I recently had the privilege
of going to the Bodies Revealed Exhibit at the Da Vinci Science Center - for
more information or tickets: http://body.discoverlehighvalley.com/bodies-revealed/. My grandfather and my mother, who are both physicians,
went with me and we had an amazing experience. My father, despite being
surrounded by all these scientists, had no interest of going, did not want to
see the (sneaky) pictures we took, and would rather not hear any of the details. As a scientist, it’s hard for me to wrap my
brain around how someone would not be interested in this. Seeing real dissected bodies/body parts up
close just awestruck me. Humans are constructed in an absolutely incredible way. On the other hand, as a scientist, it struck
me how many people were there who came just to satisfy their curiosity and
learn, not being involved in the sciences at all. Walking around, I realized how difficult it
would be to see and learn from the displays if I hadn’t taken physiology last
semester (and if I didn’t have two experts walking around with me). At one of
the close up digestive system displays, I found myself standing next to a middle-aged
couple who were commenting on the display, saying it would be much easier to
understand if the display was set up in a way that showed how food would travel
to the body from the mouth to the intestines and I agreed with them! Instead,
they had dissections of the tongue, esophagus, the stomach, and intestines all
separate with short explanations of the body part. So I explained, to the best
of my ability, how food would travel and the couple thanked me profusely. I then mentioned how this semester I would be
taking a class dedicated to learning how to write and explain science for the
public. The couple could not stop telling me how valuable and important they
think this skill is. They said that much of the time, even when people are more
educated, science gets complicated and has too many factors (political, social,
etc) that go along with it that can lead people to mistrust and question
science or blindly follow whatever they happen to read or hear. That’s when I realized how truly challenging
this task of explaining science to the public is. I do not want to lose the
essence of science but I still want to be an easy-to-understand, influential,
and interesting science writer. The
Bodies Revealed exhibit is supposed to be for the public but even then,
everyone’s understanding level differs and the exhibit can always be improved. That is why, the best thing I think I can do
as a science writer, a scientist, and a person in general is to always strive
to be fearless in my work, have heart, and never hesitate to improve. Albert Einstein said, “If
you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Science writers need first, fully understand what
we want to explain. We need to not only understand our point of view but the
opposing points of view as well. We need
to learn the political and social influences of the topic on the public and then
attempt to tackle the problem. Embrace the skepticism. That makes writing vulnerable and more "human", which will (hopefully) cause people to be more receptive to the writing. I hope to write with a point of view but still
be able to incorporate differing thoughts and defend my point of view strongly. I think having counterarguments shows the
writing is fearless and strong. To be
better, we should write our science with heart. Furthermore, we need passion and compassion – a balance between not losing the spirit
of science yet still being able to get the point across to any person. And after writing, we shouldn't hesitate to go
back, revise and improve our work. We want others to have an open mind and influence them so we ourselves
should be open to changes in our thoughts. Lastly, I think it’s important to
hope to touch and make a difference in the lives of many but accept that there
will always be people who think differently and will disagree - and that's okay. Always dream big
but helping even one person is a success in my eyes.
