How it all Began: The Origin Story Centered Around a Scientist’s Dream
In the 80s as a university student, Clay Reid read a famous quote by Nobel laureate Francis Crick in the pages of Scientific American that inspired him on the path to tackle one of the most ambitious scientific challenges in history: mapping a portion of the animal brain and all of its electrical firing properties together.
To set the stage, the Editorial and Media team at the Allen Institute produced a high-engagement multimedia story, known as a ‘multiscroll,’ to reveal this opening chapter and how this seven-year scientific journey began.
“It is no use asking for the impossible, such as, say, the exact wiring diagram for a cubic millimeter of brain tissue and the way all its neurons are firing.”
~ Francis Crick, 1916 – 2004
Experience the MultiMedia Story
Mission Accomplished: A Stunning Scientific Achievement
Next, we wrote a web story describing the challenge now realized and the painstaking effort it took to get there. From a tiny piece of brain no larger than a grain of sand, scientists uncovered a universe of complexity: half a billion synapses, over 200,000 cells, and four kilometers of axons after producing the largest, most complex wiring diagram of the animal brain to date.
The scientific undertaking took seven years and over a hundred scientists and researchers to complete. It reshaped the scientific landscape of electron microscopy and propels research into brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s forward.
Read the StoryVideo Unveiling MICrONS to the World and its Impact on Human Health
Our multimedia storytellers produced a feature video communicating the importance and impact of this tremendous achievement.
“How could we not want to know what we think with? What are the parts in this part of the brain? How do they interconnect to do their computations? It’s also the part of the brain that goes awry in all sorts of diseases—neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s, there are all sorts of lesions of the circuits that we’re studying. And I think if you don’t know what are the building blocks and how they connect, it’s hard to think about when it goes wrong.”
~ Clay Reid, M.D., Ph.D.
To ensure coverage in all mediums, we produced an engaging podcast episode highlighting a unique dimension of this transformational scientific achievement: the use of artificial intelligence to help digitally recreate the brain wiring diagram. The MICrONS dataset also serves as a new source of energy for large language models. In the words of one of the researchers, it is “nuclear fuel” for artificial intelligence that promises to build more trustworthy and interpretable AI models because it is based on real biological data on how the brain actually behaves.
Impact
The media campaign shattered previous records at the Allen Institute. Earned media reached 220 million people in 26 countries on every content except Antarctica.
(Hover over the graphs below for interactive features and to explore the impact.)
297% increase in earned media placements (stories filed) from previous record
381% increase in international earned media placements from previous record
Secured placements in multiple new media outlets such as newsletters and podcasts
Top-Tier Media
The MICrONS Project was featured by the most prestigious and respected news organizations in the world.
(Click on the logos to read the stories.)
International Media
The campaign’s impact was global. It reached 26 countries and every continent except Antarctica.
Coverage in all Mediums
The MICrONS Project was covered in print, radio, TV, podcast, and digital—leaving no corner of the media ecosystem untouched.
“New Media” Coverage
In response to an ever-changing media landscape where audiences are fragmenting to other sources of information, we targeted influencers, substacks, and newsletters to meet their migration. Our success here resulted in a surge of web traffic, accounting for 10% of our website’s entire traffic volume year to date.
Stellar Social Media
The earned media worked synergistically with our social media outreach.
-
Highlighted key points and science details on microblogging platforms (X, Threads, BlueSky)
-
Implemented strategic video carousel on Instagram to keep followers engaged in-app and bring the story to life
-
Promoted earned media placements through imagery instead of linked meta cards to increase reach and engagement
