Au revoir… but not adieu
As an avowed atheist, it would be in poor taste for me to commend my few remaining readers to God, whether or not they would like to be.
In any case, this post will start with an outpouring of gratitude for the unlimited opportunities that Nature Network, and before that, the Science Advisory Board, have allowed me for self-expression. I could have done it myself, perhaps, but it did not happen that way. Thank you for enabling me to meet some wonderful people, many of whom I now count among my personal friends.
Yes, there have been some difficulties with the form over the years at various points, but the medium has nearly always been available to me. People write much better things under much more constraining circumstances. Perhaps such circumstances refine them and enable them to better differentiate the trivial from the important.
I began my first blog post thus at the end of 2004:
How does daily life impact how one conducts science? My exercise is to keep a diary of how my lives as a scientist, a married mother, and an American in Europe intersect.
I was given a blog based on a trivial proposal I made, contingent on a held promise to post at least once every two weeks. Early on, I had proposed to invite guest bloggers, but they rarely made more than a one-time appearance. I rapidly discovered that certain other bloggers in other places posted more than once a day, read their contributions, and was at one point discouraged by the disparity. I comforted myself with the idea that few people at precisely my career stage – freshly appointed, and then later, freshly tenured – were holding blogs at that time. Shortly, a post every few days was not a burden and enabled me to actually unburden myself. Blogging has become a burden this year. I do not have that much else to say about “how daily life impacts how [I] conduct science”.
One always finds the time. It’s not a question of time.
Here’s an obvious statement: the science blogging landscape has changed since 2004 – even since 2008 when I started blogging here, and for the better, in my opinion. There is a much greater diversity of points of view. Okay, the writing is of variable quality ‘round the internet. I wouldn’t mind there be a more variable selection of meta-blog networks – aggregators, select blogging communities based on an over-riding vision (clearly expressed to the invited bloggers), individual blogs scattered throughout the available software platforms, linked more or less tenuously to one another and to the corporate-sponsored stables of star racehorses.
I am a biologist. I believe firmly in the virtues of diversity in the light of a merciless natural selection. Blogging is not subject to other rules. The more diversity out there, the more some will be fit to survive under unforeseeable, changed circumstances.
In 2004, if there were RSS feeds and readers to manage them, I was not aware of it. There were blogrolls, carnivals, rings, and lists. Cross-commenting. One got to really know one’s audience, at least the bit of it that made itself visible by leaving comments, and the rest of it by following the spam, the bots and the IP addresses by country on Counterize II or the equivalent.
Above all, there is no shortage of testimony to the idea that scientists are indeed human. Or that they can be passionate. Perhaps there was no shortage earlier, either, but when I began, I felt like my friends and family at least did not much sympathize with those conclusions. They were too much in awe of the letters I had accrued after my name, years of study and experience in a field they would find difficult or boring or both.
I wouldn’t say that familiarity breeds contempt, but it has at least bred some getting used to titles and qualifications. The world teems with career choices that I would find difficult or boring or both. I like what I do.
So, now, I am going to re-focus on what I like to do. I like to think about how organisms develop before they are born, and to design and perform experiments to find out if my thoughts are disprovable. I write about that a fair deal, and I have more to write and to contribute on the subject before I retire.
Thank you very much to all the kind readers who have publicly expressed a little dismay at my wrapping things up. I hope these last words explain that I am not disappearing from the blogosphere, but I will probably keep my unsolicited opinions to comments on other blogs or the occasional informational post on other platforms.
I hope quitting blogging will free me up to read and comment more widely. As it has been mentioned, the proliferation of diverse new blogs, coupled with the changed criteria for welcoming them to Nature Network and other platforms, and my blithe unawareness of this new and evolving landscape, has led me to interact progressively less with people holding new opinions. I miss that.
The tallies were: 479 posts on my previous blog, mostly by me, and 711 non-spam comments; 173 here and 1170 comments. I definitely did well by coming to Nature Network, no question. Lazy as I am, pre-MT4 I had become accustomed to “meet the new bloggers” and “here is a long list of the latest blog and forum posts” (rather than three not-so-latest) and “here is a long list of the latest activity from people in your network” anytime I cared to check. I’m sure this is all still possible and probably ongoing, but I’m going to turn forty this year and I can’t be bothered to learn many new tricks. So many old, useless ones clog up my memory.
Writing to myself is also fairly useless, given how much I tell myself an ongoing narrative. Often, it does rather feel like writing to myself. Most bloggers know what I am talking about, those becalmed periods where you wonder why you bother.
Quitting blogging will perhaps also allow me to write more in other formats, and not just about my scientific results. This past academic year has already been largely devoted to transferring the “log” part of “blog” to a prolific output in private correspondence. I’ve just changed my audience to some extent, and nothing about such a change is itself immutable, for better or for worse.
