WHY Neurofantastic?
Because neuroscience is totally fantastic, and my last name is Fan. Get it? Huh? Huh? :P (I'll go crawl under a table now haha). The site was previously named "Neurorexia" (see below), but after 4 years of trying to spell it out for people it was time for a change.
can i write for your site?
Unfortunately, no. NeuroFantastic is my personal science writing journal and a safe space to nerd out and pluck weird stories out of my head. It's also a portfolio of sorts, a place I can point potential job recruiters to. So - for now at least - I'm keeping all of the content on the site strictly mine.
Are you interested in collaborations?
Absolutely! As of now I'm very interested in venturing into other media formats, such as podcasts and video, but if you have a project idea that I can help with, please feel free to give me a shout!
(My last collaboration resulted in this neuroanatomy coloring book.)
Where are you writing now?
As of mid 2015, my main science writing home-on-the-web is Singularity Hub. I will link to those articles from NeuroFantasic, and (hopefully) post some extra tidbits that comes up while researching SH articles.
is "neurorexia" a word?
No, it's an amalgam that I came up with while deciding what to name the blog. "Neuro" is for all things brain-related, "orexia" stands for "appetite" or "desire". Mash the two together, and voila, Neurorexia. It's a mouthful and probably doesn't mean what I think it does, but the name stuck around for longer than I imagined!
CAN I USE YOUR CONTENT?
Please feel free to reuse any content on NeuroFantastic for non-commercial purposes. If you decide to do so (I’ll be very flattered!), please add “This article was originally published at NeuroFantastic.” before or after the main content, and shoot me an email to let me know.
can i pitch you story ideas?
By all means! I love hearing from public information officers, biotech communications officers, and scientists who want to spread the word about their cool new findings. My main beats are neuroscience, health and AI, but I'm happy to foray into unfamiliar grounds. Contact me here, on Twitter, or email me.
Why does your spelling waver between british and american?
I started this blog while I was a PhD student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where people use British spelling. After graduating, I moved to the Bay Area for my postdoc, and have since converted to American spelling. You'll see a bit of both on this site.
WHERE else can i find your work?
I occasionally guest blog for Scientific American MIND.
I also blog sporadically at Scienceof Eating Disorders. My posts mostly cover CH/SP, a “neglected” symptom that positively correlates with ED severity. My goal is to bring this stigmatized symptom to light and candidly talk about how it may impact the body. I’m happy to see that my introductory post on CH/SP was the most read article on the site in 2013, and I hope that increasing awareness of the symptom will eventually drive more research.