Article 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,…
Read More“Hair-Power Performativity” published
An illustration called “Cut It Out” by the Italian artist Marco Melgrati in support of Iranian women’s protest (center image, above) was the inspiration for a draft text we workshopped at NeuWrite Nordic last autumn. The text, a collaborative hybrid of social-science and storytelling titled “Hair-Power Performativity,” was published this week in the Barcelona-based journal…
Read MoreFact vs. fantasy—science writing meets science fiction
For communicating factual science, we’ve talked about using techniques from fiction. And we’ve workshopped fiction that’s intended to communicate about factual science. But is there a difference, actually, between writing nonfiction and fiction, and if so, what is it? And for that matter, is fiction really even fictional? We were surprised what some scientist-writers had…
Read MoreDance first, think later
The number-one most-read article at the moment in the Finnish Medical Journal (Lääkärilehti) is a new column by NeuWrite Nordic board member Jussi Valtonen, award-winning novelist and a researcher in psychology at the University of Helsinki. Valtonen poses some very pointed questions for the medical establishment as he considers the results of a recent meta-analysis…
Read MoreSex, fads, and math
Scientists might use a term like “computed statistics of social synchrony” to refer to what normal people might call sex, fads, and math. Our two texts this month brought us together around these questions: Can mathematical models describe the mating rituals of fireflies, the love life of secret agents, and treatment trends in hospitals? Firefly…
Read MoreNew film about reverse aging hits theaters
We’re thrilled that the new film Palimpsest, aspects of which were workshopped at NeuWrite Nordic, hits theaters in Helsinki this Friday, 12 April. A special screening with English subtitles will be held in Punavuori on Monday, 22 April, at 17:00. Screenwriter and filmmaker Hanna Västinsalo, a NeuWrite Nordic adviser and regular participant, has a PhD…
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