I’ve started a new job in a different institute, just me on a kind of extended sabbatical, intellectually naked, without techs, students or postdocs. With a lot of books, papers and physical baggage to show for my earlier molts, and a new skin for a fresh, colorful start.
Farewell to this pedestal. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.
21 Responses to “Au revoir… but not adieu”
Sorry to see you go, I’ve enjoyed, and related to, many of your posts. Good luck in Stephane’s lab; I know him a bit and he’s a great guy assembling a pretty good (and getting better it seems) group.
I’ll miss you and the posts Heather. I’m happy you say you’ll keep commenting on some blogs* since I really like your thoughts and input.
If nothing else, I have to tell you how much you’ve taught this microbiologist about developmental biology and those eggs, chickens, embryos and diseases I’d never heard of before. It was one of the reasons I loved reading the blog, since I was pretty sure it’d be something I had no clue about before but would afterwards
Good luck with shedding that old skin and hope you’ll enjoy the new job and the fresh start. It might be hectic and different but it sounds adventurous and fun.
‘tills vi ses igen’,
Åsa
*wheather it is here on NN or somewhere else in the blogosphere
Heather – I’m sorry to read this, glad it’s right for you, and doubly glad I actually tripped through NN today to see your post. I’m suffering from blog fatigue (the “too much information to read” variety) and coupled with the abysmally slow load/response times of NN, I really haven’t been visiting much recently.
Good luck in the new position and do stay in (sporadic?) touch if you like.
Best,
Richard.
I already had my tantrum about this elsewhere, but still not happy! Well, I guess at least you made a nice closing post. I stopped my easternblot blog with a placeholder to other sites. It does get too much after a while! (Maybe I have too may blogs? Nah, I can still count them on one hand.)
“or the occasional informational post on other platforms.”
Yay!? =D
The very best of luck, Heather – and we’ll see you around!
steffi
Heather, thanks for this post. All the best, and keep in touch.
Au revoir – thanks for sharing. I enjoyed your refreshing style and different voice. I hope things go well and you will share your writings with this audience again some time in the future.
I’ll miss your posts, Heather – they are always worth reading, and I’ve read every one, even when I haven’t had anything of value to add in the comments. I do hope you’ll stay in touch, and I hope to meet you in person one day!
Cath
Oh dear Heather – well, I’m glad it’s au revoir and not adieu. Thanks for another lovely post and…
…see you ’round.
x
Sorry to hear this, Heather. Your blog here on NN is a delight to read and will be missed.
(Nostalgic note – Heather and I met on M@’s London pub crawl the day before SciBlog ’08 – she was one of the first NNers I met and was super-friendly to this nervous not-yet-blogger.)
Good luck! See you around the blogosphere…
Au revoir, Heather and bonne chance for the future.
I’ve realy enjoyed reading your posts and would like to thank you for all your contribution as well as for saying goodbye and explaining your reasoning.
Hope to see you around in the comment threads.
Thank you to everyone for your touching and kind messages. ‘Til we meet again, certainly. Online and perhaps off, and I’ll be following many of you in the future as you’ve so flatteringly followed me in the past and to this day.
Onwards.
It’s sad to see you leaving, I was enjoying your posts since the early days.
Hope you will still show up here.
Viktor
i am sorry to see you go, heather. but that said, if you wish to write a guest blog essay and publish it somewhere, please do contact me since i will have the platform and am most pleased to provide you with visibility.
Many thanks! I’m trying to keep my word and participate a bit… but I appreciate and will probably take advantage of all these kind offers to guest blog elsewhere, sometime in the future.
Au Revoir and good luck, I hope your new fresh skin gives you the freedom, time and space to think big thoughts.
I’ve loved reading your blog.
Heather, all the best for your new research position and locale! I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog, and having another neural crestophile on NN, and I’ll keep an eye out for your forthcoming publications (I know there will be many!) in the literature.
it would be in poor taste for me to commend my few remaining readers to God, whether or not they would like to be
Thank Eru for that!
[/Tolkien geek]
And a Namarië from me too [/Geek]. Or actually better (and less geekily) an Au Revoir.
Will be sorry to see your blog go, Heather, and pleased to hear you will still likely be guesting here and there. I can’t say I have been a terribly regular reader, but I have enjoyed the posts I have read for their tone and authorial voice, if that doesn’t sound too arty-farty. Blogging is often a rather off-the-cuff / response-mode / sounding-off-after-two-beers business – but your posts (like a lot of Jenny’s) had a more “literary” and “considered” feel. And I mean both of those in a good way, obviously.
PS Given your written style, I think you should keep a daily diary, if you don’t already. Then maybe you’d end up with a book.
Take care Heather and I really do hope we get to hear from you time to time
Hi Heather – I haven’t been around for quite some time, but wanted to say good luck and all the best to you!
Best wishes—you will be missed around here!
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