Rethinking a blog

Changing the focus of my science communication efforts in the last year of my PhD.

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Sometimes you have to rethink instead of think. What I mean is repeating an already existing thinking process instead of thinking anew.

Since the start of my PhD, I have been writing a Dutch blog called Cili. The initial idea was to write about my PhD research in an accessible way for people with any background. I chose to write the blog in Dutch because I mainly wanted my blogposts to reach the people I am close with: my friends, family, colleagues etc. Additionally, I used Facebook quite a lot back then and most people I was friends with on Facebook were my Dutch-speaking friends.

Now I’m about to enter the last year of my PhD. After taking a break from blogging for several months, I’m excited to rethink the whole initial idea and start from scratch. More specifically, I want this second iteration of my science communication efforts to be more focused about the progress at the intersection of technology and biology. This intersection has increasingly sparked my curiosity, and my goal with this new blog is to explore it in a comprehensive way and share that exploration here. As I am heading into the final year of my PhD, my hope is also that writing about this topic gives me a clearer picture about where things are headed, and where I can contribute and have an impact.

For now, the direct impact I want to have is communicating all of this with all of you. I still like science communication and I think it is underrated and yet so important. Science communication should be regarded as important as science itself. And science is all about discovery, investigation, experimenting and ultimately improving our knowledge as a species. If new knowledge is gathered but not communicated with other beings, then that knowledge does not serve the human species. What if you discovered a new theory in physics or developed a new drug against a disease without a cure, but decide not to tell anyone? Well that would have been a waste of time.

In addition, clearly communicating science (to the general public) and scientific progress has increased in importance in recent times. On the one hand, this is because the internet easily allows people to both consciously and unconsciously spread information that is not true or has been taken out of context. As Michel de Montaigne said:

Our truth of nowadays is not what is, but what others can be convinced of.

On the other hand, the world is moving increasingly faster, and it is important for all of us to keep track of the progress so we don’t get left behind. As Yuval Noah Harari puts it in his thoughtful Homo Deus: “In the early twenty-first century the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance. In order to get a seat on it you need to understand twenty-first-century technology, and in particular the powers of biotechnology and computer algorithms.“

I still want to write a blog for people with any background, but I am no longer convinced that blogging in Dutch is the best thing to do. Back in 2018, I still used Facebook on a daily basis and mainly shared my blogposts on Facebook. Nowadays, I use Twitter much more frequently. And I think combining shorter Twitter threads with longer, deeper blogposts is an interesting path forward. As a result, I also think English is the best choice moving forward.

More generally (for the reasons mentioned above), the world lacks open and clear science communicators that present science as it is but in a way that people can relate to, want to read and trust as a source of reliable information. This blog will also be an exercise in that.

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