Because the Sugababes take the stage a couple of metres away, Eefje Schrauwen stands exterior her assigned delivery container. There are different models on both facet, every embellished in another way. Her container bears a garments line of girls’s underwear — a cheeky nod to the science going down inside.
Schrauwen, an infectious-disease researcher at Avans College of Utilized Sciences in Breda, the Netherlands, is taken with vaginal well being. Particularly, she and her group are curious concerning the microorganism Lactobacillus crispatus, one of many “good micro organism” that has a “comfortable marriage” with different microbes within the vagina. Schrauwen needs to know what traits are necessary for the micro organism to thrive — and, like another scientist, wants a technique to accumulate information. She and her colleagues are hoping to persuade the hundreds of people that will flood the realm as soon as the British pop group finishes its set to reply a sequence of questions — and donate vaginal swabs — for the great of science. They’ve even arrange a makeshift laboratory within the again in order that festival-goers can get a few of their leads to actual time.
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It’s not your common science mission. However then once more, not one of the analysis at Lowlands, a three-day music and performing-arts pageant within the Netherlands, is typical. Schrauwen is a part of a line-up of researchers conducting experiments as a part of Lowlands Science, a decade-long initiative that fosters science engagement at one of many nation’s largest festivals.
And it’s not simply within the Netherlands that scientists do outreach at festivals. On the NOS Alive music pageant close to Lisbon, researchers don’t conduct research on web site, however organizers foster engagement with guests by means of a science stand and sponsor analysis scholarships for younger graduates. Different music festivals throughout Europe have built-in science communication into their programmes, realizing the potential of such occasions.
What’s Lowlands?
Since 1993, tens of hundreds of individuals have flocked annually to Biddinghuizen, a village about 70 kilometres northeast of Amsterdam, to camp out for the pageant. Though the occasion already featured scientific lectures and demonstrations, it wasn’t till 2015 that organizers began together with precise analysis research.
Getting individuals to take part in analysis is notoriously tough and time-consuming, however festivals corresponding to Lowlands introduce a prepared viewers into the combo. “Folks at festivals, they’re very prepared to experiment or do new stuff,” says Bianca Pander, a managing accomplice at BKB, a marketing campaign agency in Amsterdam that organizes Lowlands Science. “Perhaps within the evenings, they wish to go to bands, however throughout the day, they’ve time to do different stuff as effectively.”
Yearly, festival-goers can participate in any of the ten chosen initiatives at Lowlands Science.Credit score: Michelle Piergoelam for Nature
Every year, researchers at institutes throughout the Netherlands submit proposals for initiatives they want to do at Lowlands. Pander and her group sift by means of the initiatives, choosing those they assume would work greatest for the pageant. This yr noticed a file 82 submissions, 10 of which have been chosen.
Along with Schrauwen’s examine, titled Viva La Vaginoom (Lengthy reside the vaginal microbiome), this yr’s pageant had initiatives spanning many disciplines and codecs. To the left of Schrauwen’s show, a bunch of researchers on the College of Amsterdam have reworked their delivery container right into a Wild West saloon, as a part of their mission to evaluate the easiest way to be taught a brand new talent (on this case, line dancing). Close by, one other group on the College of Amsterdam is shepherding individuals right into a human-sized glass field to simulate a tense scenario for his or her examine on success and failure. And one delivery container incorporates a “pornfession sales space”, for a mission that appears at how an individual’s socio-economic background impacts their notion of intercourse.
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Earlier initiatives have been simply as revolutionary and strange. There was a scientific trial evaluating completely different strategies of resuscitation, an experiment analysing mosquito attraction and a sales space the place individuals have been requested to evaluate their emotions in the direction of their genitals. Final yr, one of the standard experiments was the Shitty Science mission, for which individuals donated a stool pattern as a part of a examine on intestine micro organism.
The information collected have an effect, too. The group finding out resuscitation has printed 5 papers in peer-reviewed journals1,2, together with one in JAMA Cardiology2 that in contrast virtual-reality coaching with in-person steering (the researchers concluded that digital instruction was efficient in some measures however extra analysis is required). One other examine, which checked out how people conceptualized high-calorie meals, was printed in Scientific Experiences3. The group engaged on mosquitoes was in a position to assess all kinds of hygiene, consuming and ingesting behaviours because of the pageant’s format, resulting in a greater understanding of what influences the insect to chew.
