{"id":45566,"date":"2018-10-08T12:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T19:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=45566"},"modified":"2018-10-08T12:30:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T19:30:04","slug":"everyone-goes-down-why-i-chose-to-talk-about-science-at-the-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/everyone-goes-down-why-i-chose-to-talk-about-science-at-the-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"“Everyone goes down”: why I chose to talk about science at the theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nCurious by nature, I have always been passionate about science.\u00a0During my studies, it seemed natural to me to turn to research.\u00a0Like the majority of doctoral students, my enthusiasm has been somewhat shaken by the reality of the laboratory, between the experiments that do not work, the hypotheses swept over after several months of experimentation, as well as the repetitive protocols.\u00a0In short, arrived in third year of thesis, I felt the need to open my horizons.<\/span><\/p>\n

In parallel with my Ph.D., I had a keen interest in extension and enjoyed participating in events such as\u00a0<\/span>Science Fair<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, a breath of fresh air between two lab experiments.\u00a0It was then that I heard about the “My Thesis in 180 Seconds” competition, which challenges PhD students to present their research subject in a way that is accessible to the general public.\u00a0My love for the transmission has obviously convinced me, since I won the Audience Award, from the regional selection to the international finals.\u00a0An experience that made me want to continue in the path of scientific mediation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The choice of humor<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

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Poster of the play by Marie-Charlotte Morin, represented in Paris, Strasbourg and Brussels. Author provided<\/p><\/div>After the contest, I first video format, the popularization meeting some success on YouTube.\u00a0But a meeting with the director Alexandre Taesch convinced me to stay on the stage, where “we breathe the same air as the public”.\u00a0We tweaked together a scenario I wrote a few weeks earlier about Darwin’s theory.\u00a0<\/span>Everyone goes down!\u00a0<\/span><\/em>was born.\u00a0The goal of\u00a0<\/span>this science comedy<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is to use black humor to fight obscurantism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Darwin?\u00a0Because the theory of evolution is a great pretext for tackling much deeper subjects: to develop the foundations of the scientific method, to explain why science is not a belief, to talk about the place of chance in the transformation mechanisms of the living.\u00a0If men once believed that the earth was flat and the sun was circling around their planet, they all have a hard time admitting that the mutations at the origin of evolution came about by chance, without the intervention of a superior intelligence.\u00a0And the attacks that affect this theory remain legion.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to make a funny, accessible show to attract an audience that would not necessarily go to see a scientific conference.\u00a0I could have written a piece of 5h so much to say on the subject.\u00a0Alexander helped me avoid monologues and rewrite whole passages to introduce new characters, dialogues and more dynamic scenes.\u00a0It was fundamental to keep the thread of humor so that the neophytes are then seduced by the bottom.<\/span>
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