Talking Serious Science Using Scissors And Glue

Editor's Blog





Photo credit:

A partial of a hand-drawn poster showing the relationship between tumour suppressor and oncogenes in cancer. Kate Patterson. Author provided

A student once told me that she would prefer to learn from pages of writing rather than from a single, concise image. When she told me, I think I may have actually frowned and I definitely paused, just long enough to feel slightly uncomfortable and to see that she was not just being reactionary; frustrated at the challenging task we had set.

As a strong visual thinker, learning from well-constructed diagrams is my preference so, to me, the idea that someone would knowingly choose text over a visual option seems utterly preposterous.