It's not rocket science:
It began with the young doctor series “Scrubs” and reaches its peak with “The Big Bang Theory”: The wave of science nerds spills over the screens and clears the way for SciLogs and science YouTube vlogs in which scientific knowledge from the Ivory Tower and presented quite entertainingly.
The Secret Life of Scientists – We’re damn cool!
When Mai meets new people, she is always surprised. 'You don't look like a chemist at all,' she hears - which is certainly to be taken as a compliment. But it also shows that many people still consider scientists to be an alien species who - à la John Nash - write formulas on panes of glass, who have no friends but have autistic traits. The 28-year-old wants to clear that up.
Mai has many friends - but still has a lot to offer when it comes to chemistry: After studying chemistry in Mainz and at MIT in Boston and starting her doctorate in Aachen, she went to Harvard for the last year of her dissertation research and dealt with the topics there Stem cell research and tissue engineering, the production of artificial tissue.
At Harvard, Mai also started her vlog “ The Secret Life of Scientists .” “I want to show what cool people scientists are and that stereotypes are long outdated,” says Mai. Her YouTube channel is therefore extremely entertaining and really ironic: Mai gives an insight into the “normal madness of everyday laboratory life”, explains the five phases of a doctoral thesis (including being a data zombie and staring blankly into space) or poses In the “Real Papers from Real Scientists” section, we present strange research projects and phenomena. Among them: the home brewer's syndrome (where the body produces alcohol itself.) or the burning (scientific) questions: "How do sloths actually poop?" There are things...
Mai has been back from Harvard since March of this year and is now going through the fifth and final phase of her doctoral thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research in Potsdam: writing it up. This will certainly provide a lot of new material for your vlog.
But Mai also travels live in the name of science. At science or bullshit slams. She did some satire there on the subject of climate change. “The world simply needs a lot more science on its ears,” she is firmly convinced. Even though science is becoming more and more of a topic in the media, the people behind the discoveries are almost never present. With her videos she wants to try to make science more human. Maybe more people will become interested in natural sciences through this personal path, Mai hopes.
Lekkerwissen – Schrödinger's Cat for Dummies
Eduard and Simon do not see themselves as typical physicists. “We are not necessarily the types of researchers who could bunker down in a basement for years and then wow the world with a big discovery,” says Simon, who is now preparing for his traineeship after completing his teaching degree in physics and sports and passing the state examination has itself. “We're both quite the stage pigs.” Eduard regularly gains stage experience as a musician. After completing his bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Cologne, the 34-year-old is now enrolled in his master's program. In preparation for their oral physics exams, they used the camera to examine their own performance with this virtual examiner.
While initially it was all about their own preparation, the two, who met at university sports, quickly became obsessed with educational ambition. They wanted to make the videos more understandable and for a broader, especially younger, audience. With new equipment and a plan we started and the YouTube Chanell “ LekkerWissen ” was born (“lekker” = Dutch for “good”).
In their vlogs, they address topics such as the solar eclipse or gravitational waves, explain what the quantum physics thought experiment “Schrödinger's Cat” is all about, or explain the phenomenon of inertia using the “Eggs Experiment” and rotating eggs. “In the natural sciences there are simply hard facts, and then there is also a little scope for bizarre debates. That's exactly when we pick up our camera." With their concept of cross-media knowledge transfer in the natural sciences, the two physicists have also found a professional goal. The LekkerWissen boys have already been seen at the Ideas Expo, in WDR contributions and in workshop projects on the topic of knowledge transfer in the digital world. Their first book will be published in 2017 and they want to continue to expand their vlog. The scholarship from the Media Start-up Center NRW helps with this. “We hope to rekindle enthusiasm and recognition for physics,” says 30-year-old Simon.
MedFreak - The Dance of the Arteries
Studying medicine is still considered an almost impossible undertaking: becoming a demigod in a white coat certainly requires an extraordinary personality and an oversized brain. Before starting her medical studies, Ella also had some fears that were fueled by such ideas.
She has now been studying medicine in Essen for almost three years - and everything was and is half as bad. She found her way to her own vlog when she was looking for a method to better remember boring learning material. The learning song 'Arteries of the Lower Extremity' was created, with which the 22-year-old was able to better remember the course of the arteries. Uploaded quickly, it should also help other students learn. Since the summer of 2015, she has used her vlog primarily to encourage and allay the fears of young people who have the dream of studying medicine. The initial spark for this came from a visit to Instagram. “Out of interest, I entered the hashtag “medical studies” and what I saw really touched me,” says Ella. “I came across numerous pages of young people who had the dream of studying medicine, who motivated each other there with thousands of followers and exchanged their questions and fears.” Ella remembered her own beginnings and now wanted to be the motivator she never had herself. Accordingly, the topics of their videos often come from the questions that users ask: How do I get good grades? How much does studying medicine cost? How does a selection interview work? Topics such as “Why doctors have a pig’s claw” or the “Lung Segments Medicine Song” are also entertaining. “I am fascinated by the complicated connections of our bodies, the sophisticated functions and incredibly complex mechanisms that make life possible for us,” says Ella. And if she can infect others with her passion, then she has already achieved her goal.
It's not rocket science: It started with the young doctor series "Scrubs" and reaches its peak with "The Big Bang Theory": The wave of science nerds spills over the screens and clears the way for SciLogs and science YouTube vlogs where scientific knowledge is taken out of the ivory tower and presented in a rather entertaining way.
