Finnish scientists Vitus Besel, Ivo Neefjes and Jakub Kubečka (from left to right) have created a rap video about atmospheric molecular clusters that this year Dance Your Ph.D. match.
Faustine Cros
By Sofia Moutinho
You may never look at clouds in the same way again. A video created by three graduate students in atmospheric science at the University of Helsinki contains an original rap song and choreography that explains how groups of atoms stay together to form the undulating shapes in our air. And it just won Science‘s annual “Dance Your Ph.D.” match.
It took two months of preparation and practice to complete the ‘scientific group’, as the students call themselves. They used drones and a green screen effect to show how cloud molecules rotate, collide and get stuck while the scientists sing. “Our main goal was to show non-scientific smugglers that science can be fun, simple and exciting,” said Jakub Kubečka, winner of the competition, who was inspired to take part in the competition after a friend years ago was a finalist. He then recruits two colleagues to help with the song, lyrics and filming.
The Dance Your Ph.D. competition has been challenging scientists for 14 years now to explain their research through dance. The competition is hosted by John Bohannon, a former correspondent for Science and now the director of science at Primer, an artificial intelligence company currently sponsoring the tournament.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made things more challenging this year. The Finnish group, for example, shot most of its video outside or in empty laboratories, and the dancers playing the molecules filmed themselves individually in front of green screens.
But the restrictions did not dampen the students’ enthusiasm. Their rap is full of sick burns like ‘I’m the first writer, you’re just et al. ”And their choreography was inspired by both Belgian artist Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and the comedy styles of the subversive American comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
“Before the filming, we basically sat in our own homes for 9 months and did not hang out at all,” says co-creator Ivo Neefjes. “It was just nice to see each other again and work on something together.”
The group, which won both the physics category and the highest prize, won 39 contestants for $ 2000 – and eternal geek fame. A panel of judges composed of past winners and world-renowned artists and scientists searched for the best combinations of science and art.
“Some of the production levels are incredible, though not necessarily leading to better art or communication through science,” says jury member Carl Fink, director of the dance company Black Label Movement. “The videos that scored my highest points did it because they achieved this merger.”
The judges also selected winners in the Chemistry, Biology and Social Sciences categories, each receiving $ 750. They also award the winner of a new category created this year – COVID-19 – which receives its own $ 500 award.
The winner of this honor is Heather Masson-Forsythe at Oregon State University, Corvallis. She is looking for new drugs that can block SARS-CoV-2 and stop viral replication. In her dance, she becomes the different proteins of the virus, which turn and move erratically. She also uses a flame red scarf to symbolize the virus’ genetic material.
The science-ballerina is no amateur. She has perfected her dance moves since she was 10 years old. “I had to think about the movement of these viral proteins that I work with every day, but I can’t see it,” says Masson-Forsythe.
Here is the complete list of winners.
Overall winner and physics category winner
Jakub Kubečka, “Formation, structure and stability of atmospheric molecular clusters”
Chemistry category winner
Mikael Minier, “Biomimetic Carboxylate-Bridged Diiron Complexes: from Solution Behavior to Modeling the Secondary Coordination Sphere”
Social Sciences category winner
Magdalena Dorner-Pau, “Playful writers: research into performative methods for the promotion of descriptive skills of children in linguistically diverse primary school classes on the basis of the example of image description”
Biology category winner
Julienne Fanon, “Fragmentation of plastic: effect of the environment and the nature of the polymer on the size and shape of generated fragments”
Category winner COVID-19
Heather Masson-Forsythe, “Biochemical and Biophysical Studies of the COVID-19 Nucleocapsid Protein with RNA”
Judges of this year’s match:
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