Science Agora in Asia

Today, I have visited "Science Agora in Asia: Science in Cultural Context" in Miraikan, Odaiba, Tokyo.
We have listened to a very colorful presentation by the Head of the Division and curator of the Center for Molecular Biodiversity Research, National Musuem of Nature and Science, Japan, Dr. Tsuyoshi Hosoya.
Among the audience, there were representatives of various museums from Australia, as well as researchers and international students from Korea, China, Russia, and the Philippines.
The main topic of the discussion in this "cafe-scientifique" (as the organizers called it) was "science communication using manga." Dr. Hosoya, a mycologist specializing on systematics of fungi, has introduced us to "Moyasimon," a comic book, in which various microbes are used as characters. This manga helped to promote children and young people's interest in mycology, and it was further demonstrated by the success of the exhibition "Inside Talk about Wonders of Fungi: A Mycohistorical Special Exhibition Featuring Japanese Culture MANGA."
This new approach to the education and science communication to the general public has drawn a number of interesting comments from the audience. Overall, most of the participants agreed to the usefulness of playful/entertaining representation of scientific matters to children and their education.
The last comments from the organizers themselves that, depending on the culture of a given society, there could be different tools used to make science more popular have finalized the whole discussion. As a thought to ponder on further, organizers suggested that because manga is more popular in Japan, the strategy of introducing science through manga has proved itself useful within the Japanese culture, however, this cannot always hold true for other cultures and countries. This open question can be an exciting thing to explore...

Kamila Kolpashnikova