Science Blogs: a sexy Madison Avenue kind of vibe

Found in the Business section of this morning's New York Times:

Science Blogs as a Vehicle for Upscale Ads

The summary from 30,000 feet is this: advertisers are looking toward the new media of blogdom as a vehicle for hawking their wares. Seed Magazine, which focuses on the Venn diagramatic intersection of science and culture, is launching a network of science oriented blogs and plans to sell ad space to some hefty corportations. Seed Media is engaged in a marketing research study aimed at examining the relationship beween consumers and science in collaboration with JWT New York. Here's snippet of the results, excerpted from the NYT article:

The research has identified about 20 million Americans, 7 percent of the population, who are labeled in the study as "Leonardos," named after da Vinci for their avid, Renaissance-style interest in science as well as subjects like art and politics.

Leonardos are mostly male, in their 30's and middle to upper class, said Eliza Esquivel, a planner at JWT New York who is working with Ms. Cortizo on the study.

The Chimp Refuge may never qualify as a lofty enough addition to Seed's select group. After all, our contributions are a bit scurrilous, and my menopausally diffuse brain causes me to veer from the scientific realm now and then. But lofty or not, I am proud to claim a couple of articulate and rakish Leonardos for my blog team.

The links to Seed Magazine and ScienceBlogs are now on the Refuge. Note that a couple of familiar faces, Pharyngula and Gene Expression, are now hosted on ScienceBlogs. Please update your links to these fine blogs. Now I will anxiously await the colorful Viagra, Propecia and Nexium ads contaminating the purity of the overwhelmingly academic offerings on ScienceBlogs. Welcome to my world, baby!

Coming to the Refuge soon: cannabinoid receptors and botanical pornography!