What enters us, what changes us

The state of science communication about the environment occupied us this month, through an unusual form of personal reflection on plastic particles that enter us and cloak themselves in dynamic coatings of biomolecules that can then interact with our bodies. Meanwhile, our other text took us into a curious laboratory of inquiry into matters cardiac, where we observed the expression of other people’s physiology rearranging the author's heart.

An urgent reboot for environmentalism

Through a unique format—a letter to the dead—in our first text we learned about Rachel Carson, an environmental pioneer whose work reached far beyond the usual bounds of scientific circles. Most scientists can only dream of such impact: public recognition by a US president, and policy changes that affect whole societies and ecosystems. In our first text this month, the author of the letter humbly asked their role model, Carson: How can I learn from you? This was a pressing question for the author, who studies how the pollution of the environment today by microplastics could be changing our physiology, including the human placenta during pregnancy, as these tiny particles acquire dynamic biofilm coatings and become interactive parts of our biological bodies—a phenomenon that urgently to be communicated to the public. Through an intimate conversation in the letter, we were invited to reflect—how can we achieve what Rachel Carson did?

Clinical and metaphorical explorations of the heart

The second text—part of a larger first-person work of creative nonfiction about love in a science lab—reminded us how candid attention to detail can bring a story to life and help the reader insert themselves into the scene. We explored the contrast and connection between the scientific and emotional connotations of the heart, how our choices in life and love become etched into our psyche, and how even a real story needs to feature subtle nuances around the lived experience of the author in order to feel realistic.

Image: Aitthiphong Khongthong, Vecteezy.