American Scientist

Can you name an animal that has a zoom-zoom paddle, an electro-sensitive booper, peekaboo spheres, and a tuna noms chute? If you said great white shark, you’re correct! This example (pictured below) is one of the latest in a science hashtag game on Twitter: It’s called #UnScienceAnAnimal, and it consists of experts using funny alternative phrasings to describe the biology and anatomy of animals (in this case, the caudal fin, eyes, and mouth of a great white).

There have been hundreds of hilarious contributions from all over the world, but some of my favorites include classifying a porcupine into a “boop zone” and a “no boop zone,” referring to a whelk’s specialized teeth as a “slorper,” and describing a lamprey’s unusual teeth as the “scratchy bits.” Although things similar to #UnScienceAnAnimal have existed for years (examples here) the latest iteration has inspired all kinds of amazing contributions from institutions and scientific experts all over the world.

Like several recent examples of hilarious and educational online science communication, #UnScienceAnAnimal started with the zoo and aquarium community. “It has been awesome to see it expand beyond the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) community, with plenty of researchers, students, and organizations creating their own original content with the hashtag,” says Sally Compton, the communications and marketing manager for the Oregon Coast aquarium. “This gets people thinking about animals and stimulates conversations far beyond their anatomy! Our sea jelly post started a conversation about nematocysts [stinging cells] and the best way to treat stings!”

Humor in general, and internet humor specifically, can be an effective way to communicate scientific topics with the public. “So much of internet humor is about finding a shared language with your audience, something that you can both connect over on an unexpectedly personal level,” says Rachel Pendergrass, the founder of ScienceAF, a science communication consultancy that draws from the worlds of comedy and performance (Author’s note: Pendergrass also blogs for the same science blog that I do, Southern Fried Science). “That level of audience connection is a major goal of a lot of scientists trying to communicate with the public. What's fun about the #UnScienceAnAnimal hashtag is that it puts experts and nonexperts on the same level, finding the goofiest possible way to explain how weird animals are. When you and your audience get to riff together, you get some great relationship-building moments!”

While hashtag games like this are fun and educational in their own right, they can also help serve the mission of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums by building an audience for future, more important messages. “#UnScienceAnAnimal and #RateASpecies demonstrate the collective reach that the AZA community can have when we coordinate on an effort, which is important for effectively spreading messages about animal welfare and species conservation,” Compton said. Education, humor, and conservation benefits—that’s nothing to shake a sharky end at.