Posts by Trevor Corson
December workshop coming up
Our next dinner salon and science-writing workshop will be Thursday, 12 December. If you have a text-in-progress that you want to submit for workshopping, please let the director know. Image: Vecteezy, Yulia Gapeenko
Read MoreBioracism reborn?
Many science bloggers and writers put their thoughts into the form of essays that discuss a new book, or several new books where the writer sees a theme. We studied an example of this kind of book-review essay this month to see how such essays can work, especially in terms of structure and argument. The…
Read MoreSci-comm panel at Brain & Mind
NeuWrite Nordic director Trevor Corson discussed journalism, storytelling, and creative writing about science as part of a panel discussion on science communication, during the concluding event of the Brain & Mind Symposium in Helsinki on October 25. The panel brought together a rich mix of perspectives from: eNeuro, the journal of the Society for Neuroscience—panelist:…
Read MoreThe intersection of science and literature
We had a special treat at our dinner salon and workshop meeting this month: Iida Turpeinen, one of Finland’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the transdisciplinary space between science and literature, joined us to discuss a section of the forthcoming English translation of her 2023 natural-history book Beasts of the Sea (Fin. Elolliset), which won…
Read MorePoetry performance / art exhibition explores scientific ideas
NeuWrite Nordic participant, doctoral researcher from the University of Helsinki’s Neuroscience Center, and internationally published writer, poet and visual artist Rakenduvadhana Srinivasan will perform her original poetry as part of the Surrealism Festival at Yö Gallery in Helsinki, where her art will be on sale and projected (see the neuroscience-themed work above). Titled “Inexorable filaments…
Read MoreArticle about surgical fads and secret agents published
Perhaps it was a stretch to compare the rise and fall of medical techniques with the love life of James Bond, but that’s exactly the origin of one of the more memorable charts to have appeared in the British Medical Journal. For the first time, the full story of the comparison, and the connection to…
Read MoreClimate action novel published
“Engrossing, insightful, and entirely credible.” —Markku Kulmala University of Helsinki Academy Professor and atmospheric scientist “Frighteningly believable.” —Kati Halonen, poet At NeuWrite Nordic we’ve workshopped several sections of a novel about climate change, in which dramatic scenes of destruction and chaos have stripped away the polite politicking of national leaders and climate scientists…
Read MoreThe bioethics of the brain-machine interface
Direct electrical/digital interfaces between human brains and machines are advancing rapidly while AI is suddenly infiltrating the process of human thinking at mass scale. Where are we headed? At our September meeting, we discussed a recent selection from the Best Science & Nature Writing about the cutting-edge technology of humans interacting with computers using only…
Read MoreWhat are zoos? Do we live in one?
Does visiting a zoo ever give you a strange feeling—not just about our relationship with nature, but maybe even about your own life? What kind of science and ideas lie behind zoos, and could they tell us something about human existence and our future? This month we workshopped a draft treatment for a fictional story,…
Read MoreRethinking the secret life of plants
With the long-awaited greenery of the Nordic summer finally upon us, it was the perfect time to consider the secret life of plants. They’re not what we think they are: the science is changing and the potential for plants to think, communicate, and engage in chemicals-weapons combat gave us plenty to ponder, while we, um,…
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