{"id":4101,"date":"2010-03-26T13:37:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T20:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2010-03-28T07:58:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-28T14:58:16","slug":"the-famelab-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=4101","title":{"rendered":"The FameLab Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michal Dekel was sitting in a pub in Tel Aviv, when a friend told her, \u201cThere\u2019s a contest you just have to enter!\u201d That was in the spring of 2007, and not long afterwards, Michal became the first Israeli winner of Fame Lab. A hybrid of Pop Idol style competitions and scientific research, Fame Lab is the brainchild of\u00a0the UK Cheltenham Science Festival and NESTA, which began in the UK in 2005. Introduced in Israel by the British Council in 2007, the 2010 Israeli competition is organized by the Hemda Centre for Science Education in Tel Aviv and sponsored by Teva and the British Council <\/a>. Looking forward to auditions for the 2010 competition coming up in mid-April, Midnight East met with past winners Michal Dekel, Adi Yaniv and Shani Waidergoren to talk about the Fame Lab experience and its impact on their lives.<\/p>\n

Before Fame Lab, they were just ordinary beautiful young scientists working on their research who almost inadvertently found themselves involved in the competition. After Fame Lab, all three are unanimous in saying that it was a life-altering experience. While all three are still young, beautiful scientists, who are a bit farther along in their research, the real transformation has been in their enthusiastic commitment to sharing their knowledge with others.<\/p>\n

Shani Waidergoren, the most recent winner, had studied at Hemda in high school and knew of the competition\u2019s existence for two years before deciding to enter. She was in the third year of a joint Masters\/Ph.D. program in Neuroscience when she thought, \u201cit would be cool and fun \u2013 why not?\u201d There are two stages to the auditions, which take place in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Contestants give a three minute talk on a research topic (without the use of posters or power point presentations!) before a panel of judges. Those who succeed in the first round must then present a second topic in the evening. However, this part of the competition is open to the public, so the finalists try their presentation skills before a wider audience. Three finalists are then selected to compete in the finals, which will take place this year at Hemda on May 5.
\nFor her first two talks, Shani selected topics in the field of brain research: mirror neurons \u2013 a network that reflects the behavior of other people in order to understand them, and blind sight (a second, separate and more primitive system in the brain that is receptive to movement, which is expressed in some people who are blind, yet respond to objects around them as if they can see).\u00a0She prepared herself well, saying, \u201cI wanted to be able to answer any questions that the judges might ask. I read and prepared notes then I presented the talk \u2013 to myself, and my family. They gave me a lot of feedback \u2013 negative feedback. My family really improved my talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shani\u2019s third topic,\u00a0 prospagnosia – a disorder in face recognition, made her the 2009 winner:
\n<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Shani says winning the competition \u201cChanged my world 180 degrees. I discovered a talent I didn\u2019t realize I possessed. In terms of science communication \u2013 it was something I knew existed, but I never thought of myself as someone who could create it.\u201d<\/p>\n

An important aspect of the Fame Lab experience is the training they receive after passing the first round. The nine finalists participate in a master class in science communication, which will be presented this year, as in the past, by Malcolm Love. \u201cHe is simply wonderful!\u201d says Adi Yaniv, Fame Lab 2008 winner, \u201che is an amazing human being \u2013 and he looks like Richard Gere. He is not a scientist but has a lot of experience teaching others how to present science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adi, who has recently completed a Masters degree in Law, specializing in intellectual property, and is in the final stages of completing a Masters degree in Bio-Medical Sciences, sent in the application to Fame Lab without giving the matter much thought. When the letter arrived with details of the competition and audition dates, she didn\u2019t know what she would talk about. She arrived at the initial round \u201cwithout any expectations\u201d and spoke about communication between bacteria \u2013 a topic from a course she had been taking at the time. She found it fascinating to listen to the different topics presented. Her second topic (rather hastily prepared she confessed) was \u201cTyrannosaurus Rex \u2013 predator of live prey or consumer of carrion?\u201d<\/p>\n

