https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8XAFPhz8Q
Checkers Marshall’s award-winning dance depicts electrons moving through crystalline materials with a variety of uses.
Checkers Marshall, a chemist at the University of Oregon, who won top honors in the 2023 Dance Your PhD competition, combined a fan, blue balloons, and original lyrics to create a “nano They created a dance video explaining their research on ‘sponge’ materials. Another winning video provided a creative look at how local trees in the Amazon rainforest produce protective hormones in response to drought. Diffusion of ions at the nanoscale shown in Tango. and an artificial intelligence model called PsychGenerator, which aims to bring personality and mental health attributes to AI.
As previously reported, the Dance Your PhD competition was founded in 2008 by science journalist John Bohannon. Previously sponsored by Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), he is now sponsored by his AI company Primer, of which Bohannon is director of science. Bohannon told Slate in 2011 that a group of PhD students who were stressed out in the midst of defending their thesis were trying to find a way to release some stress. He said he had an idea. So he organized a dance party at the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology in Austria. This included a contest to determine the candidate who could best explain the thesis topic in an interpretive dance.
The contest was such a hit that Bohannon started getting emails asking when the next one would be held. Dance Your PhD has been going on ever since. Now in its 15th year. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Social Sciences, he has four major categories, and is fairly open about what topics fall into each. Winners were selected from 28 entries submitted from 12 countries. All category winners will receive $500, and overall winner Marshall will receive an additional $2,000. And this year, the competition has a new sponsor. Sandbox AQ is an Alphabet spin-off focused on combining artificial intelligence and quantum technology to tackle big problems.
Marshall’s doctoral thesis dealt with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), crystalline polymeric materials formed by linking metal ions with multidentate organic linkers. The resulting porous networks are spongy, making these materials ideal for carbon capture applications, drug delivery, nerve agent detoxification, and water purification. Marshall aims to make MOFs smaller and more efficient. These nanohis MOFs can be modified by adding molecules to stop crystal growth or by removing electrons to free electron flow within the structure.
Marshall shot the video in the lab and in a friend’s backyard. They brought their high school and college video production experience and a long-standing love of juggling, spinning, and other forms of “flow art” to this project. For example, Marshall used fans to represent electrons in his standard MOF. “If you don’t have something in your hand, you can’t dance.” Balloons) exchange electrons.
To represent the Nano MOF, Marshall used a toy hoverman sphere. This is a popular children’s toy inspired by the isokinetic structure patented by artist and engineer Chuck Hoberman. Although it looks like a geodesic dome, the sphere can be collapsed to a fraction of its original size thanks to joints that act like scissors.
Marshall has written and performed slam poetry for many years. of Lord of the Ring Trilogy. I thought, “How can I turn my paper into his one-page slam poem?” How can I make it sound cool? And, hopefully, rhyme a little bit,” Marshall told Science. “Creating the video and writing the paper were about the same amount of work. [But these initiatives] It really helps aspiring scientists to see another side of science.We are also normal, fun and creative people. ”
See the biology, physics, and social sciences winners below.
Biology Category Winner
Israel National Institute of Amazon Research, Sampaio Filho, Abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis in leaves: a major source of the Amazon rainforest’s response to warming
Abscisic acid (ABA) in the heart of the Amazon rainforest Responding to global warming.
Physics category winner
Dr. Evgenii Glushkov, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Exploring optically active defects in wide bandgap materials by fluorescence microscopy
Proton tango.
Social Science Category Winner
Huy Vu, Stony Brook University, artificial intelligence with personality
cycle generator.
Listing image by Checkers Marshal
