Social media is an increasing part of the toolset that we use as scientists. While I am not yet convinced about the value of things like Researchgate and LinkedIn (but grudgingly participate), have a minimal facebook and no instagram presence, I do engage with twitter. I have found this to be a very useful professional development tool. It’s great for being made aware of new papers, web articles and resources, finding out about what is happening at conferences that I can’t attend and publicizing things like our EcoLincNZ articles. If Darwin had had access to all of this, and given that he was such a great letter writer, I think that he would have loved using twitter. I can just imagine him strolling the Sandwalk trying to think up his twitterhandle (or name). Gee I wonder how many followers he would have had by the end of his life?

I am @Darwinnernz if you are interested!