Dancing with the scientists

A University of Sydney PhD student is one of four researchers to have won Science magazine's international dance contest in which contestants must dance their PhD thesis. See video below.

The competition's website says, "Those who saw the results of the first ever 'Dance Your Ph.D.' contest know that the human body is an excellent medium for communicating science - perhaps not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article, but far more exciting."

Dr Sue Lynn Lau won the graduate student section. Her entry was entitled "The role of vitamin D in beta cell function". Her prize is a trip to Chicago to see her winning entry performed by professional dancers in February 2009.Sue Lynn's routine comprised a troupe of five dancers and used three pieces of music: the Latin rhythm of Hot Hot Hot, moving through the classical Nutcracker Suite, ending with the popular Walking on Sunshine.

"When I heard about the competition," Sue Lynn said, "I just thought, well I'll just have to be a part of that. I think mine won because it was more accessible than some of the others, which were very serious. Although I did like the one about haemoglobin, and the one about rain clouds and precipitation."

Science magazine is one of the top academic journals in the world. The competition began in 2007 and is run in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This year the call came for competitors to translate their PhD theses into dance, perform it, video the result and then post it on YouTube by November 16. There were 36 entries from around the world in four categories. The winners were announced on November 21.

The competition was open to PhD students in any scientific field with the aim of bringing scientist and artists together in a successful collaboration."I think the magazine just liked the sheer hilarity of the concept as a way to popularise science, or to improve its image," said Sue Lynn, who is completing her PhD at the Garvan Institute and the University of Sydney.

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