Crastina is a platform for the exchange of experience, knowledge and inspiration regarding both scientific peer-to-peer communication and science dissemination

What? An international network of (mostly young) people who love to communicate science & tech.
Why? We think science needs to be communicated with more passion and professionalism.
Where? On our website with interviews & resources + on social media + on Skype and IRL.
Who? A content group (the Crew), a think tank (the Academy), + lots of friends & contacts.
When? Right now – as a matter of fact, we’ve just geared up.

Denialism Attitudes and How to Approach Them – an interview with Christopher Swingle

Christopher A. Swingle, DO, is an attending physician with West County Radiology at Mercy Hospital St. Louis, specializing in nuclear medicine. He is also the councilor of the Missouri State Medical Association. In 2018, he published an editorial…

Opinion & Reflection

Stefan Jansson: Improve your credibility! (Crastina Column, September 2019)

This Crastina Column by Stefan Jansson, a professor at Umeå University, Sweden, initiates the theme ”Approaching the Disbelievers” at the crastina.org website. While driving to and from work the other day, I listened to two archived…

Interviews

The People’s Poet: Silke Kramprich, tech communicator

The winner of the People's Poet Prize in the Science Haiku Competition 2019 is a professional tech communicator who decided to try her luck as a science poet: Silke Kramprich. With quite some success, as it turned out! Congratulations,…

Our current theme: “SciComm in Africa”

Pearl Osirike: “The beginning of a new era: science communication in Africa”

A Crastina Column by Pearl Osirike, Ph.D. student at West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana.

Read the Crastina Column

This time, we will learn more about SciComm activities emerging from a geographical area which is often overlooked in the general discussion about science and its communication: Africa.

On the one hand, it is true that African academia has to cope with persistent challenges like poor funding, inadequate infrastructure, staff shortages and recruitment problems. The everyday struggle of experimental scientists is hard to imagine for those who work in labs in Europe and North America. For example, the difficulty of transporting tissue samples and biomolecules sometimes add weeks and months to projects – parcels are lost, frozen samples become thawed and are ruined on the way, et cetera.

On the other hand, anyone who studies the websites of African universities and research institutes will be met by an impressing vitality and optimism. Innumerous projects are ongoing across this vast continent, and many of them include SciComm activities which all provide a lesson for anyone ready to read, ask and reflect.

We have rarely felt such anticipation when initiating a theme here at Crastina; we are confident that we all – authors and readers have much – to learn.

For The Crastina Crew

Olle Bergman, Project Leader