Ep73: Communicating New Ideas - Michael Levin

August 23, 2023 in Season 5

Photograph of Michael Levin. — Image credit: Michael Levin

From creating a fake school to order chemicals for experiments as a kid, to inspiring the next and current generation of scientists.

You have to make a decision to what extent are you going to change what you say, to make it very clearly digestible to people in an existing field, versus, how much out of their comfort zone are you willing to push people when you write.

This interview was recorded in February 2020

In this interview we talk about Michael’s journey into science, from creating a fake school so that he could order chemicals to conduct experiments as a kid, and having no idea about how academia works, to being exposed to new ideas and concepts that shaped his progression into the sciences.

While originally writing letters to authors and scientists as a kid and young researcher, Michael now has students reaching out to him to ask about getting into research. We discuss ideas around the factors and motivation that bring students into science.

Our conversation covers aspects of thought leadership in science - how to communicate new science or ideas in a compelling manner to the scientific community, and establishing a new audience of scientists for one’s work.

Finally, we talk about learning from prior scientific art, and how to bring all these ideas together, in pursuit of something new.

You can read more about Michael’s work on his Lab’s website

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