Emma Cooke Approximately 250 words
INTD 105 Science Writing
His Brain Can’t Make New Memories — So He Built an App to Store them Instead
Science Reporter Nidhi Subbaraman met with Thomas Dixon, a man who suffered severe brain injuries in a car accident to discuss his new app and its role in his life. The hardest hit to Dixon’s brain was his medial-temporal lobe, the memory-making center. After his accident the memories he formed before remained intact, however, he lost the ability to make or remember new memories. Thomas Dixon attempted many methods of remembering his day to day life but wasn’t satisfied with his results until his newest method- an app. When journals became too difficult to find information in and private twitter feeds didn’t have the recall capacity Dixon was looking for, he created his own solution. He is now able to easily recall important details of his life, and those less important day to day memories most people take for granted.
Subbaraman’s piece on Thomas Dixon is effective public-facing science writing because the message of her piece is that this app could impact all readers. She emphasizes Dixon’s idea that his app is useful for everyone, not just those who have suffered from a brain injury. Subbaraman writes, “We don’t remember a majority of our own lives,” Dixon said. “People will say to me, ‘So this is an app for people with memory loss.’ And I will look at them and say, ‘You mean you?’” By incorporating this quote from Dixon she has been able to make this app, and its creator, highly relatable.
Subbaraman’s article can be found at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/nidhisubbaraman/memory-app-for-that?utm_term=.rogqYLK3G#.uxZAR5EdW