It’s that time of the year again where I look back and see what has happened over the past 365 days in the life of this blog. So far in 2015…
…I have posted 46 posts
…that received over five hundred twenty-five thousand views
…from 217 countries/territories
…with 260 comments
The most viewed post of the year was about hypodermic flatworm penises, which won the title by a landslide (never underestimate the popularity of penises, I guess). Stories on parasitic wasp viruses and the spread of invasive lionfishes were the closest runners up. Y’all loved the news this year, and my top ten was littered with breaking news pieces about everything from species discovered on Facebook to the future of GMOs. Critiques also did very well (as they usually do), as my comments on why it’s still a bad idea to give birth amongst dolphins and why we shouldn’t respond to shark bites by killing sharks also landed in the top ten. Other popular posts included what it feels like to die by boomslang, using genes to change eggs into sperm, and how lemurs can tell a baby’s sex by its mother’s smell.
My words also reached beyond the boundaries of this blog. Some of the best include why we’re obsessed with bacon for Yahoo! Health, why focusing entirely on fins won’t save sharks for The Washington Post, the race for the $2 million Ocean XPRIZE for Popular Science, and the biggest idea in marine ecology to emerge in 2015 for Quartz. However, my favorite piece of the year was my longread for Mosaic on how we’re turning dangerous venoms into life-changing pharmaceuticals.
It’s been an incredible year, and next year looks to be even more amazing. In March, my first foray into editing — Science Blogging: The Essential Guide — hits shelves. The volume, co-edited by Bethany Brookshire and Jason Goldman, brings together 27 of the biggest names in science blogging. Then in August, my first book, Venomous, releases. I traveled around the world and came face to face with some of the deadliest species on the planet (and the scientists that study them) to write Venomous, so you won’t want to miss the adventures!
Overall, it’s been an incredible year, and I look forward to the challenges, surprises, and joys of the year to come. Thank you to all of you who read this blog: let’s keep this bio-nerdy party going all through 2016!
Fireworks image (c) Mark Wooding, from Wikipedia
opening paragraph it should read 2015 … thanks for all the great writing, looking fwd to the book – my fav was the lionfish info, actually managed to find a restaurant that served it, located in Islamorada – Mangrove Mike’s. Ate “lionfish benedict” for b’fast, was delicious!
– dave
Ha good catch! Fixed. Thanks for reading! And I’ll have to try the lionfish benedict next time I’m in that area! Sounds delicious!