Stories generate culture

Field science has not always done a great job of connecting itself to the broader culture in a way that resonates. Left with a vacuum, politicians and the media often step in to help the public figure out what emerging science means. Their messages are not always what the scientific community would prefer.

Gwen provided this link to an excellent report that points out that, "Our brains are designed for stories. They are the best way for us to grasp deep truths. Understand a complicated sprawl of facts." The document provides some interesting ideas about using story to convey messaging.

Researchers in many fields are discovering hard evidence that stories shape culture. This video suggests that the even the scientific theories of seminal thinkers like Darwin were shaped by their literary preferences, and not always toward greater accuracy.

Art Neuro

"Art Neuro is exploring the world of neuroscience through the visual arts to provide an exciting, thought-provoking and unique visual experience. We have teamed up 16 artists and 16 neuroscientists to work together in pairs to illustrate the importance of current neuroscience research. The artists will be immersed in this fascinating world of science, which will culminate in a collection of artworks that communicate their experience and the science behind it."

The Art Neuro exhibition took place last month in London. The project blog has great videos of presentations and posts from some of the artists about their projects.