Too bad there aren't more ecology-themed entries.
Keep this contest in mind for next year, ecology grad students.
'Dance Your Ph.D.' Finalists Announced
by John Bohannon on 17 September 2010, 6:00 AM
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/09/dance-your-phd-finalists-announce.html
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
<http://gonzolabs.org/dance/videos/>45 brave submissions.
Today, judgesincluding scientists,
choreographers, and past winnersannounced 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. But you can vote for your favorite now.
We'll reveal the victorand our reader pickon 19 October.
Some sample titles:
Hydrodynamic Trail Following in a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina).
The choreographer explains:
"Hydrodynamic trails are generated when objects
move though a fluid medium. These vortices
provide robust, persistent stimuli that can
convey spatial and temporal information. Facial
vibrissae, or whiskers, in phocid seals detect
waterborne vibrations and hydrodynamic trails.
This is critical for prey capture, and allows for
hunting and navigation in dark or murky waters.
In this dance the hydrodynamic trails generated
by swimming organisms are represented by silks,
fire and the movements of the dancers. Hoola
hoops are also used to represented water velocity
vortices th.at compose the hydrodynamic wake
signals. The seal character is able to use these
hydrodynamic cues to hunt and track its prey.
Please ignore any resemblance that the seal
character has to a chipmunk. Costumes were
collected opportunistically and were subject to limited research funds. "
Other titles include:
Male ageing and sexual conflict in the feral fowl.
Intrinsic antimicrobial peptides derived from
human seminal plasma inhibit HIV infection.
Experimental Investigation of the Deformation
Near a Notch Tip in Metallic Single Crystals
A metabolically-versatile bacterium thrives in
granitic rock of the deep subsurface
The role of Urban Agriculture in promoting
adaptive capacity of urban food systems to global
phosphorus scarcity: Case studies of Phoenix, AZ and Accra, Ghana
The Use of Autologous Adipose and Bone Marrow
Derived Stem Cells in a Point of Care Goat
Non-Instrumented Posterolateral Lumbar Spinal Fusion Model
