Who are you, what are you doing here and why do you keep looking at me!!??!

Ed Yong recently asked his readers to tell him a little about themselves and what they enjoy about his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science. The comments got really interesting to read. Since typical comment-to-lurker ratios bandied about run in the very-small-minority ranges, 5-10%, bloggers do not really have a good feel for who their readers are and why the regulars keep coming back.
This is by way of partially excusing my completely self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing behavior- blame it on someone else! (I’m not capping on Ed here, he’s an actual, you know, professional science writer with some serious chops. In his case this is obligatory market research for his professional work.) Anyhow, consider this one of those de-lurker posts from YHN.
I’ll treat Ed’s post as if it were a meme*. Among other things, that lets me blatently steal his framing of the question.

Tell me about you. Who are you? Do you have a background in science? If so, what draws you here as opposed to meatier, more academic fare? And if not, what brought you here and why have you stayed? Let loose with those comments.

Have at it my friends.
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*If you blog, consider yourself tagged! [Update: Similar threads from ScienceWomen, Coturnix and drdrA.]

The Women of MDMA Research

A comment left by a reader some time ago took exception to one of my posts highlighting another blogger.

wow, that is some excellent PR for a grad student to get for free. perhaps you could spotlight a female grad student as well…?

The ensuing discussion planted the idea for this post.