Just announced: the winners of the 2010 physics.org web awards

The winners have now been decided for the inaugural physics.org 2010 web awards, a new set of awards which rewards the best physics-related content on the net aimed at a general audience.
physics.org is a public outreach website produced by the Institute of Physics (IOP). The site’s mission is to make physics accessible to the general public and guide its visitors to the best physics on the web.

Following nominations from the public, the IOP picked the top five contenders in seven categories: Best blog, Best news site / online magazine, Best podcast, Best Q&A / ask the expert site, Best revision site, Best kids’ site and the President’s prize – sites which don’t fall under any of the categories above.

One winner from each category was then chosen by the public, using an online voting system available on physics.org.

Meanwhile, a second winner per category was determined by a panel of judges which includes Adam Rutherford, editor at Nature, Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of physics and popular science author and TV presenter as well as Nate Lanxon, editor of wired.co.uk amongst others.

Winner of the best blog category – by both jury and public vote – is Starts with a bang, a blog written by theoretical physicist Ethan Siegel, which covers a plethora of topics from strange matter to why dinosaurs went extinct.

The President’s prize was awarded to Zooniverse, which allows enthusiastic amateurs to take part in data clasification.  Projects include classifying far-flung galaxies (Galaxyzoo), spotting explosions on the sun (Solar Stromwatch) and uncovering the moon’s tumultuous history by counting its craters (Moon Zoo).

For a full list of winners go to www.physics.org/awards