The Importance of Telling Our Story

I have always been a fan of William Shakespeare and in re-reading a

Midsummer Night’s Dream, I found the following passage:

“And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.”

Of course this is not only true of poetry, but even more so for scientific writing. The telling of stories has been the primary means by which humans have passed along knowledge since the very origin of our species. For scientists, the design of characters, plots and themes are integrally important. Most of the stories we tell in papers and relay in handbooks have had nature’s hand in defining heroes, villains and damsels in distress and would proceed without any interest from our side, but would stay mostly unknown. The responsibility then becomes the portrayal of each role, understanding the characters and finding a novel beginning and a true end.

This metaphorical way of thinking might just be remnant of my own decaying awareness, but does offer a different perspective. One simple example is that of The Brazilian wasp Polybia paulista. On the theme of existing knowledge, researchers have known that many wasp species have chemicals in their venom that kill bacteria (the foundation if you will). Then a sensational plot change; research found that some of these chemical weapons at our protagonist’s disposal are able to kill cancer cells and save the day (so to speak). As the story builds, things get complicated when we come to realise that how the process works exactly remains a mystery.

Loose ends usually provide material for a thrilling sequel and now new studies have been able to describe exactly how one of these chemicals can slay the prolific cancerous villain: By tearing holes in the cancer cells’ outer layer. However, as with any thriller, there are always new crises and happiness is short-lived. We come to learn that in any battle to the death, there are always innocent bystanders that suffer and this produces a moral disruption. Our hero’s weapons, the Antimicrobial peptides like those identified for the study, usually don’t differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells well enough to be considered as treatments, posing the threat of an unintentional ripple effect. Now this isn’t where the story ends; new lab trials have shown that these peptides selectively assassinate cancer cells and bacteria from rats without causing harm to normal tissue. Suspense suddenly builds yet again and I find myself filled with lingering anticipation, eagerly awaiting the exciting conclusion to the trilogy.

Analogies aside, when compiling this blog I think of myself as a story-teller. Something I take very seriously - the responsibility of building from a sequence of events and essentially compiling the journey of my life in science. I find the heroes, the villains and the distressed damsels in need of saving and have the distinct honour of sharing this with you.