Students in the Science Communication Program's class of 2013 have launched their class science blog, Out of the Fog, as part of their fall-quarter course in social media.
The blog, subtitled "Emerging Science from California's Central Coast," will feature original posts about research and policy in the Monterey Bay region and the San Francisco Bay Area. The nine students in the class will run the blog as a group effort throughout the academic year.
Subjects to date include Proposition 37, a California initiative to require labels on food containing genetic modifications; a UC Santa Cruz–led project to drill into the submarine fault responsible for the March 2011 tsunami in Japan; and the genetics of North America's two migrating populations of monarch butterflies.
The blog is overseen by Erika Check Hayden, San Francisco–based reporter for Nature and lecturer for SciCom's social-media course. Students will incorporate their own photography and illustrations into the blog, and they will pitch suitable stories to national-level blogs with which SciCom has an agreement for cross-posting.
Hosted by WordPress, Out of the Fog is the third class blog created by SciCom students. Previous editions were The Crashing Edge (class of 2012) and A Tale of Ten Slugs (class of 2011).
