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.

”If you talk to the press, people might offer you gold mines”

Popular science twitterer @AstroKatie, a.k.a. Katherine J Mack, gave an interview for the Economist and then received a request from a firm looking for a use for an exhausted goldmine–something may be just the right kind of environment for a astro physics lab!

Analogies—when two similar worlds meet

Properly used, analogies can give a huge help for understanding the structure of what we are telling each other. But then again: which is the proper way to use them? Norbert Majubu offers some reflections on how people often misuse analogies in science communication and reasoning.

How-to & Useful stuff, Interviews

How to succeed in interviews—some reflections by an experienced expert reviewer

To succeed in interviews, you need to show genuine interest, stay present in the moment and demonstrate your self-awareness. Professor Helena Jernberg Wiklund shares some of her experience .

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