Now on Nature Network

In hope of bringing more readers to this blog, I decided to move it to Nature Network. From now on my posts will be published here. Follow me!

How would you dance your PhD?

Work is keeping me busier than usual this week so this will be a brief post. I've decided to keep with the dance theme to let you know about an incredibly original idea I read about today. I've seen science being communicated in the form of text, diagrams, video and photography but this is a first. Dance your PhD is a contest that aims to get anyone with a science-related PhD, or studying to get one, to explain what their thesis is about through dance. (It definitely got me thinking about how I could dance a thesis on “Variability of Black-hole Accretion Discs: a theoretical study”!) The initiative is sponsored by Science and there's even a money prize for the contestants who best describe the scientific content of their PhDs in dance form, while putting on a creative and artistic show. Unfortunately it is too late to take part in the 2010 competition but there's always next year. In the mean time, think about it: how would you dance your PhD?

Desbloqueador de conversa

This blog's inspiration is a Portuguese expression: "desbloqueador de conversa" (literally, conversation unblocker). Something you say at a dinner party when silence kicks in or when some of the people at the table are having a heated argument and ruining the atmosphere. A snappy way of changing the topic of conversation: "Did you know that the penis of the blue whale can be 8 feet long?". Go figure, my favourite ones are related to science. Actually, what I find interesting is the science behind the fact so that is what I plan to write about. Use it if you need it.