The Art of Scientific-Storytelling

“Science and art equally are expressions of man’s marvelous plasticity of mind”- Jacob Bronowski

A common misconception seen among people is that art and science are similar to oil and water, they can never exist together. Simply put, art is perceived as creative while science is logical. While logics are bound by certain boundaries of sense and direction, creativity knows no limits.

I tend to believe that science and art almost always coexist. In a way, science is an attempt to question the established realities of life. Scientists carry out experiments to know the ‘WHY’ behind every perceived notion or phenomenon in the world. Art is an attempt at expressing the findings from these experiments. A simple example to explain this is the development of music and musical instruments. Good music is an amalgamation of sound waves vibrating at different frequencies in a synchronized manner. Understanding how the sound waves function has helped in the development of various musical instruments over the years. Guitars changed from acoustic to semi-acoustic to electrical due to the knowledge that sound waves require a medium to travel and thus different mediums can generate different quality of music.

Having said that, science has always suffered from a lack of communication and expression. This has resulted in major scientific breakthroughs not reaching the channels of the commoners. The inherent complexities of science, the lack of exposure, different audience needs and perspectives are major reasons which have left a void between science and the general public. Tapping the emotional gravity has remained a challenge for effective scientific expression over the years.

The art of storytelling might be one of the solutions. Storytelling effectively affects the brain by releasing dopamine which creates excitement, activates neural coupling and eventually leads to an emotional attachment with the subject. Dr. Steven D Cohen, author of ‘Public Speaking: The Path to Success and Lessons from the Podium: Public Speaking as a Leadership Art’ in one of his papers titled ‘The Art of Public Narrative: Teaching Students How to Construct Memorable Anecdotes’ described a framework for effective communication which consisted of four steps: The Setting, The Characters, The Plot, and The Moral. Scientific discoveries such as cloning became common knowledge due to the stories associated with it (remember the Dolly Sheep ?).

Thus combining the art of storytelling with scientific discoveries can bridge the gap between science and the commoner. Like Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Study the science of art and the art of science and you will realize how everything connects to everything else.”