2015 'Dance Your PhD' Winner Announced

sciencehabit writes: Jargon seems unavoidable in science. When you try to explain your work, it becomes a minefield of technical concepts and abstract reasoning. But what if we just want the gist of what you do, the essence of your research? Oh, and make it a dance. The results are in from Science magazine's annual 'Dance Your PhD' contest. The winners include a ballet about a protein, a tango about entangled photons, a Bollywood spectacle about the immune system and, this year's top prize-winner, a dance by Florence Metz of the University of Bern, Switzerland, who combined hip hop, salsa, and acro-yoga to explain her PhD on the intricacies of water protection policies. She goes home with $1000 and a trip to Stanford University in the spring to screen her PhD dance and give a talk — hopefully jargon-free.

Pole Dance

[PPH]

FTW!

Re:

[i.r.id10t]

I'm just dancing while I finish my post-Doc ...

Nah, not really.

[Anonymous Coward]

The less you have to say, the more you add icing.

Contrast with how things were done 50 years ago:

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techr... [cam.ac.uk]

This guy basically invented pretty much everything, and you can read it in an evening.

Wonderfully surreal and out-of-the box

[ClickOnThis]

I'm surprised there isn't more chatter here about this. A good many of these entries are quite clever and creative.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I'm surprised there isn't more chatter here about this. A good many of these entries are quite clever and creative.

The average slashdotter can't dance and doesn't have a PHd, so it's unclear as to what there is to attract us to this story. This seems like a story for people who claim to love science but can't tell you how the scientific method works.

Re:

[gstoddart]

Well, I think it probably stems from people in highly specialized fields trying to explain really really domain specific information and getting utterly blank stares.

From the second link:

"My main aim with this video was to make people laugh," Metz says. But she's now finding that the dance helps people understand her work better. "This bridge between academia and the nonacademic world is crucial."

So, you know, have fun with it, and see if you can explain to your mom what you've been researching.

Honestly, un

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Honestly, un-clench a little.

Don't worry, I'm not butt-hurt. I'm just trying to help some people understand why some other people might think this is dumb. Me, I don't think some content that makes you say "meh" is worthy of comment.

Why?

[azav]

This is fucking stupid. All the stupid.

Re:

[gstoddart]

Because it's hilarious.

Why does it need to have a reason?