A TASTE OF THE GONZO SCIENTIST

摘要

How would you interpret your Ph.D. thesis in dance form? This was the challenge posed during the 2008 Science "Dance Your Ph.D." contest that took place 18 January in Vienna, Austria. The 12 dances—based on theses ranging from particle physics to prehistoric archaeology—were divided into three categories depending on the professional status of the principal dancer: graduate students, postdocs, and professors. Before the contest began, each dancer was given 60 seconds to summarize his or her research to a panel of four judges—an astronomer, an anthropologist, a science communicator, and a professional dancer—who then scored the dances on an 80-point scale of artistic, scientific, and physical creativity. Winners received a year's subscription to Science.