your work.
I'd like to see more science communication that focuses on good quality, explanatory, long-form content. I think Quanta Magazine is the closest thing I've seen that doesn't require massive user fees and it's supported by a non-profit foundation that is the foundation arm of Simons -- so corporate patronage in a nicer dress. Excited to see how Steemit can help break that mold.
Welcome mate. There is definitely room for more science bloggers here! I look forward to your future posts. Can’t wait to watch your progress. :)
Hi @simoxenham , I am very glad to know yourself.I alaways like to read science blogging . I followed you on social media. Go on. Best of luck
Wow that great that you are here, just as I'm relatively new, the success of steemit is to believe that luck will come at some point, and like everything in life, luck only comes with work and more work ... Luck sure today is on your side, you'll see how everything goes well
Welcome to steemit @simoxenham
welcome to steemit buddy , cant wait to see the next of your series
Being brand new to this STEEM/Blockchain/Cryptocurrency concept, as well as a science enthusiast, I look forward to your upcoming posts.
Although I'm a satirist and Sci-Fi writer, I once considered myself something of a technology nerd...but that was twenty years ago. Things have changed so much just in the last five years, I've gone from nerd to neophyte without even noticing!
In any case, I can use any help and info I can get...and you seem like someone I can learn much from. Thanks in advance!
Welcome to Steemit! Its great to see and established science writing show up and immediately get recognition. I think you'll find the SteemSTEM community to be welcoming and supportive. Good luck!
Totally agree with this post...Help and support each other and the world as a whole--a better place...
creative job @simoxenham, thank you for sharing
Welcome to the Steemit community! As a fan of new science in everyday life, I look forward to your post in the revolutionary content platform here. I'll support your work as one of your followers.
Hello, welcome to steemit. Give you an upvote. I give you tips below that you might interested to read.
Steemit New User Tips: IntroduceYourself/Introduction Post
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Wow extremely forward to your credible work on Steemit! I concur science reporting is imperfect and can be inaccurate. I need somebody with a solid foundation both in science and writing to peruse articles from. You have a great time collection. Welcome to Steemit.
Hi @simoxenham
I read your post "What Is Steem and Why Do I Think It Could Be Revolutionary?" It's a great guide, especially for beginners. Lot of concepts are well-explained here. I agree with @jerrybanfield that Steem has the potential to replace bitcoin in future, in around 3-5 years. Even if it doesn't replace it, it will be a strong competitor, hopefully.
Amazing idea! It's posts like this that show the true potential of STEEM! Upvoted!
welcome to steemit @simoxenham enjoy the ride! steemit needs more science
Dream big and make it come true..
Welcome to steemit world
Greetings my friend Simon Oxenham
@simoxenham a very meaningful thing I got from the post you presented, I see a lot of steeminial friends who are currently less consistent in presenting postingananamun here I can mengambi a meaningful education, I am also a journalist who has been very constrained by writing that has I live in the province of Aceh in Indonesia, after I read the post @simoxenham I am 100% sure that the current global competition will be dominated by steemit forward and the global market will be held by steemit. Ben Goldacre] Daniel Himmelstein (@dhimmel) became inspirative to me as well.
very outside can.
greetings from me from indonesia
we win together