What's All This?

Lateral is an online magazine focused on the interaction of science with wider human society, including medicine, the media, philosophy, law, education, history, politics, art, culture, and more. Through publication, it will soon create paid opportunities for up-and-coming young science communicators and artists, and engage a wide audience with the ideas and value of science.

In other words, Lateral is a great, free science magazine that everyone can enjoy, put together by the next generation of scientific and creative minds, launching in early August. Interested?

Our writing and editorial team is made up of young people with backgrounds in scientific research and communications from Australia and around the world. We know there are great science stories waiting to be told by young people, and we want to provide these aspiring writers and communicators with an outlet for their unique voices and outlooks, all while building a compelling and original magazine for our readers.

Lateral is a project of the Young Australian Skeptics, a group that has supported the exploration of science, critical thinking, pseudoscience, philosophy, education and youth issues through online writing and podcasting since 2008.

The Team

The editorial team behind Lateral is composed of young scientists and science students with a range of backgrounds in writing, editing and science communication.

Top: Jack, Nicola, Andrew, Ellie. Bottom: Bryonie, Tessa, Sara, Natalie.

Editor-in-Chief and Founder: Jack Scanlan

Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Nicola McCaskill

Nicola is an immunology and journalism student at Monash University. She's been working towards a career in science media since high school, seeking to combine her two passions. A self-styled protégé of the great Ms Valerie Frizzle, Nicola has written and edited for Monash publications Lot's Wife and Mojo, and presented for Radio Monash. A keen cinephile, she also has a third major in film studies. 

Life Science Editor: Andrew Katsis

Andrew is a zoologist at the University of Melbourne, specialising in bird behaviour. He has written and edited science articles for The Conversation, and produced the radio program A Science Story for SYN 90.7 FM.

Life Science Deputy Editor: Ellie Michaelides

Ellie is a zoologist by trade, but loves talking about science more than doing science. She currently works as a communicator at the scientific PR agency Science in Public. She's addicted to buying books, and enjoys baking (and eating) cupcakes, and loves all her furry friends at Healesville Sanctuary where she volunteers.

Physical Science Editors: Bryonie Scott and Tessa Evans

Bryonie is an astrophysicist at the University of Melbourne. An eager science communicator, she has written and edited news articles for The Conversation. Her hobbies include telling anyone who’ll listen where planets are in the night sky.

Tessa is primarily a chemist. When not tinkering in the lab, she researches hydrophobic surfaces, coal dust emission, and carbon storage in marine coastal environments. She has been an editorial intern at The Conversation, and currently writes papers for a research group at Deakin University. She likes to attend science events and synthesise strange concoctions in her kitchen.

Art & Popular Culture Editor: Sara Nyhuis

Sara is a zoology and linguistics student at Monash University. She has done thesis editing for Masters students, assisted with research into the effects of anthropogenic light pollution on bats in Borneo, and written for the Monash University Library blog. She is a devoted comic book collector, a sci-fi and gaming enthusiast, and writes short stories in her spare time.

Society & Education Deputy Editor: Natalie McKirdy

Natalie is a PhD student at University of Queensland specialising in retinal degeneration and silk based biomaterials. She is a Young Science Ambassador with the Wonder of Science program, was a regular co-host of the Sciencism podcast, and tutors primary and middle school pre-service teachers in the delivery of enquiry based science lessons.

Our team is still growing – if you have writing and/or editorial experience and would like to be involved, we'd love to hear from you.

Thinking Lateral-ly

Science increasingly dominates every aspect of our lives, and many people now realise the importance of properly communicating new research to the public.

But let's be honest: for all the current enthusiasm around the communication of science, there aren't a lot of opportunities for young scientists and journalists to hone their writing skills in an editorial environment. Writing for a personal blog, while useful and rewarding, usually doesn't prepare you for a world of deadlines and editorial demands. Plus, at the end of the day, it's hard to put blogging on your resumé.

