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PERSPECTIVES Communication SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Most scientists write primarily for other scientists within their field, and work The poetry of science written by biologists is not necessarily accessible to scientists that work in other disciplines such as chemistry or physics. Anne Osbourn Even articles in the popular-science maga- Abstract | During the past year, I have taken part in an experiment in which I have zines have a rather restricted audience. How many of you, for example, are excited been the experimental animal. I was awarded a fellowship that gave me the by the title of our most recent Nature opportunity to take a sabbatical from science and spend a year in the School paper, ‘The rice leaf blast pathogen under- of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. The School of goes developmental pro cesses typical of Literature and Creative Writing is internationally renowned, and past students root-infecting fungi’7? Perhaps you would include household names such as Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Trezza Azzopardi respond more warmly to some of the other and Tracy Chevalier. I have a keen interest in creative writing and had written a titles in the same edition — ‘A laser–plasma accelerator producing monoenergetic few short stories. This was a formidable but thrilling challenge. During my electron beams’8? Or ‘Excitation of adventure, I realized that, in many ways, I was coming home. Earth’s continuous free oscillations by atmosphere–ocean–seafloor coupling’9? I am a product of the most extreme form products provides an opportunity to address Specialism is evident, even among scien- of specialism. My father wrote a definitive important questions about small-molecule- tists. Scientific writing requires absolute article on Marius the Epicurean, one of the mediated dialogues between plants and clarity and depends on a specialized major works of the Victorian writer and critic their environment, and also to learn about vocabulary. The hard-wiring of vocabular- Walter Pater. This article was published in other fundamental aspects of biology such as ies within subgroups of individuals who the prestigious periodical Essays in Criticism chromosome structure and gene regulation, perform different activities is essential for in 1951 (REF. 1). Marius the Epicurean is an genome plasticity, diversification of function the effective communication and smooth experiment, the quest of one man to find ‘the of enzymes, multi-component pathways and running of the subgroup; however, it leads right way of living’. The hero, Marius, is in fact adaptive evolution. Natural products are to the establishment of barriers, both Pater. My father was careful enough, astute a read-out that can be used to understand between the specialists and other scientists enough, to realize that Marius the Epicurean evolutionary innovation. The work from my and between the specialists and the outside was a cleverly disguised autobiography, research group has been published in a range world. Barriers between groups of special- whereas his contemporaries failed to see the of scientific journals2–7 (BOX 2). ists hinder progress. Crucially, more gen- point of Pater’s somewhat impenetrable prose. eral breakdowns in communication have These insights were of such significance that, Box 1 led to a climate in which the very society half a century on, my father’s name brings up that depends on science for its survival reference to them on Google. My mother, a My Father has come to mistrust and misunderstand few years younger, fought tooth and nail for science and scientists. The flip side of this a university education and immersed herself A rakish man with brylcreemed hair, is that scientists have tended to develop a eighteen, elfin face, in literature and the arts. Having completed culture of being misunderstood (BOX 3). is cutting the grass in his shirt sleeves. her B.A. at the University of Manchester, she He sweats as he marches up and down The use of specialized jargon is by no chose to study Walter Pater for her master’s the expanse of lawn, means specific to science. The language and thesis. She went to an expert in the field who leaving a green-striped baize behind him. vocabularies of those from other walks of life then became her tutor. The rest, as they say, is can be equally impenetrable. Consider the fol- Germany is pushing back the eighth army. (BOX 1) REFS 10,11 history . Japanese troops have taken Manila. lowing examples (adapted from ): I am also a specialist. I grew up in a • Scientese —“We confirmed our hypothesis house full of books on literature, history Pick them off like so many crows. that expression of gene X is reduced in and art and enjoyed creative writing, but the bowel cancer.” constraints of the school curriculum forced The silver underside of raspberry leaves. • Legalese — “The aforementioned gene X, Flitting cabbage whites. me to make a choice and I became a scientist The barges move silently to wit in respect of its nomenclature — a biologist to be precise. My interests along the canal beyond the gate being referred to in the first instance are the function and synthesis of natural at the bottom of the garden. as X, gene product of the X locus, exclud- products and the evolution of metabolic ing all genes of similar nomenclature to diversity in plants. The study of natural It is midsummer. Hot. gene X…” NATURE REVIEWS | MICROBIOLOGY VOLUME 4 | JANUARY 2006 | 77 © 2005 Nature Publishing Group PERSPECTIVES Box 2 UK-based National Endowment for Science, Box 4 Technology and the Arts (NESTA, see The Lido Online links box). The advert read “Are you Changeling a high achiever with ten years’ experience Acres of azure, in the science and technology sector but D empty, looking for the space to develop your ideas N cold. A The fountain away from the demands of your profes- D N fizzing, sional life?” I realized that this represented a A in the middle. perfect opportunity to explore my interests D in creative writing and to see whether I D A lone sunbather could learn how to dissolve boundaries and sleeps N N on the step. meld worlds. Shortly after that, I became a A Eighty-five. NESTA-funded Dream Time Fellow in the A Mahogany skin. School of Literature and Creative Writing at D the University of East Anglia. My only remit N I am seven. A was to find ways of bringing science into D N I everyday lives and language through creative A plunge writing with the help of my mentor Professor T in. Clive Scott, a leading authority on language D and the visual arts. N N Starting from nothing is a situation that T • Business-speak — “We have sought to scientists, artists and writers all face. I had A assess downturn trends in the X gene by envisaged writing an extended piece of prose D outsourcing gene expression studies, which, that in some way merged scientific and N A D in line with current predictive analysis, non-scientific themes. Instead I turned to N A forecasts recapitulation of previous year-on- poetry. This took me very much by surprise year data for bowel-focused cancer.” because I had not previously regarded myself • Poetry — as a poet. Poems are potent capsules that, that has taken me deep into my own life and “…being the wrong side of statistics; although usually brief, can hold a black hole’s scientific career through poetry. The result the nature of sickness, worth of communication. Poems, like DNA, is a collection of 60 poems about journeys how it starts years have patterns, rhythm and motifs (BOX 4). from origins, both personal and global, before you know.” Crystallizing the intangible onto a page in in which negotiations between scientific the form of a poem is a satisfying feeling. and non-scientific languages and points of It is tempting to say that we must break Reading a finished poem to an audience is view form a central theme. The poetry is down barriers and open up communication even more satisfying. I chose to take an auto- accompanied by images, equations and other channels to create a world without walls. But biographical approach to my project, and forms of visual communication, scientific it is imperative to remember that science, over the last year have been on an adventure and otherwise. This hybridization of poetry the arts and other academic disciplines, collection, science journal and photo album trades and professions all function effectively transgresses boundaries in a variety of dif- Box 3 because they are peopled by specialized ferent ways. I hope to publish the work in its subgroups of individuals who are experts The Cobweb entirety sometime within the next year or in their fields. These mini-worlds and their so. But polishing poems — buffing them to standards must be protected and valued to The dewdrops sparkled on the cobweb. maturity — is a lengthy process that, like sustain quality in individual areas. Without fermentation, cannot be rushed. To quote them, we would dissolve into a melee of Cobweb. A fine network of threads spun by a the poet Lavinia Greenlaw, “A poem is spider from a liquid secreted by it, used to trap substandard homogeneity in which we insects. A trap or insidious entanglement. finished when a skin seals around it.” That is, would be experts in nothing, and our society when you have the confidence to say, “It’s a would disintegrate. On the other hand, there The dewdrops sparkled. poem.” Others might disagree, but that is for is a real need to encourage and enhance them to decide. meaningful discourse so that specialist sub- Dew.

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