Science meets Comedy

You think science only involves boring equations, difficult formulas, numbers, data... - anything but fun? Read this post and think again!

Maybe some of you know poetry slams. After all, they have become quite popular recently. In a normal poetry slam, an artist has five minutes to present a text he or she has written themselves. Whispering, shouting, screaming - everything is allowed, but they must not sing (at least not during their whole performance) or use instruments. Also, artists are not allowed to use any requisites. In a poetry slam, the audience decides who wins by rating the performances with numbers or applause.

While in a normal poetry slam you should entertain your audience or make them re-evaluate their view of a topic, in a science slam the main goal is to inform the audience about your field of research. If you can entertain them at the same time, or change their views on your subject - even better! Performers of a science slam are apparently allowed to use requisites, and they have six minutes instead of five for their presentation.

In a science slam, it is less important to pay attention to the language you are using. Performers don't need to think of clever rhymes or puns, it is more important to explain their work in a simple way and show why they are fascinated by it. Most importantly, maybe, they are trying to convince the audience that research is not just something that happens far away from our daily lives in laboratories, but something that concerns us all and can make our lives easier and better.

In Austria, science slams take place approximately every three months, but the location changes, so it might take a while until there is one in a city near you. In the meantime, you can watch this video of Martin Moder, who was elected best Austrian science slammer and will take part in the European science slam finals later this year. Unfortunately, the video is in German. Generally, science slams don't seem to be popular in the English-speaking world yet. You can try your luck on youtube, where some of the videos have at least English subtitles.

Fans of the "real" poetry slam might denounce science slams because they differ too much from the original concept of a poetry slam, especially because they don't pay attention to linguistic aspects. However, I think they are a great way to bring various fields of scientific research closer to a large audience. Maybe they will encourage someone to study something scientific, or maybe it will change someone's mind about genetic modification and the like.