Parenting on planet health-science hellscape

Parental anxiety around the health of our children was at the forefront of this month’s workshop. This meeting was one of the most packed ones so far, and the quality of feedback given and received by the presenters was extraordinary—a testament to the dedication of the members of this group.

Are citizens better science communicators than scientists?

First, we delved into the lived experience of a researcher working on the genetics of a rare childhood disease, and how their work propelled them into the lives of families affected by the very disease their lab investigates. The author highlighted the ubiquitous presence of medical jargon that these families so frequently encounter, often without adequate support to make sense of specialized terms and what they mean for the family. We discussed how scientific language may sometimes function as a protective shield for the healthcare harbingers of bad news; a way to create distance when one may not know how to deal with the anguish of parents who just want to see their children be well. We also considered how non-scientists can become the most effective science communicators through sheer necessity, and how humbling it is to watch someone disseminate scientific knowledge to others more skillfully than many scientists know how to do.

Can fiction sometimes capture real-world dilemmas better than fact?

Second, we pored over a draft chapter of a fictional novel in progress, presented to us in two languages: the original in Finnish and a translation into English. The bilingual participants commented on how subtly different ways of expressing the same concept in two different languages can alter the feel of a text and its characters. Thus, we discovered how powerful a single word choice can be for altering the impression of an entire scene. The chapter centered around what seemed to be an outlandish diagnosis by an unskilled observer, and we debated whether this was in fact too unrealistic to be believable, or whether the eccentric nature of the tacit childhood disorder could be turned into an effective plot device.

Image: Ahmad Juliyanto, Vecteezy.