12 examples of stunning science communication

Science communication is often based on specific research outputs — usually technical journal articles. The most effective science communication, though, finds a way of placing technical research in a larger narrative context. 

That is, they tell a story. 

Out of Africa from the University of Queensland begins with a herbal tea widely consumed in West Africa in the 1960s, before introducing the more technical — and serendipitous — process of scientific discovery at the University of Oxford thirty years later. 

The piece is a fascinating introduction to the science of plant-based peptides, and makes it clear why research into peptides and proteins from the natural world is so important today.

The difference between a good science story and a great one often comes down to the quality of its visual assets.

Over the last few years, web publishing standards have risen dramatically. Once upon a time, you might have been able to get away with cheap stock photography or low-resolution photos. 

But that was the old web, and times have changed. Now, the best science stories are truly immersive, with rich photography, videos, illustrations, and scroll-based visual effects. 

Mission to the Sun from Imperial is a slightly unfair example — not every science communicator gets to tell the story of a literal journey to space. But it’s still a great example of a story that makes the most of its visual assets.

The best science stories on the web benefit from excellent story design. This is true of many of New Zealand media company Stuff’s feature stories.  

‘Story design’ is a broad term, but it generally refers to how a story’s producer arranges various story elements — including text, video, imagery, and visual techniques — to best engage the reader. 

In Root & Branch, the Stuff team consider the thorny problem of land use, reforestation, and climate change in Aotearoa. They do an amazing job of explaining a complex science story, punctuating their text with graphs, infographics, video, illustrations, and stunning photography. 

If you're looking for more examples like this one, check out our guide, 8 examples of powerful data stories, and our introduction to data storytelling.

Sometimes, the most effective way to tell a science story is to focus on the process — especially when the process includes months-long expeditions to the Arctic.

Science journalist Shannon Hall of Nature tells just that story. Beautifully illustrated with photos of weather balloons, arctic skies, and — of course — polar bears, her story shows us the complexity and risk involved in collecting Arctic climate data.

Along the way, we learn about the current state of Arctic sea ice, and what that might mean for climate change in the future.

Not all science communication happens on the page. Colleges and universities, for example, host an enormous number of guest lectures and panel discussions during the academic year — often aimed at non-expert audiences. 

With COVID-19, many institutions are looking for ways to replicate that experience online. For their Gala Week, Clare College produced a virtual event using digital stories and embedded video, featuring talks from many of their scientists. 

Members of the public are often most interested in the impact scientific research has on our world. This is the focus of the University of Utah team in They Emerge Transformed, which presents the science of burn treatment through the stories of burn survivors.

With striking photography and detailed portraits, the story leaves the reader in no doubt about the importance of research into burn treatments at the University of Utah’s Health Burn Center. 

Not every scientist travels to the arctic or sends rockets into space. For stories with less inherent drama, digital storytelling techniques can be used to capture the reader’s attention. 

This is the approach taken by Louise Walsh in Silent Witnesses. She uses starkly beautiful images to show how research into tree rings is contributing to solutions to our planet’s most urgent issues.

For better and worse, science communication is competing with every other form of entertainment on the web. Many readers following the links to science stories will also have tabs open to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and media outlets. 

To keep the attention of the reader, science communicators need to publish to the highest standards of the modern web. This includes the basics, such as being mobile-friendly and using high quality media assets. 

It also means taking advantage of modern web-based visual techniques — such as scroll-based animation — which have been proven to increase audience engagement rates and dwell time. 

The UNDP uses these techniques in their exceptional story, A Wilderness of Water. With rich video and beautiful historical — if erroneous — maps, the UNDP introduces the science while forcefully communicating the urgency of protecting our oceans.

Some subjects just lend themselves to visual storytelling. Indonesia’s Secret Forests takes us into the underground network of caves and rivers — with mysterious creatures — in the heartland of Java.

The piece uses video and photography to showcase the inherent natural beauty of the environment. But the piece also teaches the reader about the wonders of the local ecosystem, and highlights its fragility in the face of tourism and agriculture. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, data journalists around the world have provided a critical public service by documenting the spread of the virus. This has often involved interrogating data provided by government agencies, and sometimes required uncovering truths that public officials have tried to conceal. 

We’ve gathered a collection of these stories built with Shorthand on our blog. 

For this guide, we’ll focus on just one example. Over the course of the pandemic, Sky News have maintained a series of interactive charts and maps visualising its spread around the world. Presented with spare commentary and minimalist story design, the Sky News team allows space for the data to speak for itself. 

The story is a powerful depiction of the spread of the virus. 

Journalists are always interested in telling longform stories — but these stories don’t always fare well on the web. With the rise of digital storytelling platforms, though, this is quickly changing. We’re currently seeing a boom in visual, longform science stories. 

The BBC have published many such stories. One great example is The road to clean energy, which is a deep-dive into the data around clean energy in the UK. 

The use of data visualisations, images, illustrations, and pull-quotes breaks up the text of the story, producing a compelling and immersive reading experience. 

Some of the best science stories are published by museums.

Making the most of their amazing collections and expert staff, the Museum of Natural History at the University of Oxford have built a detailed digital story to introduce their ‘First Animals’ exhibition. 

With so much rich material at their fingertips, the museum uses maps, video, illustrations, and high resolution photos of their fascinating collection items to tell the story of Earth’s “mysterious early animals.” Learn about molecular clocks, Snowball Earth, and the Cambrian Explosion.