We talk about Science stories with its author, Fernando del Álamo

Fernando del Alamo He answers the questions in this interview with the same conciseness (and explanatory will) with which he faces the task of writing his blog entries. Science stories is a main website for fans of curiosities, biographies and anecdotes related to the scientific field. From the texts collected there over time, the book self-titled, self-published.

The time that has passed since then is more than enough for the author to speak with sufficient perspective about desktop publishing, and also about the relationship of blogs with the printed book, the personal motivations that lead him to carry out his work or the reasons that why someone from science decides to go into dissemination.

What led you to start writing about science?

It is a subject that has always fascinated me. As a young man I loved talking about these issues with friends. Some laughed saying that I liked strange things, but there were others who asked more questions. The blog is nothing more than a reflection of that passion: talking about the subject that I have always liked to talk about the most.

I would be unable to write about another topic.

laboratory

Photo by Eduardo Izquierdo.

It is known that consistency in blogging is not always easy to maintain. That is why it is worth talking about motivations. From the first entry a long time ago. Do you keep writing for the same reasons as when you started out?

When I started blogging, I just wanted to have a place to write down curiosities about science and its characters or that had caught my attention, either because of their irony, their content, or because they could teach us to see how these people acted and their strength of his character.

The blog gave me the opportunity to not only do this, but to read comments from many readers. I met people who had concerns very similar to mine and young kids who wrote me emails telling me that they were going to dedicate themselves to studying science because my blog had finished convincing them. I found that it motivated people to seek more information on their own. He could influence people and make science a part of his life. It is something that fills me with pride and satisfaction.

But I also met people who actually believe that the Earth is 6000 years old or who claim niceties like "The Theory of Evolution is just a Theory" or "It is not proven."

This made me see that my task is not only to share my taste for science, but to spread it to the best of my ability. I have to make those people see that they are in error or, at least, that if they do not believe they are, it is because they have deduced it that way, not because others have told them.

I do not want people to believe for good what they hear or read. Not even what I tell them. I want them to read, to learn, to become familiar with science, to know their characters, how they acted and their motivations and concerns, their discussions and debates, their anger, etc. And once they have all that information at their fingertips and they are soaked in all of it; then form your own opinion.

So today I do the same as when I started, but for different reasons.

Do you consider yourself a storyteller or a popularizer? Although they may not be incompatible terms ...

Discloser. I do not pretend to explain what happened, without more; but to take some advantage or idea of ​​it and take advantage of the circumstance to be able to explain any curiosity of science or of the human behavior of men of science.

According to the preface to his book Science storiesExplaining science is like being in love: "you want to explain it to everyone" (to quote Carl Sagan). ¿Science Stories is a book accessible to everyone? Can science be explained without formulas or complicated expressions?

At least the book goes with that intention. It claims that it can be read both by a person with little training and by a graduate.

I believe that science can be explained in a language accessible to everyone. It happens that in order to reach some conclusions that science has reached, very complex reasoning has to be done. Such reasoning should be left to the specialists. But we can all understand the consequences in broad strokes even if we do not know the details.

On the other hand, you also have to put some formulas. I don't think putting any formula is bad by definition. The problem is that these formulas have a meaning, a meaning and consequences, and many do not explain it with due clarity. You have to reach a middle ground where everything has its contribution.

What about science? Who can explain science? I confess that I ask with the intention not to feed the topic, but just the opposite, to know first-hand the opinion of someone in whose work these two blocks of knowledge intersect: is it or of letters: of Science?

I don't think there is a contradiction between science and letters. What does exist is some phobia of those who are on one side towards the issues of the other side and that the phobia of science is more socially accepted than the phobia of letters. What is needed are good disseminators both on one side and the other. I have met bad teachers in mathematics and physics as well as in history and language.

It is necessary that there are people who explain things bluntly and putting themselves in the shoes of the listener.

The tendency to jump from blog to book seems to be gaining followers even among established writers. Recently it became known that a compendium of Saramago blog entries will go on sale on paper. In this sense, it is worth asking: Do blogs impose a record, a style, a way of writing? Are they substitutes for the printed book? How does an author cope with the transition from blog to book?

It must be recognized that a blog is a different style from the usual book. You cannot write a novel in a blog, unless it is in small chapters, but any blog can be a book sooner or later. I believe that a blog will never replace a printed book. At least as long as computers aren't the size of a book.

Regarding how the passage from blog to book comes, I think it is the natural step for all those who write a blog whose central theme is not opinion or current affairs. Articles on a science, history or curiosity blog are not a fad; I mean they have no expiration date.

On the other hand, famous authors like Saramago who write a blog have no problem editing books. Whatever they write, they will almost certainly be successful. At least sales.

Indeed, established writers have many facilities with respect to first-timers, also to publish. His book is self-published. What led you to such a choice?

Not having to agree with anyone, not having to look for someone else to judge what I wrote. I made a book and I wanted the reader to see it that way, without filters or changes.

Is your book ISBN? Is it something very troublesome in relation to desktop publishing?

Yes, the book has an ISBN. It is free, although it is not printed in the book itself (I got the ISBN after it was published). However, I also had no problems while I did not. The only thing wrong with desktop publishing is that it is not sold in bookstores.

Have you thought of a second book? Would you also opt for desktop publishing?

Yes, a second book is in the making and I will surely also opt for desktop publishing. I think publishers are not interested in publishing culture, but books that sell a lot to get the more benefits the better.

Thank you very much, Fernando.

It has been a pleasure.

Science stories can be buy at a price of 15,71 euros in the virtual bookstore Lulu. There is more information in an eponymous blog post.


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