Inspiring Australia update: Millions of science fans can’t be wrong

Hit Australian science news service ScienceAlert approaches six million fans.

ScienceAlert headerIt started in 2005 as a humble website, but the Canberra-based ScienceAlert is now a social media superstar, having reached more than 5.6 million fans on Facebook.

Every day, ScienceAlert posts news stories, feature articles, videos, images and comment to spread the work of Australian universities and research agencies. Its fans then share the stories further, increasing the reach to 10-15 million people worldwide.

“We also have 250,000 Australian fans and they in turn are helping us to reach 1-2 million Australians,” said ScienceAlert managing director Chris Casella. “This is great news for Australian science – at a time when reportage of science in the traditional media is flagging.”

ScienceAlert continues to partner with YouTube science celebrities to branch out into the real world, with shows like IFLS Live! in Sydney. This is all part of its mission to not only promote Australian science, but to give people the knowledge needed to tackle global issues.

“But science alone is not enough,” said ScienceAlert founder Julian Cribb. “The knowledge it generates needs to be shared at lightspeed among seven billion human beings, so they can make use of it. That is what motivates us.”

This knowledge can be found at www.facebook.com/ScienceAlert.

Inspiring Australia

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About Michelle Wheeler

Michelle Wheeler is a former science and environment reporter for The West Australian newspaper and has been published in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Science, the Countryman, WA Today, suburban newspapers and more. She is currently a full-time freelance journalist, writing for both science publications and the mainstream media, and helps science organisations communicate their research to the world. Michelle’s work has seen her drive to the remote Square Kilometre Array site in a 2WD Hyundai, stand on a boat following a white shark attack to check shark receivers are working and spend a day on a tiger snake-infested island dubbed the most dangerous in the world. She has been in a boat crash while meeting isolated tribes in the Malaysian jungle and has interviewed Nobel Laureates, Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson and Ewan McGregor. Michelle previously worked in science communication at Scitech and The University of Western Australia. She has a Bachelor of Science and Postgraduate Diploma of Journalism.

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