It’s 10 years since the first FameLab competition and it has now reached more than 20 countries across the globe. From 7pm next Monday (9 March) at the Cambridge Junction, 10 of the region’s most enthusiastic, creative and charismatic scientists will take to the stage in an attempt to impress a panel of five judges, including BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s, Chris Mann, former Naked Scientist, Dr Ben Valsler, Cambridge Neuroscience Network co-ordinator, Dr Dervila Glynn and Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, David Spiegelhalter.
Dr Glynn said, the best thing about FameLab is that it is: “… a great way to learn about different areas of science and a chance to get a taste for science communication … at the end of the three minutes, ideally I want to be so interested that I want to rush off and Google the topic!”
In this highly popular event, the competitors, who are all practising scientists with no previous professional experience of public speaking, will each have precisely three minutes to tell the story of their own scientific findings, their scientific heroes or their favourite historic scientific discoveries.
The finalists won their places through regional heats in February. From a field of 28 hopefuls, 10 were selected, with three winning their places in a public online vote on the BlueSciFilm youtube channel. Topics ranged from cell biology and disease to the mathematics of infinity and our search for extra-terrestrial life. In the finals each entrant will showcase a completely new talk, devised especially for the event.
The talks will be judged for content, clarity and charisma. How accurate and interesting is the science they talk about, how well they communicate their chosen topic to the audience and how enjoyable and interesting is their performance on stage. Judges also reward good timekeeping; talks that fill the allowed three minutes without overrunning.
Speaking about the judging process, Dr Valsler said: “FameLab invites a number of judges from different fields, but even if that helps to smooth the content quibbles, the wildly subjective ‘charisma’ category can lead to heated arguments on the judging panel. ‘Clarity’ at least seems a fairly straightforward measure – how well did I understand you? But even that leaves questions – what’s an acceptable level of verbal shortcut before we start ‘dumbing down’?
When asked what he will be looking for, Professor Spiegelhalter said: “Knowledge, and a clear explanation, but for me the main thing is whether they can really hold my interest for three minutes – I have a very low boredom threshold!” He went on to say: “It's not for everyone, but I think more researchers should be out there explaining what they do – after all the public is usually funding the work.”
The winner will get the chance to attend a special FameLab training weekend later in March. They will then face other regional champions from across the country in the FameLab UK national final in London on 22 April.
Other Cambridge Science Festival events featuring rising science stars, include:
9 March – Cambridge shorts: premiere event. Three short films produced by collaboration between Cambridge Scientists and filmmakers. Discover plant development and the science of decision making and the past lives of Buddah, through the eyes of the scientists who work on them.
14 March – Rising Stars. A collection of interactive events, as part of CSF @the Cambridge Corn Exchange, in which the latest trainees from the Rising Stars communications course let visitors discover their research.
14 March – Helen Arney: In her element. Science songstress extraordinaire, Helen Arney, appears alongside Cambridge Scientists to share songs of their research. Features FameLab 2014 regional runner-up Robin Lamboll.
18 March – Life sciences poster competition. An exhibition of posters and images produced by current University of Cambridge researchers in the life sciences.
Image credit: FameLabUK
For further information about the Cambridge Science Festival or to browse the full range of events, please visit: www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk
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