| name | latex-outreach-presentation |
| description | Instructions on building a latex beamer presentation for a scientifically literate but non-professional audience. Use this skill when asked to create a latex beamer presentation for a non-professional audience. |
Skill Instructions
Follow the instructions below. See example.md for latex code for handling figures
SKILL: LaTeX Beamer Presentation Authoring for Scientifically Oriented Lay Audiences
Purpose
This skill produces clear, accurate, and visually clean LaTeX Beamer presentations intended for scientifically literate non-specialists. Typical audiences include undergraduate of high school science students, educators, engineers from other fields, advanced hobbyists, policy professionals, and the general public with a strong interest in science.
The goal is conceptual understanding without loss of correctness, avoiding both technical overload and popular-science sensationalism.
Scope
This skill applies exclusively to presentations created using LaTeX Beamer.
Supported use cases include:
- Public science lectures and outreach talks
- Interdisciplinary seminars
- Science communication events
- High-level overviews of astronomy, astrophysics, or space science
Research seminars for specialists and technical conference talks are out of scope for this skill.
Core Output Requirements
1. Document Class and Compilation
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The document must use:
\documentclass{beamer}
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Output must compile cleanly with pdflatex
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Use only standard, widely available LaTeX packages
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On the title slide only, include a logo at bottom right /home/yogesh/work/images/ncralogo.jpg which is 697x797 pixel image.
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Ensure:
- No LaTeX compilation errors
- Correct math mode usage
- No broken references or malformed frames
If a pdflatex error is reported, the skill must automatically fix it and return corrected LaTeX.
2. Beamer Theme and Visual Design
- Use a clean, readable Beamer theme with no navigational icons
- Use 16:9 aspect ratio for the presentation, unless otherwise specified
- Slide number should appear at bottom right but don't put the total slide number
- Use beautiful color schemes and fonts always
- Unless otherwise specified, text should be in light colors on a uniform black background
- Colors should be attractive but not gaudy
- Slides must be legible from the back of a large room
- Avoid visual clutter
- Animations and overlays may be used sparingly if they improve conceptual clarity, but are not required
3. Frame Structure
Each frame must:
- Have a clear, descriptive title
- Focus on one idea or concept
- Use short bullet points or simple diagrams
- Avoid long paragraphs or dense equations
Slides should be self-contained and understandable without prior
domain expertise.
4. Writing Style and Tone
- Clear, neutral, and explanatory
- Technically accurate but jargon-minimized
- Define all necessary technical terms on first use
- Avoid hype, exaggeration, or anthropomorphic language
- No conversational filler or rhetorical questions
Preferred:
“A black hole is a region where gravity is so strong that light cannot escape.”
Disallowed:
“Black holes are mind-blowing cosmic monsters that eat everything!”
5. Scientific Accuracy and Pedagogy
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All statements must be scientifically correct
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Use analogies only when they aid understanding, and explicitly state their limitations
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Clearly separate:
- Established facts
- Models or interpretations
- Open questions
Approximations and simplifications must be acknowledged.
6. Mathematics and Quantitative Content
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Use mathematics sparingly
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Equations should:
- Illustrate relationships, not derivations
- Be accompanied by plain-language explanations
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Prefer proportionalities or scaling relations over full formulae
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All symbols must be defined immediately
7. Figures and Visual Explanations
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Beautiful cosmic images will be central to the talk. All images sit in a common images folder. Images should be on separate slides, where there will be no text except the title. See example.md for how images are to be formatted. Suggest suitable images by adding latex comments to image slides. Add a credit line at the bottom of all images.
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Additional figures, if needed, should be produced using tikz and/or pgfplots
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Cartoon diagrams are preferred over plots unless quantitative insight is essential
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Figures must:
- Be clearly labeled
- Avoid unnecessary technical detail
- Include short, explanatory captions
8. Links and Further Reading
9. Error Handling and Self-Correction
If the user reports:
- LaTeX compilation errors
- Visual layout problems affecting readability
- Conceptual confusion or misleading explanations
The skill must:
- Identify the issue
- Correct the LaTeX and/or explanation
- Return a fully corrected, compilable Beamer document
Explicit Non-Goals
This skill must not:
- Produce specialist-level technical slides
- Include dense derivations or unexplained equations
- Use outreach cliches, hype, or sensational language
- Invent data or oversimplify to the point of incorrectness
- Use non-LaTeX formats
Expected User Inputs
Typical inputs may include:
- Target audience background (e.g. engineers, teachers, general public)
- Talk duration or approximate slide count
- Topic and desired depth
- Requests for conceptual diagrams
pdflatex error messages, if any
Ask user for clarifications, if in doubt.
Output Guarantee
Every response produced by this skill must be:
- Scientifically correct
- Accessible to non-specialists
- Clearly written and well-structured
- Valid LaTeX Beamer
- Fully
pdflatex-compilable with zero errors other than the occasional overflow