All three describe the meeting with fellow scientists as one of the best parts of the experience. Adi describes her fellow competitors as \u201cA concentration of talented and interesting people. In the beginning it was a little stressful, but the atmosphere is unusually supportive. We all lefargen (from Yiddish: to support and enjoy another\u2019s success without jealousy) \u2013 there was no competitiveness among us. It was the same in the international competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once she was selected as a finalist, \u201cit had become serious. I spent about three days preparing for the final talk.\u201d Her topic was \u2013 Vasopressin, a hormone which plays an important role in the loyalty of male to female voles. Says Adi, \u201cI chose a topic that interested me and considering that 50% of the population is women \u2013 would interest my audience as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

What does it take to become a winner? According to Adi, \u201cYou need to be a bit of an actor, to create a story, to be entertaining.\u201d However, she also points out, \u201cYou need to do that at conferences as well, otherwise people fall asleep on you. It is thought that whoever does popular science is not a serious scientist, but there are lecturers who don\u2019t know how to explain anything to anyone. If you can\u2019t explain something simply, it implies that you do not understand it well enough. Until I tried to explain things meaningfully to others, I wasn\u2019t aware of the gaps in my own understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competition winners represent Israel at the Cheltenham Science Festival in England, an unforgettable experience for all three winners. Michal Dekel attended the science festival in 2007, at a time when an academic boycott of Israel was being hotly discussed in the UK. Michal says that not only was she warmly received by everyone she encountered at the festival, \u201cI had the opportunity to tell people about science in Israel and why I believe in scientific cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michal, who is currently working on her Ph.D. researching stability of genomes in embryos and stem cells, was \u201calways interested in human genetics.\u201d Her first talk was on PGD (pre-implantation diagnosis of embryos fertilized in-vitro), and for her second topic she discussed cloning.\u00a0 The topic of her final presentation \u201cMickey Mouse \u2013 Minnie Doesn\u2019t Need You Anymore\u201d refers to a mouse born as a result of embryos created from the fertilization of two eggs \u2013 without the intervention of sperm.
\n<\/embed><\/object>
\nAlthough some scientists fear that the attempt to convey contemporary research to the general public results in distortions, Michal says, \u201cYou don\u2019t relinquish any of the science. [You describe the process and say] look at what can be done, what are the ethical implications of this? You want to connect the topic to their daily lives to show people how it can affect them. You want to awaken something so that they will go home and think about it, maybe look it up on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cI have a friend who is an artist sometimes I talk about ideas from research and it gives her ideas. We each have different backgrounds, the inspiration goes both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fame Lab experience extends far beyond the individual, creating friendships and working relationships between young scientists in Israel and in other countries. As Michal said, \u201cfirst came friendship.\u201d These friendships created through Fame Lab have led to collaborations in the area of science communication with scientists from Greece, Croatia and England. This year the competitions have expanded to other countries, and the circle of friendship and intellectual collaboration will grow.<\/p>\n

Inspired by their experience, several of the participants in the first Israeli Fame Lab in 2007 created a group of enthusiastic and talented science communicators called \u201cScience for Everyone,\u201d organized by Roey Tzezana. Michal, Adi and Shani, as well as many other former \u201cFame Labbers\u201d\u00a0take time out of their\u00a0busy schedules to talk science to groups and schools throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Do you have what it takes to translate scientific research into a fun, 3 minute talk? Why not try your skills at Fame Lab Israel 2010. Auditions will take place on April 13 at the Technion in Haifa, April 14 at Hemda in Tel Aviv and April\u00a021 at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem. Additional information and online registration is available on the Hemda <\/a>website.<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michal Dekel was sitting in a pub in Tel Aviv, when a friend told her, \u201cThere\u2019s a contest you just have to enter!\u201d That was in the spring of 2007, and not long afterwards, Michal became the first Israeli winner of Fame Lab. A hybrid of Pop Idol style competitions and scientific research, Fame Lab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-fame-lab-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}