[Applause]
so I took this photo in Munich in April
of this year at the March for science
and the pictures thousands of scientists
standing at the victory gate that guards
the entrance to Munich Old Town the
monument has stood here since 1852 it’s
seen peace and it’s seen war it was
originally built to commemorate Bavarian
soldiers who fought to liberate Germany
of Napoleon
but now 165 years later we were gathered
there an intellectual army to fight a
new enemy because we believe that
science is under attack it’s under
attack by those who undermine our right
to ask questions by those who don’t know
the difference between I believe and I
seek to understand and by those who
undermine the knowledge that flows from
meticulous study simply because they
don’t find those answers are palatable
Munich’s march for science like the
sister alleys that were occurring across
the world was pervaded with a sharp
awareness of the urgency to advocate for
science we sung songs and we proudly
brandished our science and we were
standing up for our right to pursue the
unbiased discovery of facts and also to
acknowledge the common goals that
scientists and non-scientists share
which is to benefit society
humans are changing this planet faster
than ever before with discoveries that
are only possible because of basic
scientific discoveries scientific facts
contribute to the fate of our world by
influencing laws policies and other
critical decisions so at one point I
stood on the stairs of the Munich
library overlooking the crowd and my
hair stood on end because I realized in
that moment what a privilege it was to
be there scientists reveal information
information provides knowledge and
knowledge provides power and therefore
scientists are powerful people so as I
stood on the stairs of the Munich
library and I overlooked the crowd I
wondered where was everyone else where
were all the people that use our science
to make critical decisions that shape
our society were they not interested or
supportive of how science was
contributing to their way of life or was
it that they were being included in a
process that greatly impacts them
scientists may have the power and
privilege to understand complex facts
however I believe that they also have
the responsibility to share this power
and knowledge with society because
science is for the benefit of everyone
I grew up on the southeast coast of
Australia and it meant that I spent all
of my childhood in the outdoors and I
developed this curiosity for the
physical world and why things are the
way they are scientists the question
askers and answer seekers and I have a
lot of questions to answer and so my
interest in science continued to grow
with me I was always fascinated with the
brain the fact that it’s the controller
of our organs and the creator of our
personality but it wasn’t until I went
to university that I was able to study
the brain directly now I’m a molecular
neurobiologist and I study the brain
every day I do this using brains that
have been donated to science by people
that are now passed away these brain
tissues come from brain banks which are
places that exist all around the world
to store anatomically dissect and verify
these brain samples and then they’re
distributed in tiny pieces to
researchers like me I use these brain
samples to look for molecules such as
genes and proteins which are altered in
people with mental illness and therefore
a lot of the samples I study come from
people that lived with a severe mental
illness such as depression or
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
the reason I do this research is because
we believe that these alterations in
brain molecules is what contributes to
the development of mental illness and so
if we can find which molecules are
altered it means that we can develop new
therapies to potentially correct these
alterations in the brain and bring
patients relief
one in five people in this audience will
experience some form of mental illness
in their lifetime and if a mental
illness doesn’t affect you directly
you’ll still be impacted by it because
these disorders are now so prevalent
that it’s almost certain that someone
close to you will be affected by mental
illness and you’ll have first-hand
experience with how it shudders not only
their lives but also the people around
them
research like mine helps us to better
understand the cascade of events that
contributes to the development of mental
illness and can help us find ways to
prevent and better treat them in the
future wasn’t long after I embarked on
my studies that I realize how hard it
was to explain to people what I do for
work not that kind of doctor I don’t see
patients and I don’t work in a morgue
I’m a brain biologist I do experiments
using tiny pieces of brain tissue no
larger than the size of the pea
Albert Einstein is credited with saying
that you don’t really understand
something until you can’t explain it to
your grandmother and as mine only just
science superseded that of the public I
realized that most people have a really
hard time understanding science or
scientific information and not only my
research but a lot of information that’s
out there and it’s not because they
don’t want to but because the science
isn’t communicated in a way which is
user-friendly the fact is that science
is all around us
you can thank science for your coffee or
beer your smartphone the Internet clean
water from your taps your immunity to
deadly diseases your fridge and your
microwave scientific facts contribute to
the fate of our world by shaping laws
policies and other major decisions so
it’s important that society understands
the implications of our research and
specifically that they understand the
scientific process that is how basic
scientific discoveries are translated
into technologies that ultimately change
our ways of life because it’s the public
who decide which governments are voted
in which laws are enforced and which
policies are passed and that means that
you also need to understand the
importance of scientific research and so
it’s not enough for scientists to just
provide the information and have utter
disregard to how they work is perceived
scientists must also effectively
communicate the meaning and value of
their work because this is the only way
we can ensure that important scientific
discoveries are not ignored
so it wasn’t long after I had this
revelation of the importance of
scientific communication that I decided
