Thursday, March 7, 2013

Science for the Common Good

     I read an interesting book lately, not a science book, but a book written by a journalist who was interested in the relationship between science and art.  The journalist is Jonah Lehrer and his book is titled Proust was a Neuroscientist.  The book posited the idea that art - in its various forms - discovered secrets about the brain before "neuroscience" ever even existed.  Lehrer talks about Walt Whitman and how he united the mind/body duality through his poetry by showing how we are one with our bodies.  We can see an example of this in his epic poem, "Songs of myself," when he says: “I am the poet of the body, / And I am the poet of the soul".  This example shows how Whitman was able to discover the relationship between the mind and the body long before we had the technology to look into the human mind.  Lehrer uses many other examples to show how through various means of art we have been able to discover facts about the brain before neuroscience.  
     Lehrer wrote this book because he was interested in the relationship between art and science.  I think it takes this type of passion to go out and write about something that you find interesting.  I learned many things from this book that I did not know previously, even as someone who is studying in neuroscience.  Science is something that should be given away for 3 main reasons: 1. Because you did the research/discovered something yourself, 2. Because you are interested in the research 3. Because you think the information is relevant and should be more widespread.  If a writer feels compelled by any of these reasons they should pick their topic and write about it in order to spread the wealth of knowledge.  This benefits the common good by making science knowledge more accessible and adds to the general scientific literacy.
     I do not think that there should be one set way to write about science, that being said, there is no one way to write something that is going to interest everyone.  You could present the same information in 10 different ways and each way is going to appeal to a different type of person.  In order to write about science that is going to appeal to the most amount of people you have to turn it into a story.  This is what makes it interesting and relevant to the reader; this is what Jonah Lehrer did.  In order to give science away in a manner that is going to reach the most people in the most effective way the facts have to be presented in a creative way as to almost trick people into learning.  You want the reader to crave more knowledge at the end of your story so that they are intrigued enough to go out and seek additional information on their own.  A science writer should be able to effectively do this in order to spread science information for the betterment of our nation's scientific literacy.  

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