Professor Stephen Hawking
Supertranslations
The Scrapbook
About our partners
Genius, is often over-used, but in the case of Professor Stephen Hawking it is totally appropriate. Hawking was a physicist and international bestselling author who helped transform our understanding of the universe. We worked with Professor Hawking on two occasions to help him bring his theories to life.
The challenge
Our task was to make the strange and unfathomable world of black holes, more accessible to the general public. We took very complex and abstract ideas, and simplified them in a way people outside the scientific community could understand. We dug deep into our own imagination, used metaphors at every turn to help give meaning to what must be one of our most challenging explainer videos.
The film
We worked with the Hawking Foundation to help explain Hawking, Strominger and Perry’s theory about supertranslations, in support of Professor Hawking’s final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions. Hawking explains a brief history of gravity and black holes before going onto explain the idea of supertranslations.
An information dense and challenging narrative, our whiteboard animation honoured and reflected the scientific explanations while bringing in other elements such as characters from popular fiction and black hole barbers to deliver this complicated information in a more accessible way. We did this giving the film a steady pace and using animation to give viewers a clear focus. We used recognisable characters such as Darth Vader and Alice from the Lewis Carroll classic to make the film more relatable and to bring black holes closer to the familiar.
The context
For more information on Brief Answers to the Big Questions, visit the publisher's website here and read a blog written by Andrew Park on the creation of the film here.
Aimed at healthcare managers and clinicians involved in local-level incident investigation, Loughborough University wanted to share an alternative method of healthcare investigation, Systems Thinking. The explainer video introduced the concept of systems thinking, stimulated their overall thinking and provided guidance on this alternative investigation method.
As the planet feels the impact of human activity, we must change how we live, and a big part of this is changing how we educate our children. How we do this is at the heart of research by Dr Peter Sutoris, which we brought to the screen in this whiteboard animation.
UCL Changing Minds want to help organisations harness the full power of behavioural science, transforming the way they work. We worked with UCL Changing Minds to help share what they do with the world.
We were delighted to partner with the Lasker Foundation to create a series of four whiteboard animations.
We collaborated with the British Council to create a whiteboard animation showcasing BIRAX projects and achievements.
CIRAD are passionate about making agricultural research increasingly collaborative, with long-term impacts. Together, we created this whiteboard animation to explain the role of the ImpresS approach in making CIRAD’s mission a reality.
Matthew Taylor has used his final lecture as CEO of the RSA to look at the social forces that shape our society and the relationship between different social sciences.
Most funding agencies consider research impacts an important factor. Communicating impact is a skill in its own right and University College Dublin have created the Impact Toolkit to provide valuable guidance on explaining impact.
A career in science offers an exciting and rewarding chance to contribute and collaborate globally on the problems we all face. These careers extend far beyond the classic examples which come to mind.
We worked with the the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, creating a whiteboard animation to raise awareness about TXA and the success of the CRASH trials.
Studying science gives us amazing transferable skills and knowledge that we can take to every career. we worked with The Royal Society to create this animation highlighting the importance and benefits of studying science.
Journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth unpacks the reality and consequences of climate change in the latest RSA Minimate.
When the 2018 Breaking the Barriers report found evidence of discrimination and bullying, the Royal Society of Chemistry responded strongly by developing bullying and harassment advice.
What if we’re all to a lesser or greater extent subject to modern slavery? A problem that affects many people across the world.
Harvard University Professor of Political Philosophy Michael Sandel examines the reality and consequences of our meritocracies in this RSA Minimate.
We had the honour of creating a mural for the Rawthmells Coffeehouse, the RSA’s 21st century enlightenment coffeehouse in London. The mural documents the rich history of the RSA.
How does life get ‘under your skin’? We explained the importance of the International Centre for Lifecourse Studies’ research in this whiteboard animation.
What will be the future of Humanity? In this whiteboard animation for Radio 4, historian and author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari makes a prediction.
Migration to and from Britain is currently a hot political topic, but is it really anything new?
International partnerships are essential to the UK’s success in research, but none is more fruitful than the UK/US partnership.
What are the Liberal Arts and why should you study them at the University of Essex?
What’s the difference between a tame problem and a wicked problem?