Lateral was designed to help fill this gap, bringing new voices and artists to the science media landscape - while also being a fantastic publication that will appeal to a wide audience, many of them also younger people. It will also pay all of its contributors, a rarity in the modern media landscape for younger writers and artists.

The Young Australian Skeptics is proud to be bringing Lateral into the world as part of its mission to improve science communication to and from young people. Since 2008, the YAS has been publishing online articles on its eclectic group blog, has produced hundreds of hours of audio on two science and critical thinking-themed podcasts, The Pseudoscientists and Unfiltered Thoughts, and published the Skeptical Blog Anthology (2012), a collection of some of the Internet's best writing on science and skepticism.  And don't worry - we're not climate change deniers.

The Virtues of Crowdfunding

Why Do We Need All This Money?

Reimbursing our writers and artists for their time and effort is one of our top priorities – too many opportunities for new science communicators are unpaid, and we're bucking that trend. We're also designing Lateral with the fantastic team of young web developers over at DesignGel, who need to be paid. Our crowdfunding goal covers these costs of design, as well as providing funds for our first 6 months of articles and magazine content.

The cost of designing Lateral is $3,600, and 6 months of contributor payments, based on our planned publication frequency, is a little over $4,500. The headroom in our initial goal is to allow for the gradual expansion of the number of columns in the magazine, buffer against processing fees incurred during this campaign, and other, smaller initial website management costs. 

What Do You Get Out of It?

You'd think helping to bring a new publication to life from the depths of imagination would be reward enough ‒ but no, there's other stuff you can get if you support Lateral's creation. We thought long and hard about these perks, and realised that if you're willing to support a science communication magazine, you'd probably love to get involved somehow, rather than claim a low-quality, mass-produced t-shirt.

So, based on your contribution, you can sponsor an article or even an entire column for a whole year! Whoa. For those who want to get even more direct, you can commission an article about a topic of your choosing or choose an entire future month's theme. You'd be like a god. A science writing god. We're even throwing a launch party in Melbourne for those of you who want to meet us all in person: truly the greatest gift of all.

But What If...?

If we reach over 100% of our $10,000 goal, we've got some great ideas about how we would use such a generous outpouring of support, other than investing solely in future month-by-month operating costs of the magazine:

$15,000: If we reach 150% funding, we'll commission unique artwork for all of our articles, not just our featured themed articles. That's more gorgeous science-inspired artwork every month. Fantastic. 

$20,000: 200% funded means at least more 5 more articles per month, all with unique artwork! Damn.

$30,000: If we're lucky enough to receive 300% of our goal, we'll create a podcast companion based on the magazine, exploring the relationship between science and society in greater detail, in the way only audio can. This would launch Lateral into the multimedia sphere, supporting the development of the podcast and radio skills of emerging science communicators, not just their written and artistic abilities. 

Risks? Challenges?

As of the launch of this crowdfunding campaign, we've already planned the first month of articles and much of it is currently being written. There's a clear and on-target web design timeline as well, leading to the launch of Lateral on the 3rd of August. Everyone involved, from our editorial team, to our present and future contributors, to our designers, is super keen about the project and we're all working hard to make the magazine as polished and exciting as possible for you, our audience, to finally read and enjoy. 

Once the magazine has been initially funded, the only significant challenge to the future of Lateral will be maintaining a funding stream without commercial advertising, either through audience support via a platform such as Patreon, and/or ongoing partnerships with likeminded scientific organisations. This campaign gives us the breathing room required to settle on a model that keeps the magazine free to read, but allows us to continue to pay contributors for their time and effort. 

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't pledge money towards our goal, that's totally fine, we understand. But helping get the word out there about Lateral is, in many ways, more helpful! Tell your friends, family, extremely-casual acquaintances: who knows, you might help them discover a new interest in science.

But most important, really, is to keep your eyes peeled for Lateral's grand launch in August! We've already got great stuff lined up for you to read and we can't wait to share it with you all.