Welcome to the virtual realm of forScience Foundation! It’s great to see you, as it means that you’re curious about the world. And it so happens that we are too!
It was this curiosity, along with a passion for scientific inquiry, that gave rise to forScience Foundation and is a driving force behind our activity.
We want to show that, contrary to what many people think, there’s more to science than tedious analyses, obscure discussions and jargon-ridden publications, which are all but impossible to make sense of and which seem to have absolutely no practical relevance anyway. We make it clear that science is a state of mind. It’s a way of perceiving the reality around us and, at the same time, a source of not only knowledge, but also deep emotions and amazing experiences. It is this kind of science that we write about on our website.
But writing isn’t all that we do. The stories and accounts we share with you do not come out of nowhere. They are all based on projects, whose planning and execution is our main priority.
For lack of external funding, we started off mainly by co-organizing events and helping to put other people’s ideas into practice.
A turning point came in 2018, when we received a grant for our first fully individual undertaking – a project entitled Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup.
Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup combines ecology and science by focusing on the issue of marine litter in polar regions. During fieldwork carried out in the south of Svalbard, we collect litter which has accumulated along the shore as well as data, which will deepen our understanding of the scale and consequences of the problem. In our posts we write about the project’s origins and assumptions, organizational ups and downs, daily challenges and unexpected turns of events, weaving in many interesting facts and practical advice for more or less keen enthusiasts of the far north.
LESSONS FROM THE ARCTIC
An important element of Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup project are presentations and workshops for kids. With the use of striking photographs and unusual teaching aids which we brought home from Svalbard, we deepen and expand children’s current knowledge, making them realize how our daily, misguided decisions upset the fragile natural balance even in such remote corners of the globe as the Arctic. At the same time, we show that each of us, regardless of age, can help to improve the current state of affairs. All it takes is a bit of good will!
The classes serve one more important purpose. They help us generate extra funds, without which – despite our best intentions – we are unable to develop.
Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup project triggered countless conversations on the topic of current environmental issues and consequences of human behaviour. The conversations let us identify numerous concepts which tend to be taken for granted even though, in fact, many of us have no clue what they actually mean. It is these concepts that we clarify in articles published under the general heading And there you have it!
Bearing in mind the fundamental role of thorough knowledge (or the lack of it) in the shaping of human attitudes, we do our best to make these texts easy to comprehend even for people who don’t have any specialist knowledge and don’t feel like wandering around libraries, leafing through dictionaries and combing the Internet in search for extra explanations. We hope the articles will let you consolidate and expand what you already know about the natural and the man-made environment, thus helping to make your daily choices more ecologically sound.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
So much for the past and current pursuits of forScience Foundation. Our ambition for the future is to spread to other regions and deal with a broader range of topics. At the same time, we’d like to become a platform for people wanting to pursue their own, original research projects outside traditional academic structures.
What does is mean in practice? If you have interesting ideas, but excessive bureaucracy or the lack of formal support make it impossible for you to make them reality, give us a shout! We’ll try to help!
If you like what we do, join us on Facebook! What you’ll find there are not only post notifications, but also breaking news, curiosities and photographs which do not make it to our website. In other words, you definitely won’t regret it!
Is there anything you’d like to discuss with us? Get in touch! Our contact information can be found here and in the footer. We prefer when you write, but we won’t mind if you give us a call instead. We’ll be glad to answer your questions and consider your suggestions.
Happy exploring!
