A Calendar that Celebrates Science in its Glorious Mess
We often imagine science as an exercise in precision – clearly labelled diagrams, exact measurements and classifications that fit neatly into boxes. But anyone who has ever peered closely at the universe knows the truth: the picture of the world we have is neither complete nor fixed, even when viewed from the towering pillars of science. It is complex, approximate and sometimes unfathomable. “We often forget this blurry, messy trait,” points out Aashima Dogra, co-founder and Editor of Labhopping Science Media forum, an independent science platform that was founded in 2016.
SCIENCE: Fuzzy, Messy, Awesome!, a desktop calendar by Labhopping, embraces this beautiful complexity. It is a boundary-busting, binary-breaking science-art collaboration that invites people to explore the grey zones of the scientific enterprise – those spaces where categories blur, definitions unravel, and curiosity thrives.
“Each page on the calendar highlights a scientific question, concept, or phenomenon that is associated with the theme of blurriness,” explains Nandita Jayaraj, also a co-founder and Editor at Labhopping.
One side of each month on the calendar presents the layout of the month and an artwork by Ayan, a trans artist. These illustrations reimagine intricate scientific ideas in zany yet thoughtful ways.
Courtesy: The Life of Science
On the reverse is a passage that describes the concept in simple and engaging language. The text has been developed by Labhopping’s award-winning team of editors – including Dogra, Jayaraj and science journalist Sayantan Datta – with the help of over a dozen Indian scientists who are experts in various disciplines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, education and sociology.
Abhilasha Joshi, a neuroscientist, has supported the production of the calendar using her prize funds from the Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award. SciRio, a science branding and communication strategy company, is executing the logistics and the reselling.
The calendar has been endorsed by Gagandeep Kang, a public health researcher and Fellow of the Royal Society; K VijayRaghavan, former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; and Vena Kapoor, Founder and Senior Scientist of Nature Classrooms. According to Dr Kang, “the Labhopping 2026 calendar is a beautiful reminder that science thrives in its grey zones, when curiosity meets creativity.”
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