As most of my bloggy visitors will know, I’m a strong supporter of web- and blog-based scientific debate. I believe that the formal, semi-formal and casual discussions that take place all over the web can really enrich our experience of science – from learning entirely new things about completely different areas of science, to gaining new insights into problems in our own fields of research and building a network that’s unrelated to our geographical location or seniority in the science hierarchy. This is not just some baseless conviction; this has really been my experience since I started reading and writing blogs.

So with that in mind, I’m really pleased to announce that, from January 2011, I’ll be the new Physical Sciences Editor for ResearchBlogging. Each week I’ll be picking out some of the most interesting research posts in the fields of physics, astronomy, maths, engineering, chemistry, computer science and geosciences, from the many bloggers that are signed up with the site. I’ll do my best not to be too biased towards astronomy – as my day-to-day work is kind of a giant stew of  several areas of science and engineering, my interests are spread wide and far anyway. And of course I’ll still be writing my own research posts on here as well.

A big thanks to Dr Skyskull, whose shoes I’ll be attempting to fill, and an excited hello-wave to fellow new editor Krystal D’Costa of Anthropology in Practice, and the rest of the team of editors. And to all the bloggers: I look forward to reading all your excellent work. Keep it coming!