The scientists at the Kavli Institute take part in various activities for communicating science to the public. The tools of the trade for communicating within the science community, like peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, are not good sources of knowledge for the public. Rather it’s through popular media, like online video platforms, television, social media, radio, podcasts, newspapers and magazines, as well as popularized talks and debates taking place in the public, that the majority of citizens gain knowledge and advice about science. 

Popular science communication demands a translation of both complexity, language and dissemination form, without compromising central scientific aspects. By explaining scientific relationships in a straight-forward language and contextualizing scientific facts within issues of public interest and concern, our scientists aim at not only translating information and facts into publicly accessible knowledge and understanding, but also at providing a vocabulary that allows the broader public to engage in and join discourses about local and global issues that involve both risks and benefits, and in which every citizen is a stakeholder. 

These insights represent the fundament for the institute's public outreach activities and science communication plan.

Starmus represents an innovative approach to boosting public understanding of science, inviting citizens to engage with and participate in scientific discourses, by bringing together the very best of science and art into a weeklong popular science dissemination festival. The festival is pulling thousands of visitors, and is covered by major media houses across the world.

In 2016 Edvard Moser participated in the Starmus festival III held in Tenerife, with a popular science lecture on grid cells. Edvard and May-Britt Moser have since been instrumental in bringing the Starmus initiative to Trondheim (2017).

Popular speakers at the Starmus III festival in Tenerife (2016). Edvard Moser, sixth from left. Photo credits: Max Alexander

"The Grand Narrative" is an animated story about how we find our way in the environment, and why navigation is essential for life.

Into Whiteness is a story of how your ability to find your way in the environment and to remember your history, arise from activity in neural circuits deep within your brain. It is also the story of what happens when these neurons that underpin memory and navigation start dying in Alzheimer’s disease. Learn more about Into Whiteness

Rehearsals for the project Into Whiteness