Strong opinion, deep reflection. Stuff to make you think.

Lina Eklund: “Many conferences don’t offer time for informal interaction.”

Think about your last academic conference. Can you honestly say that it was worth all the trouble, time and money? Lina Eklund, physical geographer from Lund university, takes a critical look at a meeting culture in strong need of new ideas. The…

How can a scientist benefit from doing music on the side?

The worlds of science and music interconnect at many levels. It can be about the physical principles that make instruments able to produce a melody or a rhythm. Or it can be about complex neurophysiological theories on why we need music in…

John Hinton: ”The science of music, and the music of science”

“Writing and performing science songs is the niche field in which I’ve carved out something of a profession over the past decade,” says John Hinton, theatre practitioner, science communicator, and the creator of Ensonglopedia of Science,…

Crastina Column, Nov–Dec 2017: ”Why you A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y need a personal website as a scientist” by Stephan van Duin

Being a scientist means that you need to promote yourself as skilled and influential individual in your professional field. Accordingly, a personal website seems to be an obvious tool for a science or tech person with great ambitions. Here Stephan…

Communicating Science: Why do we still need to talk about vaccination?

“What makes people question, disbelieve and continue to weight advantages and disadvantages of vaccination?” wonders molecular geneticist  and Crastina staff writer Anastasiia Semenova. In this personal reflection, she chooses an inter-cultural…

Crastina Column, Sep–Oct 2017: Can a simple card game help us see things from ”the other’s” point of view?

Can a simple card game reveal hidden aspects of culture and demonstrate how biased we are when meeting people from different backgrounds? ”Indeed!” says the experience from the Graduate Professional Skills Certificate program (module: Thinking…

Crastina Column, June–Aug 2017: “Being a proud intermediary” by Fredrik Saarkoppel

“I’m specialised in understanding three things: firstly the subject itself, and secondly the perspectives of the two groups that I serve, i.e. senders and receivers.” So says Fredrik Saarkoppel, Swedish freelance illustrator with many…