Presenting concentrated science in ten minutes in an understandable way - that was the aim of the 8th Oldenburg Science Slam. Five young scientists took up the challenge in the sold-out Exerzierhalle. Jens-Steffen Scherer, a Master's student at the Department for Neuroscience, was ultimately crowned the winner. He was delighted to receive the "Golden Brain" and prize money of 150 euros, donated by the university's Graduate Academy.
"Why octopuses never get heat-free" - Scherer took to the stage for the first time as a science slammer with this topic. His presentation on the ability to learn and the synaptic processes responsible for this in the human brain struck a chord with the audience. 150 guests were invited to rate the performances of all five science slammers with different doses of applause, recorded by the "Slam-o-Meter". In the end, Scherer narrowly won in a play-off with Charlotte Beelen, , a doctoral candidate in the DFG Research Training Group "Molecular Basis of Sensory Biology". In her presentation, she introduced the "super sense" of vision. Beelen received the special prize of 100 euros from the Research Centre Neurosensory Science for her particularly research-oriented presentation.
This year's Science Slam was also firmly in the hands of Oldenburg neuroscientists: Lisa Schmors (Master's student "Neuroscience") spoke about the pacemaker of the future, Jelena Galojan (Master's student "Neurocognitive Psychology") about emotions that influence temporal attention and Sven Leach (Master's student "Neurocognitive Psychology") about evolutionary algorithms. The students took third to fifth place and were rewarded with subscriptions to specialist journals.
The "Power Point Karaoke" was once again part of the Science Slam programme: two professors present each other's lecture - spontaneously and without knowing the topic. Prof. Dr Michael Winklhofer, an expert in the sensory biology of animals, and the Americanist Prof. Dr Martin Butler demonstrated great talent for improvisation. Prof Dr Anja Bräuer also "dared" to take to the stage from among the professors: out of competition, the anatomist gave a lecture on "Liquide and Alzheimer's".
The event was organised by the Research Centre Neurosensory Science, the Graduate Academy and the Graduate Schools for Humanities and Social Sciences (3GO) and for Science and Technology (Oltech) at the University of Oldenburg. The Science Slam is organised in co-operation with the Oldenburg State Theatre.
