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Bidding a Fond Farewell

Cocktail Party Physics bids farewell to the Scientific American blog network, but you can still find Jennifer Ouellette covering science news at Gizmodo.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


There's a sense in which life is just a series of phase transitions. You tool along in your familiar routine, all comfy with the status quo and savoring the lack of drama. But bubbling just beneath the surface is change -- tiny, imperceptible at first, but the cumulative effect eventually peaks into a critical point. A decision is made, and a phase shift occurs.

So it is for me and the tenure of Cocktail Party Physics at Scientific American's blog network. Starting today, I am senior science editor for Gizmodo, part of the many-headed Hydra that is Gawker media, working with editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz to bring even more juicy science coverage to the site. It's an exciting new phase for me, one that seems perfectly suited to my style and skill set.

The tradeoff is the need to sever my ties here. It's been a great 4+ years with Scientific American, but that phase is done and a new one begins. I'm not sure yet where Cocktail Party Physics will end up; for now, it will simply lie dormant at its old archival home. As for Physics Week in Review -- well, one of the reasons I started the weekly linkfest was frustration at all the cool science stuff on the Internet each week that I never had time to blog about. Now it's going to be my full-time job to ferret out all those tantalizing tidbits and write about them. So huzzah!


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I hope you'll follow me over to Gizmodo, and you can always also find me on Twitter, Facebook (most of my posts there are public), and Google+. Cheers!