that I would start my own blog and I
opened a Twitter account and I had a
goal to deliver my science to anyone
with a computer who could read and was
interested in what I had to say so I
used my blog to talk about what it’s
like to use post mortem brain samples to
study mental illness
I used my Twitter to engage the public
and answer any questions and also break
down complex scientific information into
in easy-to-understand ways and I used my
Instagram account to illustrate what my
days in the lab look like it wasn’t long
after I started to do this that I
started to receive messages from the
public and the one that sticks with me
the most came from a father and he wrote
to me that he’s 26 year old daughter was
suffering with paranoid schizophrenia
and that watching the illness progressed
was like watching a slow-motion train
wreck and he thanked me and everyone
that does research in this area
and I often think about this message
because it reminds me of why I’m
spending so much of my life in the lab
interrogating tiny pieces of brain
tissue it also reminds me that I have
the power to reconnect the research with
the purpose and ultimately the people
that we can help people have also signed
up to donate their brain to research
after reading my blog because they
better understand how it can help future
generations public forums give the
community empowerment to get involved
medical research is a lot like chipping
away at a giant iceberg with a tooth
bitch
it’s about asking many many questions
one after another and answering these we
need a huge amount of work to make only
a tiny step but if there are enough of
us chipping away we will get to the
center of it and by sharing our journey
with you
we can get there even faster however the
public you also share the responsibility
that comes with the great knowledge and
power that’s generated by science
because it’s you who decides which
governments are voted in that determines
which laws and policies are passed and
how much funding is due is devoted to
research and science education so it’s
also your responsibility to be informed
I grew up watching documentaries on
cassette tapes but these days we have
limitless information at our fingertips
with the internet sharing with your
families use the statistics and the data
that we generate to form your arguments
and make your decisions instead of
saying that you believe say that you
understand
and scientists as we’re going about our
research let’s make sure that we’re
still involving our friends and families
and communities in the conversation
because it’s up to us to make sure that
we’re getting the science from the Aisne
science to the grannies so as I stood on
the stairs of the Munich library and I
overlooked the stree my view changed
because in that moment I saw that there
were also families and children’s
present and I knew that people do care
and they do want to be involved Thomas
Jefferson once said that information is
the currency of democracy and by working
together we can redefine the
relationship between science and the
public and work together to make real
scientific contributions that benefit
not only scientists but our society as a
whole
thank you
[Applause]
you
so I took this photo in Munich in April
of this year at the March for science
and the pictures thousands of scientists
standing at the victory gate that guards
the entrance to Munich Old Town the
monument has stood here since 1852 it’s
seen peace and it’s seen war it was
originally built to commemorate Bavarian
soldiers who fought to liberate Germany
of Napoleon
but now 165 years later we were gathered
there an intellectual army to fight a
new enemy because we believe that
science is under attack it’s under
attack by those who undermine our right
to ask questions by those who don’t know
the difference between I believe and I
seek to understand and by those who
undermine the knowledge that flows from
meticulous study simply because they
don’t find those answers are palatable
Munich’s march for science like the
sister alleys that were occurring across
the world was pervaded with a sharp
awareness of the urgency to advocate for
science we sung songs and we proudly
brandished our science and we were
standing up for our right to pursue the
unbiased discovery of facts and also to
acknowledge the common goals that
scientists and non-scientists share
which is to benefit society
humans are changing this planet faster
than ever before with discoveries that
are only possible because of basic
scientific discoveries scientific facts
contribute to the fate of our world by
influencing laws policies and other
critical decisions so at one point I
stood on the stairs of the Munich
library overlooking the crowd and my
hair stood on end because I realized in
that moment what a privilege it was to
be there scientists reveal information
information provides knowledge and
knowledge provides power and therefore
scientists are powerful people so as I
stood on the stairs of the Munich
library and I overlooked the crowd I
wondered where was everyone else where
were all the people that use our science
to make critical decisions that shape
our society were they not interested or
supportive of how science was
contributing to their way of life or was
it that they were being included in a
process that greatly impacts them
scientists may have the power and
privilege to understand complex facts
however I believe that they also have
the responsibility to share this power
and knowledge with society because
science is for the benefit of everyone
I grew up on the southeast coast of
Australia and it meant that I spent all
of my childhood in the outdoors and I
developed this curiosity for the
physical world and why things are the
way they are scientists the question
askers and answer seekers and I have a
lot of questions to answer and so my
interest in science continued to grow
with me I was always fascinated with the
brain the fact that it’s the controller
of our organs and the creator of our
personality but it wasn’t until I went
to university that I was able to study
the brain directly now I’m a molecular
neurobiologist and I study the brain
every day I do this using brains that
have been donated to science by people
that are now passed away these brain
tissues come from brain banks which are
places that exist all around the world
to store anatomically dissect and verify
these brain samples and then they’re
distributed in tiny pieces to
