It is estimated that the number of Internet users will have reached almost 3 billion by the end of 2014. ¹ Approximately 87% of all American adults currently use the Internet.² With such a large population of Internet users, people have been using the Web as a platform for education. In particular, science education has been making its way to people through blogs and videos.

One popular science blog is IFL Science, which is a blog that is “dedicated to bringing the amazing world of science straight to your newsfeed in an amusing and accessible way.” ³ The blog mainly writes about the science-related current events news and interesting science facts about the world. It features a variety of different subdivisions of science, such as Chemistry, Physics, Health and Medicine, Technology, and The Brain. Though IFL Science has their own website, Facebook was their main way of garnering an audience for their blog.⁴ Their IFL Science Facebook page has well over 18 million fans. With so many followers, they provide a lighthearted approach to science-related topics and current events; just their latest post was titled “Apparently, Burning NH₄Cr₂O₇ With HgSCN Opens A Portal To Hell.”  The post includes a video of what seems to be the doorway to the underworld being created. The actual post goes on to explain the chemical reaction that occurs when the two compounds, ammonium dichromate and mercury (II) thiocyanate, is burned. The author of the post does not use many technical terms, which would suggest that her intended audience is for the general public. She does not, however, go into depth about the individual compounds, which might also suggest that she assumes the audience would have some chemistry background. The way this chemistry is presented is almost the opposite way general chemistry is taught in schools. In schools, students are taught the reactions, and then later shown what certain reactions would physically look like. The way the author presents information has much more of a shock factor – almost as if saying, “You see this crazy looking thing right here? Allow me to explain.”

While a text post on the mechanisms behind a chemical reaction is one way to present scientific information, another popular way may be through videos. AsapScience is a YouTube channel that focuses on answering random science questions from the Youtube community through animated drawings and voice-overs.⁵ The questions they answer range from “What if you stopped drinking water?” to “Why are babies so cute?”. The creators of the channel take these questions and try to use science to best answer these questions. Their most popular video answers the question “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?”⁷ The entire video uses hand-drawn animations to explain why technically, the egg came first. He has very few biology jargon in the video, and any technical terms he does use (such as “zygote”), he defines for the viewer. This would suggest that the intended audience is for the general public, regardless of whether the viewer has scientific knowledge or not. The animations were a lighthearted, clear and concise way to present the information to the viewer. Most of his videos are no longer than 5 minutes, and he is able to present a lot of information in such a short period of time.

Both IFL Science and AsapScience have very similar goals and do an excellent job at it: presenting scientific information in a manner that the general public would be interested in. Other than suggesting the portal to hell may have been discovered, a lot of IFL Science’s blog posts revolve around current events related to science. A recent post under their “Health and Medicine” tag was titled “Studies Reveal Health Risks of E-Cigarettes.” Another recent post under “The Brain Tag” is entitled “Learning New Words Activates The Same Brain Regions As Sex And Drugs.” This large range of topics indicates the variety of her intended audience. She concentrates more on showcasing scientific advancements that are being made in a way that people can understand and perhaps become more interested in. In the E-cigarettes post, she explains a number of studies that have shown evidence of harmful effects of vaping. AsapScience is more of an interactive platform, where people can actually ask the creators of the channel questions that the audience is curious about. Other popular videos on their channel include “Can You Erase Bad Memories”, “The Science of Depression”, and “The Science of Pornography Addiction” Again, a very large range of topics, suggesting a very large range of viewers. AsapScience seems to concentrate more on explaining the science behind topics to give viewers an understanding of the topics. In the pornography addiction video, he explains the mechanism behind the neurological cycle of addiction and how it relates to this problem.

Both the blog and the Youtube channel give the general public an interesting way to learn more about science. IFL Science uses current events as her way to attract people to learn about the behind-the-scenes science, whereas AsapScience directly interact with people and uses videos to answer people’s questions with science. IFL Science uses written blog posts as her main medium of presenting information, while AsapScience uses videos to present his information. As for which medium is better for presenting scientific information, it would really have to depend on the type of learner the audience is. I am a visual learner, so I take in information a lot more easily when things are drawn out for me. This makes me prefer AsapScience the slightest bit more. However, the way IFL Science presents her information allows me to be not only learn more about science, but also keeps me up to date on the latest news. It keeps me in the loop of whatever is happening in the scientific community. As a Biomedical Engineering student, it is so useful for me to have articles of new advancements written in a way that I could understand.