Dance your Ph.D
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”The dreaded question. “So, what’s your Ph.D. research about?” You could bore them with an explanation. Or you could dance.
Check out the link above for the other runner up videos!
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Wow! The world is filled with so many incredibly talented people that it is hard to keep track of all of the weird ideas and even weirder spins that keep popping up in the least expected places. Witness the great dance video below that puts on screen -in a dance-the essentials of a complex chemistry thesis!
”The dreaded question. “So, what’s your Ph.D. research about?” You could bore them with an explanation. Or you could dance.
That’s the idea behind “Dance Your Ph.D.” Over the past 3 years, scientists from around the world have teamed up to create dance videos based on their graduate research. This year’s contest, launched in June by Science, received 45 brave submissions.
Today, judges—including scientists, choreographers, and past winners—announced the finalists in four categories: physics, chemistry, biology, and social sciences. Each receives $500.
The judges will announce the winner next month at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York City.”
”McKeague’s Ph.D. dance, based on her research at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, is about a technique called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). The target is a small molecule called homocysteine. SELEX uses natural selection to find the small strands of DNA called aptamers (the other dancers) that bind specifically to the target. Watch for the hilarious Taq Polymerase scene in the middle of the dance. ”
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/14528924 w=400&h=265]
Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.
Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.
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