Why I blog...

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post. This break gave me the chance to think about why I invest time in writing here. When I was at the Brain Stimulation conference in Barcelona last week, I realized that many people I met knew about my thinking and my work based on reading this blog. I thought this was refreshing and enhanced our interactions. But perhaps even more importantly, I continue to meet people from outside of neuroscience/academia who are deeply fascinated by our work and with whom I greatly enjoy interacting. Often I get asked where they can learn more and I never quite have a satisfying answer. Our papers? Maybe not since they are quite technical and difficult to read if you are not used to the style of scientific papers. My book? Maybe - but maybe also not since it is still aimed at people in the research community. So thus (until the day I write a book for a broader audience about our work) I have decided to write here also for the broader audience to share where we are and where we are going with our research.
We are living in a time in which the value of science is not a universally accepted priority of our society. I am convinced that one important aspect is that we scientists need to learn to communicate way better. Here are some concrete action items:

• Make sure the press releases about our work do not promise the next new cure for this and that. We need to be very careful about this since our enthusiasm can be misunderstood.
• Emphasize each time we talk about work that a single study NEVER provides a final answer to any scientific question.
  
• Always give ample credit to the community even when we are asked to speak about our own work.
  
• Talk to non-scientists about our work. There are always opportunities even if you live in a bubble!