On Friday night I was lucky enough to be able to attend National Science Week’s Event ‘Memes, blogs and videos: how social media has transformed the way we communicate science‘ in Canberra.  The event was a panel discussion between some of the most prominent and influential social media science communicators around the globe.  The panel included:

Phil Plait – (AKA @BadAstronomer) an astronomer, writer and popular science blogger, Elise Andrew – Creator of I Fucking Love Science on Facebook; Henry Reich – Creator of MinutePhysics and MinuteEarth YouTube channels; Mitchell Moffit & Gregory Brown – Creators of AsapSCIENCE YouTube channel; Destin Sandlin – Creater of SmarterEveryDay YouTube channel; and Chris Cassella – Managing Director of Science Alert.

It really was a stellar ‘cast’ who have a combined social media reach of well over 100 million people per week.  So what did these ‘giants’ of social media have to say about science communication?  Well they said a lot, so I can only cover the highlights here.  For a start – they all agreed – anyone can be a ‘science communicator’. You don’t have to be a scientist, or journalist or writer to be an effective science communicator, you just need to have a passion for science, and the time and ability to pass that information onto others.  So what do the panel members think makes their science communication successful, and what can they suggest to someone interested in science communication? Continue reading →