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newscripts
DANCING WITH THE DOCTORATES, ANTITERRORISM LINGERIE
Samba-savvy scientists, it’s time
to dust off your dancing shoes.
Nov. 16, the deadline for the 2009
“DANCE YOUR PH.D.” contest, is swiftly
approaching. Sponsored by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
the contest is open to anyone who
has or is pursuing a Ph.D. in any scientific
field or in science-related fields, such as
bioethics or the history of science. All dancing-prone
doctorates are eligible, whether
they’re in academia, industry, or have found
employment further afield, in, for example,
patent law or science writing.
“The human body is an excellent medium
for communicating science—perhaps
not as data-rich as a peer-reviewed article
but far more exciting,” notes John Bohannon,
Science magazine’s “Gonzo Scientist,”
who is coordinating the contest.
The inaugural “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest
was held earlier this year in Vienna, and
winners got a year’s subscription to Science.
For 2009, the contest’s organizers
decided to put the competition on a global
stage and offer a much grander prize—their
Ph.D. dance interpreted by a professional
choreographer and performed at the AAAS
annual meeting in Chicago in February.
Winners will also receive two nights’ accommodation
at the meeting.
Boogie-down brainiacs should make
a video interpreting their Ph.D. thesis in
dance form using any style they choose—
be it ballroom, ballet, or the bunny hop—
and post the opus
on YouTube. They
should then e-mail
the relevant details
to gonzo@aaas.
org, and Bohannon
will post the video
on the contest’s
webpage.
Winners will be
selected from four categories: “Graduate
Student,” for those who are currently
enrolled in a Ph.D. program;
“Post-Doc,”
with a Ph.D.
but without
tenure at a university;
“Professor,”
for those with both
a Ph.D. and tenure at a
university; and “Popular
Choice,” which goes to the
video with the highest YouTube
view count by the deadline.
More details and official rules of the
doctorate disco can be found at gonzolabs.
org/dance.
Women wise in the ways of fashion
know that to look good, a lady
needs good foundations. Now,
UNDERGARMENTS could supplement
self-defense, as well as style, thanks to a
new invention brought to our attention
by the patent combers at the Annals of
Improbable Research.
U.S. patent No. 7,255,627 was granted to
Avocet Polymer Technologies on Aug. 14,
2007, for a “garment device convertible to
one or more facemasks.” Invented by Elena
N. Bodnar, of Hinsdale, Ill., and Raphael C.
Lee and Sandra Marijan, of Chicago, the
device is intended to provide protection
from harmful airborne particles.
According to the patent, if a country or
a territory is facing a threat of air contamination,
its citizens need “to have a higher
degree of access to facemasks. However,
it is often inconvenient, impractical or
burdensome for people to carry masks
wherever they go.”
To solve this problem, Bodnar, Lee, and
Marijan envisioned a brassiere that could
do double duty as a pair of facemasks.
“When the garment is used as a bra, the
cup portions are fitted over the breasts and
the straps wrap around the torso to secure
the bra to the body,” the patent explains.
“The front midsection and back midsection
of the bra
are separable.
Each cup of the
bra includes an
air filter. When
the air becomes
contaminated
due to an act of
warfare, terror
or other event,
Double duty for
double Ds: The
the user can
antiterrorism
remove the bra
brassiere.
and detach the
Dance your Ph.D.: cups forming two
Break out your
best moves.
facemasks. The
user then secures
the facemask to
her face and can provide the
other facemask to a bystander.”
USPTO
.BETHANY HALFORD wrote this
week’s column. Please send comments
and suggestions to newscripts@acs.org.
SHUTTERSTOCK
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 72 NOVEMBER 3, 2008