researchers like me I use these brain
samples to look for molecules such as
genes and proteins which are altered in
people with mental illness and therefore
a lot of the samples I study come from
people that lived with a severe mental
illness such as depression or
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
the reason I do this research is because
we believe that these alterations in
brain molecules is what contributes to
the development of mental illness and so
if we can find which molecules are
altered it means that we can develop new
therapies to potentially correct these
alterations in the brain and bring
patients relief
one in five people in this audience will
experience some form of mental illness
in their lifetime and if a mental
illness doesn’t affect you directly
you’ll still be impacted by it because
these disorders are now so prevalent
that it’s almost certain that someone
close to you will be affected by mental
illness and you’ll have first-hand
experience with how it shudders not only
their lives but also the people around
them
research like mine helps us to better
understand the cascade of events that
contributes to the development of mental
illness and can help us find ways to
prevent and better treat them in the
future wasn’t long after I embarked on
my studies that I realize how hard it
was to explain to people what I do for
work not that kind of doctor I don’t see
patients and I don’t work in a morgue
I’m a brain biologist I do experiments
using tiny pieces of brain tissue no
larger than the size of the pea
Albert Einstein is credited with saying
that you don’t really understand
something until you can’t explain it to
your grandmother and as mine only just
science superseded that of the public I
realized that most people have a really
hard time understanding science or
scientific information and not only my
research but a lot of information that’s
out there and it’s not because they
don’t want to but because the science
isn’t communicated in a way which is
user-friendly the fact is that science
is all around us
you can thank science for your coffee or
beer your smartphone the Internet clean
water from your taps your immunity to
deadly diseases your fridge and your
microwave scientific facts contribute to
the fate of our world by shaping laws
policies and other major decisions so
it’s important that society understands
the implications of our research and
specifically that they understand the
scientific process that is how basic
scientific discoveries are translated
into technologies that ultimately change
our ways of life because it’s the public
who decide which governments are voted
in which laws are enforced and which
policies are passed and that means that
you also need to understand the
importance of scientific research and so
it’s not enough for scientists to just
provide the information and have utter
disregard to how they work is perceived
scientists must also effectively
communicate the meaning and value of
their work because this is the only way
we can ensure that important scientific
discoveries are not ignored
so it wasn’t long after I had this
revelation of the importance of
scientific communication that I decided
that I would start my own blog and I
opened a Twitter account and I had a
goal to deliver my science to anyone
with a computer who could read and was
interested in what I had to say so I
used my blog to talk about what it’s
like to use post mortem brain samples to
study mental illness
I used my Twitter to engage the public
and answer any questions and also break
down complex scientific information into
in easy-to-understand ways and I used my
Instagram account to illustrate what my
days in the lab look like it wasn’t long
after I started to do this that I
started to receive messages from the
public and the one that sticks with me
the most came from a father and he wrote
to me that he’s 26 year old daughter was
suffering with paranoid schizophrenia
and that watching the illness progressed
was like watching a slow-motion train
wreck and he thanked me and everyone
that does research in this area
and I often think about this message
because it reminds me of why I’m
spending so much of my life in the lab
interrogating tiny pieces of brain
tissue it also reminds me that I have
the power to reconnect the research with
the purpose and ultimately the people
that we can help people have also signed
up to donate their brain to research
after reading my blog because they
better understand how it can help future
generations public forums give the
community empowerment to get involved
medical research is a lot like chipping
away at a giant iceberg with a tooth
bitch
it’s about asking many many questions
one after another and answering these we
need a huge amount of work to make only
a tiny step but if there are enough of
us chipping away we will get to the
center of it and by sharing our journey
with you
we can get there even faster however the
public you also share the responsibility
that comes with the great knowledge and
power that’s generated by science
because it’s you who decides which
governments are voted in that determines
which laws and policies are passed and
how much funding is due is devoted to
research and science education so it’s
also your responsibility to be informed
I grew up watching documentaries on
cassette tapes but these days we have
limitless information at our fingertips
with the internet sharing with your
families use the statistics and the data
that we generate to form your arguments
and make your decisions instead of
saying that you believe say that you
understand
and scientists as we’re going about our
research let’s make sure that we’re
still involving our friends and families
and communities in the conversation
because it’s up to us to make sure that
we’re getting the science from the Aisne
science to the grannies so as I stood on
the stairs of the Munich library and I
overlooked the stree my view changed
because in that moment I saw that there
were also families and children’s
present and I knew that people do care
and they do want to be involved Thomas
Jefferson once said that information is
the currency of democracy and by working
together we can redefine the
relationship between science and the
public and work together to make real
scientific contributions that benefit
not only scientists but our society as a
whole
thank you
[Applause]
you
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