Giovanna Di Sauro

Before you go anywhere else, make sure to read the new Terms of use for this blog. Did you read them? Did you understand them? OK, let’s go then.

You have probably found out quite a lot about me in the About me section, and you might be wondering why I am writing this blog on my personal website. Or, even with all that information, you might still be curious about who I am and why I do what I do. If that is the case, then you have come to the right place.

This blog was born out of need. Actually, out of needs.

It is obvious that one in my position - a student of and budding professional in the life sciences - especially as part of my generation, might need a personal website to showcase her skills, manage her online presence, network with other professionals, academics, or other people.

But this is not so obvious once we think of other generations, especially those who do not understand the implications of the existence of the web and who, in an act of arrogance, sometimes willingly ignore them. Will my supervisors, my professors and my older colleagues understand why I spend hours writing, typing, managing and researching for this blog and website, when in their experience this could never be a good use of their time? Will I look like the uncommitted, “unfocused generalist” student that would do better to spend their energy and time on “softier” fields that do not require getting your hands dirty, pipetting, occasionally reading papers, and having insane work hours aimed at solving one teeny tiny question? Some will probably think that. I have seen it before, and I am ready to face it.

Therefore here comes the first need: to teach others about the power of the web, about its ability to link people, stimulate ideas, and ease our research - and therefore, our work. And I am not talking about databases, but about the social web - or, how it gets commonly called in its entirety, web 2.0. So those professors and colleagues are warned - they might ignore or despise the internet, but the internet does not care: technology advances, and we are increasingly finding ourselves in a world where not having access to, as well as not understanding, such technology is an invalidating condition for individuals and communities.

The second need then is to create a place - managed by me, surely representing me somewhat, but still not entirely mine - where everybody, me included, can learn more about web-powered human networks, which can now spread over incredible distances, and bring together fruitfully people with similar intents. The network’s power is so great that those connections can become real-life relationships, crossing over from the net to the outside world. There are already many such venues on the internet. Million of blogs are born, and thousands die every day. The need to create my own comes with the third need: to inject fact-based decision-making, intelligence, skepticism and balance in discussions surrounding technology, science, and the impact these fields have on humankind.

It is my feeling that humanity is progressively moving towards more biased, intollerant, and ignorant political positions in much of the world. Still, this is a time when we now have the means to better human condition, to turn poverty into sustainable development, disagreements into constructive criticism, and when the internet, with the unparalleled access to knowledge and information it offers, could potentially free millions from ignorance. In spite of the spectrum of all these very real possibilities, censorship is rising, intolerance and extremism are seen on mainstream (and not-so-mainstream) media every day, human poverty and misery tend to be accepted as unavoidable realities, and environmental problems are not being targeted fast enough.

I wish for my blog to be then not only a venue for discussion, but also a place where I can report on the advances of science and technology, the new possibilities they open, and their possible positive realistic, pragmatic consequences. I want this blog to be a place that can help me and others turn the world into what people always dreamt it could be, but what we now know it can become: a place where science opens our eyes, technology brings us together, medicine and care are afforded to all, and more accessible knowledge will aid us in fighting extremist views and spreading tolerance. I am not a dreamer, and this will not be a blog talking about unrealistic expectations. I will carefully quote, discuss and criticize news, findings, technology, myself and others. It will be a blog about reality - what is, and what can be, not what I wish existed. But I also hope that one day something tangible might come out from the relationships forged through the web.

I have lived for two years in a place where teens from 80 countries in the world studied, slept, laughed and argued together. There was no shedding of blood, apart from a few broken fingers during basketball games. We might have not all liked and admired each other, but we lived together and respected our differences, even if they tended to separate you. Our view of the world as one organism, one place we all share, tightened us together. And now, while we are all spread around this globe, we are still in touch, aware of each other, and working towards a better future.

I know this can happen, even on a higher scale, because I lived it. I kept working during following years just like I worked then, and I know that tangible positive change, though hard to implement, is within reach for those who have the will to work for it. This hope in what is possible now - now, not in a hundred years - and its implications is something I will share with you on this blog. this blog will prefer staring at problems and actively work for solutions, rather than hiding under the sand; it will be a place for honest, fact-based science & tech journalism for the general (thinking) audience; and finally, it will be a place where I will draw information and inspiration for my life out of the computer, and which at the same time will be inspired by that same life.

The blog (and me) will welcome suggestions, constructive criticism and why not, practical proposals to pull things out from here and make them happen “out there”, because the bridge between idealism and pragmatism is will. I extend my warmest welcome to all of those who decide to follow my journey, electronically or not, at some point in time, and I hope we might one day pull our heads together to start something to build that bridge to help others - and ourselves.

Image credits: Alexander Drachmann

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