Blog Review: Beaker – A Medical Research Blog

The blog reviewed here is ‘Beaker – A Medical Research Blog‘ which I came across from one of Boraz’s Twitter posts.

Appearance and Design

The blog features a grey background with a diagonal white lined design. The central pane containing the text has a white background. The title pane features a photograph of two scientists focusing on a task next to the title of the blog. The articles are of a good length, informative, titled with author details, comment enabled , tagged and posted in specific categories. The articles are generously illustrated with high quality and relevant photographs including micrographs. There is one caveat however. In many of the articles, the reader must click on the ‘read the rest of the entry’ link at the bottom of the summary for each post in order to read the full post. The blog can be navigated using functions in the right hand panel – according to tags, categories and recent posts. There is also a search box. There are external links as well as a link to donate to the Sanford Burnham Institute.

Content

As would be expected from a large institution, there are frequent events (e.g visits by influential figures to the institute) and reports on research studies that are being undertaken. In this post for instance, the author succinctly describes an approach to designing new molecules that is being pursued at the institute by one researcher.  This post explains the role of messenger RNA and refers to a symposia on mRNA being held at the Institute.  As the blog is relatively young there are 15 posts at the time of writing.

Conclusions

This is a young blog which demonstrates how an institution can effectively represent itself through the use of social media. Indeed with a large number of employees and students, an Institution has a marked advantage if it is able to efficiently leverage its resources through the medium of social media. For the reader, the posts are well written and offer insights into the interesting research that is being undertaken at the Institute. This blog would particularly appeal to those interested in working or studying at the institute, readers with an interest in research or those interested in representing their institute through social media.

Call for Authors: If you are interested in writing an article or series of articles for this blog please write to the e-mail address below. Copyright can be retained. Index: An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.