tags: Scientia Pro Publica, Science for the People, biology, evolution, medicine, earth science, behavioral ecology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, blog carnival

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.

Welcome to the 21st edition of Scientia Pro Publica, the blog carnival devoted to nurturing and encouraging an online community of blog writers who communicate with the public about science, environment and medicine. Since it was the 201st anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, I think it is important to mention that writing about science for the public has historical precedent: Darwin and other scientists of yore wrote extensively about their ideas for the public. In this blog carnival, you'll find plenty of scientists, doctors and others who are continuing this grand tradition by writing about their work and ideas for you.
I am excitement about the high quality writing in the numerous submissions (54, to be exact) that I received. That said, I was also astonished at how few of these essays had any comments -- most of them had none at all! All of these authors are writing for free. Most of them are writing because there is something special they wish to communicate with the public. So I want to make it a group project where every one of us -- yes, this means YOU, dear readers -- make an effort to leave a comment on at least one of these essays that I've linked here. Let the author know if their writing resonated with you; what did they do well? What could they have explained better? You, as members of the public, are both audience and teachers -- let's make sure that we provide these writers with some encouragement and feedback!

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