Blogs

Since September 2020, I have been writing blogs for Donders Wonders. Donders Wonders is the official blog of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The goal of the blog is to communicate science to a wide laymen audience. In 2020, the blog won the NWO communication award.

I often write about language and communication. For example, I’ve written blogs on the role of sniffing during conversation and about the many functions that questions can have. I’ve also written about how second language pronunciation is affected by drinking alcohol, and about whether masculine generic terms (using a form such as he to describe people of whatever gender) are interpreted as if they refer to men.

However, I also really enjoy writing about topics that are less directly related to my field of expertise, such as whether yawning cools our brain, whether botox makes you appear emotionless, or about the science of science communication. Regardless of the topic, I always do my utmost best to make sure my blogs accurately reflect the underlying research, and to prevent making bold claims. I think an essential part of science communication is also to explain how science works, and what we can/cannot conclude from specific studies. I think this is just as important as sharing interesting findings.

All my blogs can be read here in Dutch and here in English.