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www.scientell.com.au Email info@scientell.com.au Twitter @Scientell
Scientell was launched in November 2015. That means that we're celebrating our halfth birthday (as communicators, we’re allowed to coin new words).
We’ve had a great time meeting so many people doing exciting work in science, environment and technology. In turn, we've been fortunate to be asked to do work on some of the most important subjects of our time – climate change, the environment, innovation, science and technology.
Follow us on Twitter at @Scientell, and let us know how we're doing.
Many thanks
Simon Torok & Paul Holper
Directors, Scientell
PS You are receiving this newsletter as we have engaged with you during the past six months. Should you not wish to receive future copies, please unsubscribe via the link at the bottom of this document.
Securing Australia's future
Here’s an idea. Gather together some of Australia’s finest minds. Ask them to come up with research-based evidence to support policy development in areas of importance to Australia's future.
This is precisely what the Australian Government did in 2012. A series of reports on the findings has been produced by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) – Australian Academy of the Humanities, Australian Academy of Science, Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Scientell is proud to be working with ACOLA and CSIRO Publishing to synthesise this wealth of information into a book and ePub written for members of parliament, senior public servants, industry leaders, universities and others in the community interested in securing Australia’s future.
You can find all the reports here.
CoastExchange: Another brick in the seawall
Scientell is assisting the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) with their online discussion about coastal adaptation, CoastExchange. You can sign up at https://connect.coastadapt.com.au/.
The purpose of this virtual community of adaptors is to provide a forum in which users can interact with their peers to share ideas, approaches, opportunities, and more.
Recent discussion topics include the pros and cons of sea walls, the value of local knowledge in addressing coastal climate change adaptation, and how to cope with changes in extreme temperature. There’s also a daily summary of climate change news. Read more here.
Secondary school science textbooks
Last year we wrote three textbooks for Australian secondary school students.
Published by Oxford University Press, the books are richly illustrated, presented in magazine style rather than a traditional format, available as an electronic resource as well as hard copy, and designed to appeal to a wide spectrum of students. The Amazing Science books cover the complete Australian science curriculum for each of Years 7, 8 and 9.
We particularly enjoyed the opportunity to include profiles of a diversity of young and dynamic Australian scientists from CSIRO, universities and research agencies.
New climate change brochures for Victoria
Recently we worked with the Victorian Government to prepare a series of regional brochures explaining the likely impacts of climate change, and how best to adapt. This project was a collaboration with Karen Pearce of Bloom Communication and Rohan Hamden.
 These 8-page brochures state how climate has already changed, highlight climate-related risks for key sectors and present ‘climate-ready’ actions. CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology prepared regional projections and climate information specially for the project.
The Victorian Government undertook extensive consultation to maximise the value and relevance of the brochures. In preparing the products, we emphasised personal experiences and local examples, described effective local action, and where possible accentuated the positive.
We know that people interpret information in different ways. To cater for this, the brochures include body text, breakouts, infographics, attractive photographs, and different graph styles.
Australian Meteorological & Oceanography Society Conference 2016
Scientell was the media partner for the 2016 conference hosted jointly by the Australian Meteorological & Oceanography Society and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. Around 300 scientists from Australia and overseas gathered in Melbourne in February to present and discuss the latest findings in meteorology, oceanography and climate science.
As well as writing media releases and working directly with journalists across Australia, we collaborated with the Australian Science Media Centre to arrange a live online briefing about climatic extremes. More than a dozen media representatives participated, including ABC, AAP, News Corp and Sky News.
How to create a blog that everyone will truly love
Feel a blog coming on? What can you do to make your blog stand out? Write a good headline, for a start. We did the one above using a formula. The theory is that to attract interest, a headline needs to connect emotionally. So it should include powerful words that invoke feelings. According to an online headline analyser, our headline rates highly for intellectual impact words.
Next you need a compelling first sentence to capture readily distracted readers. Check out our blog on blogging, and other blog topics here.
A winning future
Ever dreamt about being invisible, zipping around the world in 80 minutes, or time travelling? Ever dreamt about not dreaming – as in, staying awake for days on end and finally getting on top of your to-do list?
Read about all these possibilities and impossibilities and many more in our new book, Imagining the Future: Invisibility, Immortality and 40 Other Incredible Ideas, to be launched in June. As we say in our introduction to the book: ‘We need to dream. Dreams help us imagine the future. And imagining the future is the first step in arriving there. If you can dream it, perhaps one day you can invent it.’
Imagining the Future is published by CSIRO Publishing and aimed at younger readers aged 9-13 years old. We have a copy to give away – simply email info@scientell.com.au with the title of the invention that you would most like to see come to fruition. Include your postal address. The competition closes on 31 May 2016.
Imagining the Future: Invisibility, Immortality and 40 Other Incredible Ideas will be launched in June.
Factoid
The ocean covers 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface and contains almost 97 per cent of the planet’s water. But only 2.5 per cent of Earth’s water is freshwater, and just a fraction (1.2 per cent) of that freshwater is surface water available for our needs.
Events
Join us in Adelaide at Climate Adaptation 2016, which runs from 5-7 July. NCCARF and CSIRO are conference partners. This is the conference for climate change adaptation practitioners and researchers. http://climate-adaptation.org.au
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