Abbas and the 3QuarksDaily team are looking for new columnists:

Here's your chance to say what you want to the international audience of highly educated readers that 3QD has! Several of our regular columnists have had to cut back, or even completely quit, their columns for 3QD because of other personal and professional commitments, and so we are looking for three new voices for our Monday columns. We cannot pay, but it is a good chance to draw attention to subjects you are interested in, and to get feedback from us and from our readers.

I feel terrible that I was not able to keep up as a regular Monday columnist; the least I can do is advertise this opportunity.

And it is quite a remarkable opportunity. The quality of feedback is excellent, and the opportunities contained within the 3QD audience are enormous. As a result of my handful of columns at 3QD I have been interviewed several times, quoted in Scientific American, reprinted by the American Physical Society, cited in the peer-reviewed literature and invited to attend two small conferences and to join an advisory board at a local liberal arts college. None of these things would have been remotely likely without my brief tenure as a Monday columnist on 3QD.

Fair warning: you will be writing for one of the smartest, most original and most enjoyable websites there is; the company you'll be keeping is intimidating. Once a month doesn't sound like much, but it's harder than it looks when you're playing at that level. If, however, you really do have something to say to the world, then you would be hard pressed to find a better platform from which to say it than mondays on 3QD.

(Given the likely readership of this blog (hi Mom!), I will just add that Abbas is an engineer by training and has a soft spot for hard science, so aspiring science writers would do well to try out. I can't think of a better way to launch such a career.)