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Now, the idea is not as crazy as it sounds.
其實，這個想法并不像聽起來那么恐怖。
I started a contest four years ago called Dance Your Ph.D. Instead of explaining their research with words, scientists have to explain it with dance.
四年前，我創辦了一場比賽，叫“舞動博士”。科學家不能用語言來解釋他們的研究，而必須用舞蹈來解釋。
Now surprisingly, it seems to work. Dance really can make science easier to understand.
令人驚奇地是，這似乎很有用。舞蹈真的可以讓科學變得更加容易理解。
But don't take my word for it. Go on the Internet and search for "Dance Your Ph.D."
但是不要相信我的一面之詞。上網去搜“Dance Your Ph.D.”
There are hundreds of dancing scientists waiting for you.
成百上千的跳舞的科學家在等著你。
The most surprising thing that I've learned while running this contest is that some scientists are now working directly with dancers on their research.
舉辦這項賽事，最讓我驚訝的是一些科學家現在就在和舞蹈演員直接合作開展研究。
For example, at the University of Minnesota, there's a biomedical engineer named David Odde, and he works with dancers to study how cells move.
比如，在明尼蘇達大學，一位名叫大衛·奧迪的生物醫學工程師和舞蹈演員合作研究細胞的運動。
They do it by changing their shape.
他們通過改變細胞的形狀進行研究。
When a chemical signal washes up on one side, it triggers the cell to expand its shape on that side,
當化學信號出現時，就會刺激細胞朝那邊擴展，
because the cell is constantly touching and tugging at the environment.
因為細胞總是不停地和周圍的環境接觸。
So that allows cells to ooze along in the right directions.
這使得細胞可沿正確的方向流動。
But what seems so slow and graceful from the outside is really more like chaos inside,
但是表面舒緩優雅，內部卻如混沌不堪，
because cells control their shape with a skeleton of rigid protein fibers,
因為細胞通過一層硬蛋白質纖維控制形狀，
and those fibers are constantly falling apart.
而這些纖維又總是在脫落。
But just as quickly as they explode, more proteins attach to the ends and grow them longer,
但是和纖維快速爆炸一樣，更多的蛋白質附著在末端，使其增長，
so it's constantly changing just to remain exactly the same.
不斷的變化就是為了保持原樣。
Now, David builds mathematical models of this and then he tests those in the lab, but before he does that,
大衛先創建數學模型，然后再到實驗室測試，但是在這之前，
he works with dancers to figure out what kinds of models to build in the first place.
他和舞蹈演員一起研究首先需要創建哪種模型。
It's basically efficient brainstorming, and when I visited David to learn about his research,
這屬于高效的頭腦風暴，我去拜訪大衛了解他的研究時，
he used dancers to explain it to me rather than the usual method: PowerPoint.
他運用舞蹈演員給我解釋而不是常用的辦法：幻燈片。
