Space for more science

Australia

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Astrophysics and Aboriginal astronomy on TikTok

At the start of 2020, astrophysics PhD student and science communicator Kirsten Banks was looking for a new way to share science with the public. ‘I was finishing up my job at Sydney Observatory as a tour guide and around the same time… the pandemic was really starting to take hold, and we were not allowed to go into schools, you weren’t allowed to have public events any more. So I had to change the way that I did science communication very, very drastically.’

It was Banks’ partner who suggested that she try out video hosting service TikTok as a platform for her science communication, a move Banks describes as being ‘a very fun and wild ride ever since’.