Hot and Cold: The Dance Your PhD Winner for 2025

Production values have soared since the Dance Your PhD competition was launched in 2008, but we still get a kick out of doctoral students attempting to explain the subject of their dissertation through interpretive dance. Dr. Sulo Roukka of the University of Helsinki sang and danced his way to the top of the heap this year with a production number about chemesthesis, or the way people react to extreme taste compounds such as hot peppers and menthol. His dissertation is titled Insights into oral chemesthetic perception : A focus on food-related behavior. Besides the overall prize, Roukka won the chemistry division. There are also winners in the categories of biology, physics and AI, and social sciences. See them all at Ars Technica.