Oxford BRC-supported researchers have been sharing stories from their work through music and dance at IF Oxford, the Oxford Science and Ideas Festival.
As part of the festival’s programme of over 100 events, the Oxford BRC supported a dance performance for primary school children and their families featuring giant inflatable cells. Researchers from the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine acted as scientific consultants and collaborated with dance company Impelo for the project, which explores cell biology and immunology through playful choreography. The performance took place at St Michael’s Primary School in Oxford and was followed by a Q&A with the researchers involved. The production will now go on tour across the UK.
Meanwhile, Carme Camps from the BRC’s Genomic Medicine theme took part in Research in Harmony, an evening of musical tales from the lab. Carme and a group of fellow scientists rewrote the lyrics to popular songs to tell stories about their research and performed them alongside The Beatroots, an Oxford a capella group.
Another festival event saw Noemi Roy and Hal Drakesmith from the Haematology and Stem Cells theme join four other researchers to battle it out for the “iron crown”, with each given five minutes to convince the audience that their research on iron was most important. After hearing about the role of iron in a range of disciplines, from haematology to archaeology, the audience generously decided that all the competitors were equal winners.
The Oxford Science and Ideas Festival took place in venues all over Oxford from 18 – 28 October 2019.