Once Upon a Time - A scientific fairy tale

by Andrea Orfanoz-Cheuquelaf

"Once Upon a Time" is an active international project aiming to use short stories to communicate science. With the contribution of 29 early carrers from 11 different nationalitites, scientist, writers and artists, this project have been develope within the con­test "Hochschulwettbewerb zum Wissenschaftsjahr 2016*17 - Meere und Ozeane" in Bremen, Germany.

Two ebooks are already published and are free to download, with stories, fairy tales and poems, written by scientists, that submerge us in the maritime realm, the importance of the oceans and seas, what we could discover under the water, the environment and climate change.

The target group are children, but we all can learn and enjoy. Each story counts with its designed illustrations and a section named "Would you like to know more?", where it is possible to find definitions of the story's scientific concepts and interesting information about the topic.

So far, the first book is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Filipino, Chinese and French. The second book released last February is available in English, German and Spanish.

We all know the importance of communicating science. This kind of material is a great opportunity to approach complicated issues to the general public in such an enjoyable way. The "Once upon a time" team invites you all that want to know more to contact them, and I invite you to download these books, read them, and share them!