Physicist's piezoelectric pirouettes claims top spot at this year’s Dance your PhD competition

A woman in a laboratory wearing sunglasses, latex gloves and a white coat rapping about DNA

Source: © Dina Haddad via Youtube

Contemporary dance explains why some materials generate electricity under stress

Physicist Sofia Papa has won this year’s Dance your PhD competition with a contemporary-style routine that re-creates the piezoelectric effect, where some materials generate electricity under stress. The video features dancers dressed in red and blue to represent positive and negative charges, respectively, with twists and turns reflecting the differences between crystalline and semicrystalline materials.