Dancing With the Scientists: Researchers Express Findings in Interpretive Dance

What does it take to get scientists to dance? A Youtube contest, of course. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) announced yesterday the winners of its Science Dance Contest, which called on science graduate students, post-docs, and professors to create and videotape a dance about their research. Out of 36 entries, the four winning dances used contorting bodies to explain protein-DNA interactions, neuron firing, hemoglobin, and the role of vitamin D in beta cell function. Other submissions ranged from ballet to tango, hoola-hooping to traditional Indian dance, as well as scientists just jiggying in their labs. View them all here. The idea for the contest came from John Bohannon, a science journalist who started a Dance Your Ph.D. contest last year. "What I noticed was that there's always this tipping point with scientists where they all really have fun and cut loose. And it kind of goes ...