Martin won the Quantum Zone in March 2012. It looks like he’s been very busy, here’s his report on what he’s been up to with his prize money…
I rashly promised to use the £500 winnings to run a science songwriting competition for young people. As soon as I won the rush of excitement gave way to the realisation that I had no idea how I was going to do it.
Beautiful medals designed by Tuck Shop (aka Lynn Allingham)
Luckily, GeekPop creator Hayley Birch did know what to do and and even gave us the first prize: tickets for the winners and a chum/guardian to attend Einstein’s Garden at the Green Man festival and help me run a science songwriting workshop. House of Strange Studios volunteered a day of studio time for the winners too. What prizes! Next we needed judges.
And what judges! Just by asking very nicely, lots of very brilliant and lovely people agreed to join in! Isy Suttie, a household name thanks to Peep Show, but a very talented musical comedian.
We also had Tom Robinson, a musical legend, and champion of unheard music through his 6Music radio shows; Helen Keen, sciencey star of Radio 4 and MJ HIbbett, whose album Dinosaur Planet has taken nerd rock by storm; and Tom Whyntie, real-life CERN scientist and musician.
For the Social Physics category we spread the judging duties between me, Hayley and ex-physicist chanteuse Helen Arney.
The entries were fantastic; despite some pretty strict rules (entrants had to be 18 or under; songs had to be original in lyric AND melody; songs had to be about science) we got a pretty long shortlist which our judges whittled down to four winners.
- GOLD: Vincent’s LHC Song stood out as a concise and charming ditty to CERN, which had recently discovered The Higgs Boson.
- SILVER: Lab 13 reminded how good science is.
- BRONZE: Alannah’s Zero Air Resistance made science romantic again.
- SOCIAL PHYSICS: Ben Lambert & Furat Aziz scooped the Social Physics prize with Infinity.
The workshop ran over three days of the festival, culminating on the final day with a performance of Lonely Space Pony by our young songwriters backed by Vincent, science songwriter Johnny Berlinner and yours truly – swiftly followed by a live performance of The LHC Song by Vincent. Barely a week after Tom Robinson played it on his 6Music show!
Those winners who didn’t win Gold did win iTunes vouchers and beautiful one-off medals designed by Tuck Shop.
Well, we haven’t quite spent all of our money. So watch out for another project in THE FUTURE! Until then, big thanks to Hayley, Ellen Dowell at Einstein’s Garden, Ash at House of Strange, Lynn at Tuck Shop and all of our judges and entrants!
UPDATE:
With the remaining prize money, Martin set up Brain Train with science communicator and academic Alice Bell, a podcast where every episode an expert on something asks another expert questions. No-one’s an expert on everything, so it’s the chance for someone to “play novice” about a subject they know nothing about. For example, Shiloh Fetzek is an expert on climate change and its effects on the politics of the Arctic, and she wanted to learn about castles, something she knows nothing about – so we drafted in Jeremy Ashbee from English Heritage to answer her questions! Next episode, Jeremy wanted to understand genetics and how it defines who we are – and so geneticist Vincent Plagnol stepped in to answer Jeremy’s questions. Each episode, a new expert steps in, and the Brain Train continues! The IAS prize money will pay for hosting for Brain Train over the coming months and let us keep it free for listeners.
