How Bad Can This Blog Get?

I've been mulling over an idea for the last few days. My idea began to form when I realized that I've been neglecting this blog, as has been the case for the past few months. As a new post-doc researcher at Lincoln University, my days are mostly spent on the computer writing up project summaries, working on grant proposals, and wading through scientific papers for literature searches. This leaves very little time to keep up with the goings-on in the world of science, at least those goings-on that aren't directly related to my research. So my idea is this: use this blog space as a forum to put down thoughts and ideas related to my research.

Now there are several problems associated with doing this. The first problem is that the blog will become very dry and technical. I should mention that when cool stuff happens, I will still post about it; but most of the updates will probably be very specific to sensor development. I would imagine that this topic would only appeal to a very small percent of the general populous...not that the general populous reads this blog, but whatever. The second problem is that the world of scientific research is extremely competitive. If I add a post about an idea for a new sensing method, some other schmuck doing similar research could stumble upon the post with an internet search and steal my idea. That would not be good. And on top of that, granting agencies don't always enjoy having the work that they are funding vomited out onto the internet for the whole world to see before they have.

So here's what I'm thinking. No general, all-encompassing descriptions of technologies or methods that are going into a grant proposal. If the data's already been collected and analyzed and the results are being compiled into a manuscript for publication, then maybe I can be more broad. But even in this case, any published results will be copyrighted by the scientific journal, so no data or results in the blog. Theoretical stuff only.

As far as keeping the blog readable and interesting, I'll try to throw in some non-super-technical posts as often as I can. If all goes well, this should be a strategy that will increase the pace of updates and keep me engaged with the blog.

If there's anyone out there that still reads this blog, and you have an opinion on whether this is a really good or incredibly stupid idea, feel free to let me know in the comments.