Author: katjakobow
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Epilepsy: from stigma to treatment
Epilepsy is not a single seizure but a lasting tendency of the brain to produce them, and it affects around 50 million people worldwide. Where the seizures start matters: focal seizures arise from one region of cortex, generalized seizures involve both hemispheres from the outset. That distinction shapes which drug is prescribed and whether surgery…
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A conversation called science
Science has always been a conversation. We give talks, we discuss ideas with colleagues, we read papers, and we challenge assumptions. But science is also a conversation with society. After all, many of the questions we investigate arise from the world around us, and the answers we seek are intended to improve it. However, a…
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On metrics, meaning, and what actually gets done
There seem to be (at least) two fundamentally different ways to approach a career in science. Likely also outside of it. Most people, I guess, recognize both. One is strategic. You choose labs with strong reputations. You aim for specific journals. You plan fellowships, awards, and timelines. You learn how the system works and try…
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The long and windy road to publishing
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that (maybe not only?) we scientists know – the slow unraveling of time between the first spark of an idea and the moment it finally becomes public. What begins as curiosity and excitement often turns into a marathon of experiments, re-analyses, revisions, rejections, rethinking, and rewordings. Each step is…
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Resilience, Degeneracy, and Discovery
Just returned from ten intense and inspiring days in Portugal, first at the Workshop On the Neurobiology of EPilepsy (WONOEP) in Cascais, then at the International Epilepsy Congress 2025 in Lisbon. At WONOEP, the big theme this year was the resilient brain and the idea of degeneracy, that means, how multiple pathways can serve similar…
