Small World Speaks

So I did my entire PhD with a beta test Nikon TIRF microscope. and, I was trying to explain to my mother what a neuronal growth cone is, but it wasn't until I showed her an image of a growth cone that we could have a real conversation about it.

And it was just a, it was just a, a image of just a cell skeleton of a growth cone, the actin and microtubule cell skeleton. Nothing super fancy. It was symmetrical, which is why I submitted it to the contest, so it could be, you know, considered art by, someone's eye. But it allowed me to give my mother in space exactly what I study. That image changed my entire narrative about how I explained what I was doing.

So when I talk about, like, bridging a gap between, you know, really complex scientific concepts and the, the published, understanding of those concepts, it's a little bit more than that. It also grounds the scientist who's trying to explain it. It's really kind of putting an exclamation point on the idea that scientists have an obligation to educate the public.

We have basically not been able to explain what we do and, and why we are important to this, to this country and the world, and I think images allow us to do that.