Ten minutes, scientific content and a lot of fun: these were the rules of the 9th Oldenburg Science Slam. Five young scientists competed this year in the sold-out Exerzierhalle. At the end of the evening, the audience chose Florian Denk, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics at the University of Oldenburg, as the winner. He won the "Golden Brain" and prize money of 150 euros donated by the University of Oldenburg's Graduate Academy.
"Weird shapes, great acoustics - an ode to the ear" was the title of Denk's slam. The doctoral candidate explained why the shape of the human ear contributes significantly to the fact that it works so well. The 150 guests voted on the presentations by means of varying doses of applause, which was recorded by the "Slam-o-Meter". Out of competition, political scientist Prof Dr Torsten J. Selck delivered the first slam of the evening with "The EU, Brexit and me", much to the delight of the audience.
Like Selck and Denk, the other slammers literally brought the atmosphere in the Exerzierhalle to the boil. In addition to linguist Dr François Conrad from Leibniz Universität Hannover, three other Oldenburg doctoral candidates were represented. While the native Luxembourger explained why German sounds so hard for non-native speakers, Nina Gmeiner (Department of Economics and Law) slammed about seeds as a common good and what Filipino rice farmers have to do with their scientific findings. Rosanna Schöneich-Argent (Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Sea) illustrated the influence of the cold easterly wind on the direction of the North Sea current using a hairdryer and a teacup. It was almost a little scary in the hall of mirrors about alienation in service-orientated system catering, staged by Jonathan Gilbert (Department of Economics and Law). The young academics took second to fifth place and were rewarded with subscriptions to specialist journals.
The "Power Point Karaoke" was once again on the programme. This involved two professors presenting each other's lecture - without any preparation or knowledge of the topic. This year, neurologist Prof Dr Karsten Witt and historian Prof Dr Almut Höfert ventured into the limelight. Their improvisation skills were rewarded with thunderous applause.
The event was organised by the Research Centre Neurosensory Science, the Graduate Academy and the Graduate Schools for Social Sciences and Humanities (3GO) and for Natural Sciences, Medicine and Technology (OLTECH) at the University of Oldenburg. The Oldenburg State Theatre is a cooperation partner.
