Hit Australian science news service ScienceAlert approaches six million fans.

It 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.