Proud to be one of thirteen twits

Two days ago I found myself inundated with literally hundreds of new twitter followers (as of today, ~450 and counting). After sending a delighted if baffled tweet asking my new followers what the trigger might have been, I was kindly informed by quite a few that it was probably because I was featured on mashable in an article by Andrew Maynard:

13 "Twits" who will change your perspective on reality"

In his preamble to the list, Maynard writes, "Is there profundity to be found on Twitter? Indeed there is. The service plays host to some real gems; seemingly off-the wall users who get inside your head and challenge you to think differently. Some of them are big names like CTO of Cisco Padmasree Warrior and Web 2.0 guru Tim O’Reilly, with followings in the six digits. Many of the best tweets, however, come from regular folk who have something worthwhile to say. Here are just 13 with a penchant for science and technology that make me think in new ways."

And so, without further ado, here's the list of us "Twits":

1. Charles Darwin: tweeting from the Beagle, where else?
2. Chris Anderson: runs the TED conference
3. Laura S. Marshall: publishing editor
4. Marcus du Sautoy: the “Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science” at the University of Oxford in the UK (until recently held by Richard Dawkins)
5. Lord Drayson: British government Minister for Science and Innovation
6. Joerg Heber: senior editor for the scientific journal Nature Materials
7. Karen James: Maynard describes me thusly: "A self-confessed Darwin groupie, Karen works at the Natural History Museum and is heavily involved in attempting to rebuild the Beagle: The ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world. Her tweets will give you an unashamedly Darwinian view of life—entertaining and provocative."
   
8. Tim Harper: entrepreneur, investor and emerging tech adviser
9. Alexis Madrigal: Wired.com’s energy and science staff writer
10. Eric Berger: science reporter for the Houston Chronicle
11. David Bradley: writes the Sciencebase blog where he maintains a growing list of “scientific Twitter friends”
12. Arjun Basu: Maynard describes his tweets as "thought-provoking fiction, in bite-sized chunks"
13. Tim Jones: freelance science communicator

Holy good company, Batman. Do visit Maynard's mashable article for a lot more information about each Twit including 'sample tweets' and the specific reasons you should follow them. And I can't end without saying a huge "thank you" both to Andrew Maynard and all my new followers: I hope I live up to your expectations!