 A picture paints a thousand words. That's why photos can help us tell stories about the importance of rice science and connect research and technologies to people's lives. When you combine the power of images with the reach of social networks, the result is even more significant. For example, in 2009, Flickr, the social media site for eerie photos, had an average of about 30,000 views per month for the first eight months. Then, in September 2009, eerie photographers documented the flooding caused by typhoon Ketsana in areas near eerie headquarters in Los Baños in the Philippines, which greatly damaged properties, including rice crops. Eerie uploaded the photos to Flickr where they received around half a million hits over a few days. Sharing these photos on Flickr helped raise awareness about the impact of natural disasters on rice farmers and food production. Telling stories through the sharing of these photos can help illustrate why we need solutions like flood-tolerant rice to help farmers like those affected by typhoon Ketsana. Social networking sites such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and others help us raise awareness about the challenges rice farmers face, such as unfavourable environments, climate change and pest and disease outbreaks and, importantly, how eerie is finding solutions to help.