The “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest is a brilliant example of out of the box thinking, but it’s not the first case of science being interpreted through dance.
Science journalist John Bohannon, the man behind “Dance Your Ph.D” – “an inebriated stunt at a Vienna science party” – says he did some research and found the first example of this phenomenon taking place in 1971 at Stanford University.
As he puts it, “In an era of free love and violent protests, about 100 people danced on the grass, enacting one of the greatest discoveries of the century: how the ribosome translates genes from DNA into proteins.” It’s worth reading his short article in Science.
More recently, creative types who favour stem cells have choreographed flash mobs and an interpretive modern dance piece. Amazing.
“Dance Your Ph.D.” is back for its ninth year and submissions are due September 30, 2016. What may have started as a joke in 2007 now has hundreds of submissions and millions of fans. Blogger Camila Londono shared her favourite in a 2015 Signals post that featured a video on how cardiac cells change their character after a heart attack.
Here’s hoping a Canadian submission lands on top.
Audience Choice Award and Chemistry Winner 2015: Neutrophils
Biology Winner 2015: Tropoelastin: An elastic and interactive molecule
Our regular feature, Right Turn, appears every Friday and we invite you to submit your own blog to info(at)ccrm.ca. We encourage you to be creative and use the right (!) side of your brain. We dare you to make us laugh! Right Turn features cartoons, photos, videos and other content to amuse, educate and encourage discussion.
As always, we welcome your feedback in the comment section.
Stacey Johnson
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