“The Tale of the Hill” is an illustrated silent book work It presents a scientifically accurate reconstruction of the life of the Neanderthals. But TAL also offers another revolutionary novelty, that is, it represents an innovative method of scientific publishing given that Its pages tell a different story depending on who is browsing through it. Here is that story It can be read at three levels: lowest, medium, and highwhere the first is the one that “gets” the kids, the second is the reading step intended for adults, and the third is for the insiders, who can find behind each illustration Incredible amount of scientific data.
Indeed, each illustration relates to data approved in the scientific literature and is described in the bibliography as it is with a normal scientific publication. Over the past two decades, science communication has tapped into many channels and tools to learn about the progress of research. Blogs, podcasts, and cross-platform video stories have joined the more formal conferences and science cafés. The use of many tools has made it possible to interest an increasingly large audience of people who are interested in science. A curious aspect has to do with the fact that although images and observation are the foundation of science and are able to engage us more than other forms of communication, the use of graphic novels is not very common in science communication. Tal’s tale is tangible proof that a graphic novel (and in silent book format) can effectively combine the need for clarity, typical of communication, with an accurate presentation of scientific facts and arguments. Tale of Tal was developed as a project to demonstrate the potential that graphic novels can have to tell the central concepts of science without altering them and to actually motivate us to discover the science behind each illustration.
The graphic novel was curated by Trilobite Design Italia, by Gianpaolo Di Silvestro from Abruzzo, a company that will be a volume producer and distributor. Graphic novel pens by artist Luke VirgosAs for the introduction, it was the share of the professors David Caramelli (University of Florence) and Mauro Mandrioli (Unimore) who, along with doctors Fabio Bona (Assistant Professor at the University of Milan) and Fabio Fusco (Researcher/Consultant Paleontologist)Carrying out the necessary scientific consulting activities to ensure the scientific validity of the work. Introduction written by Professor Telmo Bifani, one of the most famous Italian philosophers of science. Sponsorships awarded by the scientific platform Pikaia (Gateway to Evolution) and SPI (Italian Paleontological Society). The project is also on Kickstarter (click here)It achieved its funding goal in less than 24 hours.
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