{"id":3814,"date":"2015-04-29T15:28:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=3814"},"modified":"2025-02-19T13:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:32:25","slug":"1504-branches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/","title":{"rendered":"Branches: Science takes centre stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"p1 wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"s1\">By Julia Roberti<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\">Telling stories is an ancient art. And just as modern day research begins to unravel the mechanisms underlying how our brain reacts when it is fed a narrative, the use of storytelling within the world of science is also undergoing a remarkable renaissance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p class=\"p1\">A&nbsp;personal narrative is the natural way to bring those stories out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cStorytelling is a way of presenting science and reaching audiences outside the limits of a conventional lecture\u201d, explains Ben Lillie, co-founder and director of the Story Collider \u2013 a storytelling project that provides platforms for scientists and people affected by science to recount compelling, funny or even life changing experiences in theatres, concert venues, bars and online. \u201cI am fascinated by the human side of science. What role does it play in our lives? How does it affect who we are? People love to hear stories, so a personal narrative is the natural way to bring those stories out.\u201d Together with his team, he organises a continuing tour of compelling stories \u2013 those taking to the stage have included a neuroscientist whose inspirational father fell ill with the disease he specialised in, an anatomist struggling between her love for animals and their use in research, and a film editor and musician whose life was transformed after working on a Hubble documentary, just to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"p3 wp-block-heading\">An emotional journey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\">Personal narrative goes beyond the goal of getting across a concept and rather carries the listener along an emotional journey \u2013 but this does not necessarily prevent science from being well explained. \u201cIf one embeds science in the narrative, it will stick in the people\u2019s minds, so you have to be careful to avoid distortions,\u201d says Lillie. And this means planning well in advance: \u201cWe begin preparing at least a month before a live performance \u2013 prepping speakers for the nature of cabaret-style performance. They do not read from a script: the story needs to sink in and appear unrehearsed \u2013 so that it comes out with a feeling of \u2018here is what happened\u2019, mobilising the tremendous energy that comes from telling a personal narrative,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"p3 wp-block-heading\">Beginning, middle, end<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\">Drawing inspiration from his particle physics background, Lillie explains that very little \u201cactivation energy\u201d is needed to craft your own story, and can be achieved following some basic ground rules. \u201cIt is useful to identify an \u201cemotional arc\u201d \u2013 either starting at a low point and ending on a high, or vice versa and then using this structure to manage the pace as the events in the story unfold,\u201d he says. \u201cFundamentally, there is not any difference between science stories and any other stories \u2013 they need a beginning, a middle and an end \u2013, and most importantly the story needs to matter to the person telling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p class=\"p1\">Fundamentally, there&#8217;s no difference between science stories and any other stories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\">Take opportunities to practice: write out the whole talk, then throw that away and distil it down to an outline. One may want to explain all the science behind an event, but if it is not needed to advance the plot, leave it unexplained: often it is better to launch straight into the action. Find your emotion, be natural, and once the exciting part is over, stop there \u2013 the tension releases and at this point the narrative pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Lillie takes us on a journey through the art and craft of personal narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17593],"tags":[43,60],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-3814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-people-perspectives","tag-heidelberg","tag-science-and-society"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>Ben Lillie, a high-energy particle physicist turned full-time science storyteller, takes us on a journey through the art and craft of personal narrative.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Story Collider","link_url":"http:\/\/storycollider.org\/"},{"link_description":"EMBL Forum seminars on Science and Society","link_url":"http:\/\/www.embl.de\/aboutus\/science_society\/forum\/index.html"}],"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Branches: Science takes centre stage | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ben Lillie takes us on a journey through the art and craft of personal narrative.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Branches: Science takes centre stage | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ben Lillie takes us on a journey through the art and craft of personal narrative.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-29T13:28:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-19T12:32:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/benlillie-WEB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest author(s)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest author(s)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4d9366b2ebe691c4015c64c3619205b\"},\"headline\":\"Branches: Science takes centre stage\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-29T13:28:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-19T12:32:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/\"},\"wordCount\":555,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/events\/1504-branches\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/benlillie-WEB.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"heidelberg\",\"science and society\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events\",\"People &amp; 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