BenFW

• For Carl: I think it was yesterday during your dust up with a researcher who seemed to dismiss blogging in favour of traditional journalism, that you mentioned that Brossard's new study will change how you blog. Can you elaborate on that?

• For Ed: Your recent story about Lilly Grossman was fascinating and wonderful. Where did you hear about it? Were you looking for a human story to put a face on genomic medicine?

• More generally, and for anyone, is there any pattern to what stories catch your interest enough to write?

• Also for anyone: a lot has been written about why more academics should blog. Do you think it's an important thing for journalism? Has anyone tried to estimate how many professors actually do?

Yeah, that was a nice touch. I was really impressed with the balance you found. You didn't oversell personal genomics as a miracle diagnostic, you explained the science at no expense to readability and you didn't turn it into a tear-jerker. It was as good a piece of science writing as I've read all year.

Thanks for the reply! It really is fascinating that bad comments can have such a strong impact on reader beliefs. I wonder if good comments can have the opposite effect.