To much deserved fanfare, Bora Zivkovic launched the new Scientific American blog network, featuring 47 blogs and some of the best writers around. Several personal favourites are now on the site and demand your attention including Jennifer Ouellette, Eric Michael Johnson, Jennifer Frazer, Hannah Waters, Lucas Brouwers, Kevin Zelnio, Charles Choi, Christie Wilcox, Darren Naish, SciCurious, Jason Goldman and more. All of this prompts PZ Myers to declare that “Scienceblogs.com is dead“.

The big journalism story this week: the Guardian revealed that the News of the World hacked the voicemails of murdered girl Millie Dowler and deleted messages, prompting false hope in her parents and possibly perverting the course of justice. That was the first of several revelations that culminated in the paper ending its 168 year run, as a result of the ensuing scandal. Here’s as good a summary as you’ll get of the whole scandal by the man who broke the story: the awesome Nick Davies. The Guardian has predictably the best coverage of the continuing story.

“I am a feminist, because skeptics and atheists made me one,” says Rebecca Watson about the ...