Nature has compiled a list of the 50 top blogs 'written by scientists about science'.

Referring to the list as 'a snapshot of science blogs and their place in the blogosphere, rather than a definitive ranking', Nature staff compiled a preliminary list of sites.

The list was then augmented with blogs often cited by other science bloggers and aggregators.

Using the Technorati blog search engine, staff then attributed a ranking and compiled the list in full.

Nature then reported that five of the top 10 science blogs on its list are written not by individuals but by groups of scientists.

Pharyngula, run by Paul Myers - a biologist at the University of Minnesota, topped the list.

Myers told Nature that his top rank was down to "tapping into the broader areas of liberal politics and atheism" and a rich vein of "resentment against the reactionary religious nature of American culture".

"Sometimes, I just summarise some basic concepts as I would in the classroom," he said.

"A blog's more like the conversation you'd have at the bar after a scientific meeting."

Pharyngula ranked as the 184th most popular of 46.7 million blogs indexed by Technorati, and had more than 2,000 incoming links.

According to Nature, Scienceblogs.com hosts 22 of the top 50 science blogs - including Pharyngula - and pays its bloggers $70 a month for 50,000 to 250,000 page views, and $300 for 250,000 to 1 million views.