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Finnish scientists Vitus Besel, Ivo Neefjes and Jakub Kubečka (left to right) created a rap video about clusters of atmospheric molecules that won this year’s Dance Your Ph.D. competition.
Faustine Cros
By Sofia Moutinho
You may never be able to look at clouds the same way again. A video created by three atmospheric science graduate students at the University of Helsinki features an original rap song and choreography about how clusters of atoms stick together to form the undulating shapes of our sky. And he just won Science“Dance your doctorate” annually. competition.
It took 2 months of preparation and rehearsal for the “science cluster”, as the students call themselves, to complete the video. They used drones and green screen effects to show molecules in clouds spinning, colliding, and sticking together, all while scientists sing. “Our main goal was to show unscientific muggles that science can be fun, silly and exciting,” says contest winner Jakub Kubečka, who was inspired to enter the contest after a friend was a finalist ago. a few years. He then recruited two colleagues to help him with the song, the lyrics and the filming.
The dance Your doctorate. The competition has encouraged scientists to explain their research through dance for 14 years. The competition is led by John Bohannon, former correspondent for Science and now director of science at Primer, an artificial intelligence company that is currently sponsoring the tournament.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made things more difficult this year. The Finnish group shot most of their videos outdoors or in empty laboratories, for example, and the dancers playing the molecules filmed themselves individually in front of green screens.
But the restrictions did not dampen student enthusiasm. Their rap is full of burns like “I’m the first songwriter, you’re right et al. And their choreography was inspired by both Belgian artist Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and the comedy styles of subversive American comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
“Before filming, we stayed in our own homes for 9 months, not socializing at all,” says co-creator Ivo Neefjes. “It was just fun to see each other again and work on something together.”
The group, which won both the physical category and the top prize, beat 39 contestants for $ 2,000 and eternal geek fame. A jury of former laureates and world-renowned artists and scientists searched for the best combinations of science and art.
“Some levels of production are incredible, although it doesn’t necessarily lead to better art or better communication of science through dance,” says juror Carl Fink, director of the dance company Black Label Movement. “The videos that received my highest marks did so because they achieved this fusion.”
The judges also selected winners in the chemistry, biology and social sciences categories, who will each receive $ 750. They also crowned the winner of a new category created this year – COVID-19 – which comes with its own prize of $ 500.
The recipient of this honor is Heather Masson-Forsythe of Oregon State University, Corvallis. She is looking for new drugs that could block SARS-CoV-2 and stop viral replication. In her dance, she becomes the different proteins of the virus, spinning and moving erratically. She also uses a flaming red scarf to symbolize the genetic material of the virus.
The scientist-ballerina is not an amateur. She has been perfecting her dance steps since the age of 10. “I had to think about the movement of these viral proteins that I work with every day but I can’t really see,” says Masson-Forsythe.
Here is the full list of winners.
Overall winner and winner of the physical category
Jakub Kubečka, “Formation, structure and stability of atmospheric molecular clusters”
Chemistry category winner
Mikael Minier, “Diiron complexes with a biomimetic carboxylate bridge: from the behavior of the solution to the modeling of the secondary coordination sphere”
Social science category winner
Magdalena Dorner-Pau, “Playful (de) scribers: Examining Performative Methods for Promoting Descriptive Skills of Children in Linguistically Diverse Elementary School Classes Using the Example of Image Description”
Winner of the Biology category
Julienne Fanon, “Fragmentation of plastics: effect of the environment and the nature of the polymer on the size and shape of the fragments generated”
Winner of the COVID-19 category
Heather Masson-Forsythe, “Biochemical and Biophysical Studies of the COVID-19 Core Protein with RNA”
Judges for this year’s competition:
Renée Jaworski
Matt Kent
Emily kent
Katrien kolenberg
Andrea Grill
Alexa meade
Carl Flink
Weidong Yang
Daiane Lopes da Silva
The Semantic Scholar team at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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