The Genetics and Public Health Blog has been live for one week and I have 11 entries posted and one in the queue to be posted on Monday. To publicize it, I have been posting snippets of my entries here and in . I’ve also been leaving comments in the genetics entries of other blogs.

The strategy appears to be working. The Genetics and Public Health Blog is ranked relatively highly in both Google and Yahoo! searches. My blog is the second most frequently visited on the About Weblogs Network and I’ve been receiving comments. One post has also generated discussion in another well-read tech blog.

All of this has been both exciting and stressful. The comments I received yesterday night in response to my entry, A Super-Elderly World, were particularly lengthy and detailed. Although the ideas I presented were those of the article I quoted, I think some of the readers might have thought they were mine. I haven’t participated in such intellectual exchanges since I left grad school in 1998.

Back then, I was younger, more confident, and less aware of what I didn’t know. I spoke up in seminars, presented at meetings, and asked questions everywhere and anywhere. I wasn’t easily intimidated. In these online discussions, however, I find my heart rate soaring while reading a comment and formulating a response. I’m afraid of being ridiculed. No one has attacked me personally…yet.

So that I won’t get too wound up inhabiting this online world of intellectual scientific debate, I want to remind myself of the following:

  1. My blog is for the general public/non-scientists. The other blogs I’ve been visiting and leaving comments in are geared towards scientists and people with an above average understanding of science, technology, and public policy. In contrast, at the Genetics and Public Health Blog, I would like anyone of any level of science background to enjoy reading the posts and feel safe making any comments that might pop into their heads.
  2. Just because someone leaves a comment that disagrees with me, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am the one who is wrong. Maybe they are. Or maybe we both are.
  3. Comments are just people’s opinions. There’s no need to stress over them as long as they are not aggressive or attacking. Disagreements should be educational.
  4. Most of the people who write the more popular intellectual blogs and leave comments there seem to be men. It re-enforces the notion that A-list bloggers are men while women are keeping mum. It’s natural for me as a woman to have a different discussion style.
  5. I should be proud that these obviously intelligent people would spend their time trading comments with me.

I feel like an athlete who has returned to training after being a couch potato for many years. Time to toughen up and get back in shape.