So what is the site about?

After a few months of physics videos, amateur science sites and educational games, the website we are highlighting in this month’s column is a straightforward blog. Just A Theory was started in 2008 by freelance science journalist Jacob Aron while he was studying for a Master’s degree in science communication at Imperial College London. The blog’s title, Aron explains, reflects a popular misconception that scientific theories are “dreamed up by mad scientists in laboratories somewhere” rather than well-crafted explanations based on observations and experiments. To combat this impression, the site aims to highlight good and bad science coverage in the mainstream media, and to provide original commentary on current scientific events.

What topics does it cover?

Just A Theory’s net is pretty wide, but there is a strong physics thread thanks in part to the blog’s second author, London-based astrophysicist-cum-journalist Colin Stuart. In a typical month, you will find links to science demonstrations, discussions of recent discoveries and a modicum of silliness – like the London Underground-style map of the Milky Way created by Harvard University complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman. Like a lot of blogs, this one contains a sidebar with a list of post “categories”, such as physics, mathematics, and health and medicine, that lets you pick out particular topics of interest. Be sure to visit the “Yes, But When?” category, which pokes gentle fun at the breathless reports of running robots, bacterial computers, space stations and other wonders that generally turn out to be available n years in the future (n > 10).

How often is it updated?

At the moment, posts appear once or twice a week on average. Most are written by Aron, with regular contributions from Stuart and occasional offerings from other writers, most of whom are alumni or current students on Imperial’s science-communication course. Some posts are round-ups of the week’s news, with three or four different topics discussed in a single entry.

Why should I visit?

Just A Theory offers a moderately UK-centric perspective on science news for interested members of the public and busy professional researchers alike. You will not find too many detailed, hard-science articles here, but sometimes that is not the point. As a student or professional physicist, it is easy to develop tunnel vision as you dig ever deeper into a relatively narrow research topic, but keeping the “bigger picture” in sight can be a time-consuming process in an ever-more-crowded media world.

Can you give me a sample quote?

From Aron: “I don’t know why, but I just love clever ideas for electricity generation. Maybe it’s because I’m a great big nerd with vague but constant guilt about how the energy I used is produced. The latest idea I’ve seen comes from researchers at the City College of New York, who’ve developed a way to literally suck energy from the air flow around cars and planes. They’re using materials with piezoelectric properties, which convert physical movement into electricity to generate a form of wind power…I think that ideas like this are the future of electricity generation. It’s not a very sexy solution to the problems of climate change, and you won’t see any politicians crying ‘let’s all attach small things to our cars!’, but if we can come up with loads of small ways to produce clean power, it could add up to a significant carbon saving.”