Compelling stories, curious science: #UnlockingScience launched

Paris, 9 November 2021 – Produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, this dynamic online series uncovers the innovative global stories of scientists and how they are addressing inequalities, engaging policymakers and the public, and pioneering a more sustainable future.

With all eyes on COP26, and a chance for the world’s leaders, policymakers and community activists to put the planet on a sustainable path, this series meets the scientists who are finding solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing issues. Unlocking Science, a new online series looks at how the global collaborative effort by international science is rising to the challenge of finding pathways to living within planetary boundaries.

Produced for the International Science Council by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, Unlocking Science addresses the need for accessible science – through compelling and innovative storytelling for the public. This new series of films, articles and podcasts explores the ever-changing face of science culture, where diversity of thought and creative approaches to our most immediate and complex concerns are championed.

“We want communities to realize that science creating solutions for our planet is certainly not taking place in a so-called ivory tower. It is open, multinational, participatory and fuelled with urgency”,
Mathieu Denis, ISC Science Director said.

From innovators working to protect vital ecological biomes like the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest, to scientists seeking stability after being displaced by conflict, to ordinary citizens discovering our galaxy and our place in it through community-led tourism, Unlocking Science tells the human stories and new discoveries created by science.

Explore the ISC stories to feature on the new hub:

Meet Laura de Santis as part of SCAR‘s story on What Antarctica can teach us about climate change – “We need to combine multidisciplinary work in order to understand the sensitivity of the ice sheets to ongoing climate warming, and to even more warming, which is expected in the future in the next decades”
Discover the people behind the changing face of medical science – “The medical physicists and engineers are like the orchestra in the opera: they are not the people you see, but they are the ones who ensure that the technology needed in healthcare is created and developed” – in Tomorrow’s hidden visionaries with the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences
Learn about The communities using astronomy to bring tourism to their region with the International Astronomical Union Office of Astronomy for Development and meet Tsewang Dorjey and Arun Radhakrishnan, a local team leaders in the village sharing their knowledge of the night sky
Meet refugee scientists displaced by conflict, like Eqbal Dauqan, who left Yemen for Oslo, where she gained an academic position with support from the Scholars At Risk network. Eqbal was a mentee of the Global Young Academy‘s At-Risk Scholars Initiative, and now acts as a mentor herself. See her story in Knowledge lost to conflict.
A picture tells a thousand words. Learn how photographs and satellite imaging are helping communities in low lying coastal areas and UNESCO-protected mangrove reserves through the Transformations to Sustainability programme, with Empowering Marginalized Communities

You can explore the series from Tuesday 9 November here: www.unlockingscienceseries.com or here if you are in the United Kingdom.

Additional films and articles will be joining the Unlocking Science series in early 2022.

Download this press release

About the ISC

The International Science Council (ISC) works at the global level to catalyse and convene scientific expertise, advice and influence on issues of major concern to both science and society. The ISC is a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings together over 200 international scientific Unions and Associations, as well as regional and national scientific organizations including Academies and Research Councils. The ISC was created in 2018 as the result of a merger between the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC). It is the only international non-governmental organization bringing together the natural and social sciences and the largest global science organization of its kind.

For more information about ISC see https://council.science/ and follow ISC on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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