Lorena Nessi, PhD, is an award winning journalist, researcher, and cultural sociologist. Her doctoral studies were in Communication, Sociology and Digital Cultures. She was bestowed the Avina scholarship for investigative journalism while working for the BBC. For Brain Blogger, she wrote on neuroscience in marketing, questioned whether we were an over-connected generation, and laid the foundation of race in science. This month, she was appointed the new technology editor of Brain Blogger. Here, I interview her on this new undertaking.

Lakhan: What is your favorite quote?

Nessi:

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. – Isaac Asimov

Lakhan: What drew you to medical journalism?

Nessi: Technology has fascinated me since I was a child. For me reading science fiction was a way of realizing the possibilities we have as inherently technological beings. Journalism gives me the opportunity of exploring the latest steps we are taking in an endless search for a better world. The prism of cultural sociology gives me the elements to analyse all this more deeply and that helps me to ask more questions. Asking questions is what drives scientific thought.

Lakhan: Among your articles on Brain Blogger, which is your favorite and why?

Nessi: I’ve really enjoyed writing about augmented reality. Exploring the latest trends felt exactly as if I was reading science fiction when little. It is fascinating to see where are we in our technological development but it is also very interesting and concerning to see that we might not be ready to handle the knowledge we are generating. Augmented reality is magic but we might use it for such futile or even harmful purposes.

Lakhan: As technology editor of Brain Blogger, what do you aim to accomplish? What should readers look forward to under your editorship?

Nessi: As the technology editor on Brain Blogger I know that our readers expect information about the latest trends in digital technology,media and medical science. But from me they can mainly expect more questions! I don’t think we can keep up with all the information and the latest inventions except through questioning. So each article is an introduction to something that can be a fascinating area for further study and an opening into a forum where people can exchange ideas.

Image via Fernando Cortes / Shutterstock.