The Language Exchange

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Meetings between poets and scientists who share language and ideas and create new work.

The Language Exchange is a place where poets and scientists meet to share language and ideas and create new work.

The Language Exchange is a place where poets and scientists meet to share ideas and create new work. In each episode a poet will sit down with a scientist to find out more about a specific piece of research. The poet will then write a brand new poem inspired by their discussion.

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The Language Exchange: Michael Dickman and Professor Christoph Lees

20/11/2022

Michael Dickman and Professor Christoph Lees

BBC Radio 4 - The Language Exchange, Michael Dickman and Professor Christoph Lees

The poet Michael Dickman meets Professor Christoph Lees to craft a poem about his work.

Michael Dickman is a poet. And also a twin. And he is setting out to create a poem for Professor Christoph Lees, a leader in the treatment of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

The Language Exchange pairs a poet with a scientist to create a new work about their research, to explore language and bridge the supposed gulf between art and science. 

Episode three sees US poet Michael Dickman visit Professor Christoph Lees. The Professor of Obstetrics at Imperial College London is at the forefront of a non-invasive method of tackling a major threat to the lives of identical twins in the womb, Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome.
 
His ground-breaking work within Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital is already changing lives, addressing a dangerous anomaly which sees one twin dominate an unequal amount of blood supply. Dr Caroline Shaw, subspecialist in fetal maternal medicine, takes Michael through the imaging system which goes on to help inspire his poem. 

Abbie Hofbauer talks to Michael about the impact of a diagnosis of TTTS during her own pregnancy. It’s a particularly moving visit for Michael as he himself is an identical twin. 

During the discussion Michael and the professor discuss not only the translation of necessary medical jargon into something a patient might understand, but come to realise the importance of imaginative leaps in medical innovation. Are some scientific modes of thought surprisingly close to the flights of fancy associated with the artist?

The project is delivered with the assistance of the Medical Research Council, Wiseman Trust, Focused Ultrasound Foundation and Action Medical Research, Institute for Cancer Research, the Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff and Canon Medical Systems. 

More information about the condition is available from Twins Trust. 

Presented by Michael Dickman
Produced by Kevin Core

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