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Top of pageAbstract Weblogs written by scientists are relatively rare, but some of them are proving popular. Out of 46.7 million blogs indexed by the Technorati blog search engine, five scientists’ sites make it into the top 3,500. Declan Butler asks the winners about the reasons for their success.

179th Top five science blogs http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

Paul Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris, puts his top rank down to “tapping into the broader areas of liberal politics and atheism” and a rich vein of “resentment against the reactionary religious nature of American culture”. Scientists can easily translate their expertise into blog posts, adds Myers. “Sometimes, I just summarize some basic concepts as I would in the classroom.” But you are certain to fail if you write as if for a peer-reviewed journal. “It doesn’t work on the web,” says Myers. “A blog’s more like the conversation you’d have at the bar after a scientific meeting.”

1,647th Top five science blogs http://www.pandasthumb.org

1,884th Top five science blogs http://www.realclimate.org

2,174th Top five science blogs http://cosmicvariance.com

3,429th Top five science blogs http://scienceblogs.com/scientificactivist

Read more at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7098/full/442009a.html