Bethany BrookshireAcademia, Activism, Synaptic Misfires, UncategorizedComments are off for this post

The other week the internet was abuzz with the Science Twitter List, The Top 50 Science Stars of Twitter. The post raised some hackles due to its low inclusion of women and minorities, as well as some of the criteria as to who is considered a “scientist” and what it means to be a star of Twitter (Dawkins anyone?). The point of the post, aside from raising the Twitter profile of 50 lucky scientists, was to note how silly some metrics for popularity really are. Whether it achieved that point (possibly offending the people on the list as opposed to those not on it), I’m not sure.

But it made me think. I see many of these Twitter lists. The science stars of Twitter. The 50 best science Twitter accounts. 27 Twitter accounts that you should follow for science, where in 27 is a number I happened to pick for no reason. Etc. I’m on some of these lists. It’s always nice to be included and strokes my ego.

But then I realized that I rarely, if ever, see anyone I don’t already know on those lists. If science journalists are included, I’ll see Ed and Carl and Brian and Ginny and Jennifer, etc. If just scientists, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Oliver Sacks, Phil, PZ, Sean. If you follow science on Twitter at all, well, chances are you probably already follow those people. Maybe these lists stroke some egos. Maybe people feel good to feel like they are following the “right” people that everyone else is following, and maybe they think they are receiving the best information as a results.

Maybe that’s true. But in my experience, while the greats do make for some fabulous sciencey links, there are a lot of other scientists and science tweeters out there. They may not have however many hundred thousand followers. But they are out there. They are doing science or writing about science and tweeting about it.

And I began to think: WHO are these people? These people in the shadows of science Twitter? If I haven’t heard of them, well why NOT!?

So I put a call out on Twitter. I asked who I hadn’t heard of. Who’s doing great science. I got a huge number of responses, and it was really heartening to see so many people!

And then I realized that I should make a list, too. Because there are some people who I follow who I think other people don’t follow enough. And I don’t know why. Because these people are AMAZING.

This list is not scientific. It is biased in the extreme toward Twitter accounts I like and is by no means representative of the science Twitter universe in any way. It is merely the first few people I think of off the top of my head when I think of people I WISHED more people followed. The only criteria so far is they have less than 10,000 followers…and I thought of them first, in no particular order. In fact, I would like to see far, far more of these lists. Who are the science people you follow, who you think are the undiscovered secrets of science Twitter? Why? I want to find these people and follow them, and I bet other people do, too.

So without further ado…

The first FIVE people that came to my head. Why aren’t you following these people?

(This list will probably grow very quickly as more people come to my head. But these are the first five I thought of).

1) Anne W. Holborn @AnneWHilborn

This is the first Twitter account when I think of an account more people need to follow. Hilborn is an ecologist getting her PhD at Virginia Tech. She studies cheetahs. Which means she studies cheetahs in Africa. Which means that she spends her summers in Africa…LIVE TWEETING HER FIELD WORK. This is a woman live tweeting as she watches cheetahs. It’s absolutely amazing.

Some examples:

It is a fascinating view into both natural history and the working life of a scientist. It’s kind of like watching a David Attenborough film. But on Twitter. In real time.
 

2) John R. Hutchinson @JohnRHutchinson

John R. Hutchinson is a scientist who studies evolutionary biomechanics. The way animals move, and how that has changed over time. When one studies biomechanics, it involves a lot of computer modeling. But it also involves a lot of…taking animals apart. Which Hutchinson does. Often with pictures or video. He is forever tweeting photos of bizarre specimens and interesting anatomy.

Some examples:

By turns fun and sciencey and cute. I always learn something neat when he tweets.
 

3) Jedidah Isler @JedidahIslerPhD

Jedidah Isler is a newly minted PhD in astrophysics. While she tweets some great space stuff, what I love about her feed is her focus on the issues facing minorities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). She has a lot of practical advice and spreads a lot of good links around.

Some examples:

And of course: SCIENCE!

4) Raychelle Burks @DrRubidium

Burks is an analytical chemist, and it is completely beyond me why everyone doesn’t already follow her. Hilarious and sarcastic by turns, she has a lot of important things to say about women and minorities in STEM. She also writes some amazing things on her blog, Thirty-Seven. In particular I recommend the series she’s doing on poisonings. Fascinating stuff.

Finally, she is the fearless leader of the GeekGirlCon DIYSciZone, an idea she came up with to spread science to kids at sci-fi and fantasy conventions. Now in its second year, it’s one of my favorite weekends. We spend all day showing kids how to extract DNA from strawberries, make “fossils,” find the width of their hair with a laser pointer, and generally show kids that science is FUN, and that scientists come in all types.

Some examples:

5) Jeremy Yoder @JBYoder

A biologist, I especially like Yoder’s collections of ‘stuff online,’ which is his daily (ish?) hash of links. It’s never too many, which is nice, and he almost ALWAYS has something I haven’t seen before (which is saying something when I sit with Twitter running down my screen all day).

Yoder is also an outspoked advocate for LGBTQ in academia, which we need more of. Often people think of academia as an inherently liberal, open environment, but many times, it’s just not that simple. I really appreciate learning more about these issues. He also has excellent academic advice.

Some examples:

These are the top 5 off the top of my head. I know I am missing hundreds, if not thousands. Who are the five people who you think of that you KNOW more people should follow? Why?

As I think of more and have time I’ll update this list. And I’d LOVE to see links to other lists, other good people hiding in the science Twitter shadows. There are so many people out there tweeting great stuff! Gotta catch ’em all!

Bethany Brookshire

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