Happy First Blogiversary To Me

No, it is not today. It was two weeks ago but I missed it!

Its been just over a year since I started this blog. My motivation to start writing was really a personal one. I like writing about science. The decision on what topics to concentrate on was also easy. I am passionate about geology and evolution and there was never any doubt that these would be the central themes of this blog. I decided early on to concentrate on discussing the science itself. Geology and evolution are not widely read in India and although the blogosphere crosses national boundaries and reaches audiences worldwide I did have in mind primarily Indian readers. There is definitely a lacuna in covering these topics in Indian science writing of any sort and so I hope this blog is helping bridge that gap a little.

The choice of these topics and writing primarily on nerdy science stuff did mean narrowing the size of the potential audience but that is something I expect and accept. I remember a conversation with a geology faculty during my Master's training in Pune. He emphasized that once you are specializing in science you will start living in a self contained universe, corresponding and interacting with a very small group of people. You love what you do, you have to strive for quality and not worry too much about how many people read your work. It will be a very small number. I thought about that when a grand total of about 8 people read my PhD thesis!

That was before the blogosphere erupted. Today a super specialized scientist can publish a paper that 8 people read but simultaneously publish a blog post which is read by thousands. I can't claim that my posts are read by thousands, but it is something to strive for. It's good to know that there is a large audience for good science writing, even writings on very specific topics. I guess today my blog is doing okay for such a niche subject area. More than 8 people have read my writings and I have a small but growing subscriber base. I would love to have more readers and more interaction with science fans. I would love to have the Indian media read my posts and improve their coverage of science. Yeah, dream on!! That's hoping for too much!

But I do hope to keep writing and it will be interesting to see if my blog remains engaging enough to entice more readers to spend a few minutes of their busy day visiting this site.