Fun Science: Slovenian Big Bang Theory

I had the pleasure of being among the fantastic participants at the round table “Fun Science: Slovenian Big Bang Theory” organized in March 2024. We discussed whether scientific communication and presentations would benefit from being more fun. The short conclusion was yes, yes they would!

Why? Because when we present something in a new, interesting, and fun way, there’s a higher chance your audience will actually listen and remember what you were saying. This doesn’t mean you expect your audience to laugh out loud (especially not at scientific conferences), but if you can elicit a smile or even get a little nod, you’ve succeeded. You can achieve that even if you’re not a comedian at heart by engaging your audience with fun pictures, gifs, quotes, questions, or any other tools from the engagement arsenal.

Another thing we discussed was the lack of appropriate education in Slovenia (and many other countries) to teach scientists how to efficiently communicate science. This is a super neglected and yet very important area, as it could lead to higher trust in science and consequently its development.

The full roundtable is available at https://video.arnes.si/watch/btrttf95rdxz.