Chemistry Ph.D. thesis explained via dance routine

Today, you're going to learn about "Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment". Better yet, it's going to make sense, because Maureen McKeague—a chemistry Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada—turned her complicated thesis into an easy-to-follow dance routine.

It's part of the third annual Dance Your Ph.D. competition put on by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. McKeague's video is one of this years' four finalists, and my personal favorite of the bunch. To me, McKeague did the best job of making her Ph.D. dance make sense without having read the Ph.D. Plus, I love her depiction of how a Taq Polymerase chain reaction makes copies of DNA.

You can view the other finalists and vote for your favorite, or see all 45 of the 2010 entries

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Anonymous

@#4 All of the songs are remakes from Glee.
alphabomb

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer times gone by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dhO0iCLww
- joshhaglund
  
  The dancing begins at 3:10
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dhO0iCLww#t=3m10s
Anonymous

It’s pretty darn good, but it’s no “Resolving Pathways of Functional Coupling in Human Hemoglobin Using Quantitative Low Temperature Isoelectric Focusing of Asymmetric Mutant Hybrids”. Now *that’s* a classic in the field of organic chemistry interpretive dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1UJgYH6bU
Anonymous

My vote is for “Directed transport without net bias in physics and biology” http://vimeo.com/12508286 :D
magnetiquewolf

sooooo awesome!
Astragali

It put me in mind of the 16 golden retrievers that teach you about atoms (also featured here on BB).
knoxblox

Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhbqIJZ8wCM
Anonymous

That was so awesome.
lookitsmarc

I normally wouldn’t do this, but OTTAWA is the capital of Canada. I am actually writing this from Carleton University’s campus. I can imagine my thesis could have a pretty sweet dance (guidance systems of planetary rovers). Think WALL-E + EVE?
- mdh
  
  Do It!!!!
  
  also, I will never think of Taq polymerase the same again.
monkey

as isadora duncan said “if i could say it, i wouldn’t have to dance!” if she was more into science, organic chemistry would be like one big momix performance now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SJ4NLLbO8g and that’s not a bad thing!
ian

@#5: I was hoping someone would post the protein synthesis dance.
Felton / Moderator

Dance Dance Evolution!
- Anonymous
  
  haha ~ nice one : )
Anonymous

i wonder why they used the remake versions of the songs. Some of them were passable (the Supremes and Gaga) while others (Safety Dance, Another One Bites the Dust) were painful.