Day in the Life...

I had the opportunity to chat with 12 Monkey’s showrunner Terry Matalas about time and time travel. Check out what he had to say! 

Great article about science outreach at UCLA written by our Editor-in-Chief at Signal to Noise Magazine!

Art inspired by particle physics! Written by the Aritst-in-Residence at the Fermilab. Super cool!

I had a nice chat with a writer last week. Me being a research scientist and him being a writer, I didn’t realize how much we actually have in common. Science writing, much like creative writing, comes down to one thing, good storytelling. Like the elaborate characters that fill our favorite stories, science is filled with its own quirky, fascinating, and extraordinarily complex cast of heroes, villains, and everything in between. Science involves anything from molecular meet cutes on the subcellular level to sweeping epics that span millennia and unfathomable distances. The cast of characters and stories to be told is so vast it would take an untold number of lifetimes to read and understand it all. Naturally, though, the palette with which science writers work with is limited to what’s real. We may be stuck in the non-fiction realm, but that gives us ample space to put our creative minds to work devising ways to share our science. Often times, the process of writing up our science for publication in a journal is not unlike writing a book. We know the cast of characters and we know the broad strokes of what our story will be, but we don’t necessarily know how it will all come together. Using knowledge from previous literature we learn about the world in which we are working, what the rules are, and how our characters might function in that world. The way in which we showcase how our characters behave and interact with one another is through the data we generate and share as figures. The story of a scientific publication comes together in a very organic way, marrying our new subplots with the existing story. Each paper we write builds upon the last, adds texture, color, and detail – sharpening our focus, while developing a great work of art, one of the great stories to be added to the greatest of collections, that of science. :)

Alright, just watched Episode 3 of Season 2 of 12 Monkeys. You may not watch the show, but I’m addicted. It’s crazy fun and full of wimey-timey time travel. They set their own rules and it’s awesome to see and predict how things will play out. In this season we get to learn more and more about Jennifer Goines’ “madness.” Surprise, surprise she’s not the only crazy one. And as they said on tonight’s episode people like Jennifer aren’t crazy, they’re special. And furthermore, crazy = special = primary? Primary. They interact with time in a completely different way from us peons, almost like they are outside of time. Kinda like 12 Monkeys’ time travelers. Once you get injected with Jones’ magical chemical cocktail, you don’t just get to travel back and forth through time. You interact differently with time too. I have to wonder if there’s a special connection between primaries and time travelers. Both operate outside the normal rules of time. And time, at least as we experience it, has clearly got some issues of its own. Red leaves = manifestation of time unraveling?  Just my opinion. Something worth coming back to I’m sure. Filing this one in the deep recesses of my mind. I will be back...

So..........my quirky alter ego (still thinking of a good name) is quite creative and has a bit of a dark side. Being a scientist, I spend a lot of time being creative. Needless to say this spills over into my personal interests. I love art and I love graphics. So I decided I’d teach myself. I have to do a little drawing for science papers, conference posters, and talks, but never thought much of doing more. About a year and a half ago, I figured I might as well try. I also happen to really like horror and sci-fi. Hence this photo. #AlienDay was this past Tuesday, so I drew a graphic. It’s amazing what you can do in 30 minutes! Everything I draw I put on my Instagram, @photoshopofhorrors Come say hi! :)

Back to writing a conference abstract. Knowing your audience. When I first started out, I thought I knew my audience. Though, after attending a few conferences, many of which were highly specific to my field, I quickly found out who my audience is. Unless you are talking to members of your lab or research team, LIMIT jargon as much as you can. That’s the key to clear communication. I try to keep this in mind no matter who I’m talking to. Jargon may make you SOUND smart, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are. As a scientist, I aim to be as clear as I can. If people can’t understand me, what’s the point?

OK, so I’m a neuroscientist. I’ve got a PhD. But that’s not ME. I love science, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not all I am. For me, that’s what being on social media is about. I just want to share and talk about the things that make me happy. So be prepared. I LOVE a lot of stuff!  

I currently volunteer for a non-profit online magazine called Signal to Noise. To distill our mission down to one phrase, we are scientists sharing science! And no, we aren’t trying to “explain” or “clarify” for the general public. That’s part of it, but we are so much more! It takes a lot of passion to be a scientist. We are creative folk filled with love, wonder, and curiosity about our world (and universe!). So that’s what we want to do, share with all of you what we love so much. I’ll be posting out here more articles from our magazine. I hope people will and enjoy! Please feel free to provide feedback, we are here for you. 

It’s been FAR too long since I’ve used my Tumblr account. Figured it’s about time I make my return. Struggled trying to figure out what I wanted to say out here. The answer’s been staring me straight in the face, WHATEVER I WANT. So that’s what I plan to do, talk about whatever is on my mind. Hope people find me entertaining enough. So here goes nothing..........

Motivation for the week, a beautiful sunset! :)