Along with the ten analysis research a yr, Lowlands Science invitations teams that target scientific communication and training. Certainly one of this yr’s hits was an interactive recycling sport, just like the sport Bop It. Contributors needed to appropriately exhibit what makes plastic packaging able to be recycled — by ‘ripping it’, ‘twisting it’, ‘crushing it’ or ‘binning it’.
Why a pageant?
Music festivals is usually a excellent place for science experiments for a number of causes. Between artist performances, there’s loads of downtime for collaborating in initiatives.
“What’s nice a couple of pageant is you can mix the enjoyable issues of a pageant — chatting to mates watching music — however then additionally have the ability to be taught a brand new talent,” says doctor Joris Nas, who was a part of the group at Radboud College Medical Centre in Nijmegen that studied resuscitation strategies.
Competition individuals take samples from an area lake to study biodiversity.Credit score: Michelle Piergoelam for Nature
Festivals additionally assist to resolve a notable problem that many researchers face: recruitment. It may be laborious to seek out a big group of individuals prepared to take part in a examine, particularly people who aren’t a part of the college ecosystem. However Lowlands’ measurement — greater than 60,000 attendees — helps to mediate this, offering researchers with a big inhabitants to attract from.
For Toon Scheurink, a PhD scholar at College Medical Middle Groningen and one of many leaders of the Shitty Science mission, that meant getting much more poo than he and his colleagues have been used to. “In these three days, we have been in a position to accumulate stool samples from 200 individuals, which is after all a lot quicker than you often get with sufferers within the scientific follow,” he says. Some researchers even needed to flip individuals away — one thing that not often occurs in a typical scientific setting.
“We had ready traces with individuals who needed to take part in our examine, which is actually loopy,” says Nas, as a result of usually researchers must actively recruit and persuade individuals.
That stated, scientists acknowledge it may be a homogeneous throng. The crowds at Lowlands are usually Dutch, extremely educated, from city areas and on the younger facet. However that may generally work to researchers’ benefit, particularly if it’s a goal inhabitants for the examine.
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For instance, Samira van Bohemen, a cultural sociologist at Erasmus College Rotterdam, research what influences an individual’s sexual stereotypes and the way arousal occurs. “Males are tough to achieve for this sort of analysis”, as a result of it’s girls who are usually extra taken with social features of intercourse, she says. “However not right here at Lowlands.”
Lowlands’ demographic can be interesting for Martijn Wieling, who research language variation on the College of Groningen. Speech-recognition software program work greatest for normal Dutch accents, he explains. However by accumulating recordings from individuals who hail from all components of the Netherlands, he and his group can prepare packages to raised acknowledge all types of accent.
The setting can be completely different from typical lab conditions. Researchers and individuals “must be OK with sound”, says Pander, as a result of music blares within the background. The pageant can be fully outside — so, though the delivery containers allow some temperature management, climate can get in the best way. This yr, the primary day was wet, which some scientists stated affected information assortment.
Avans College of Utilized Sciences in Breda, the Netherlands, organized a ‘discipline lab’ to boost consciousness of vaginal well being.Credit score: Michelle Piergoelam for Nature
And since the analysis is finished at a music pageant, there are some confounding components: most notably alcohol and medicines. For a lot of initiatives, individuals should reply fast questionnaires about their substance use or have their breath analysed. This may generally disqualify them from collaborating within the examine. However researchers can typically use this to their benefit, too. One yr, a mission led by scientists on the College of Amsterdam checked out whether or not urine may function fertilizer, and so they needed to know whether or not medicine or alcohol would affect fertilizer’s high quality. Lowlands was an ideal setting to check this.
To not point out that for sure kinds of examine on drug use, having individuals who’re already voluntarily underneath the affect makes for an excellent workaround of crimson tape. Numerous the analysis at Lowlands tends to be on taboo subjects — though that is principally as a result of it’s a prepared and relaxed viewers, and organizers choose research they assume individuals may have enjoyable collaborating in.
“We get comparatively extra proposals on taboo topics”, as a result of Lowlands’ guests are extra open to it than most individuals, Pander says. “In spite of everything, intercourse, medicine and rock and roll go collectively fairly effectively.”
Conducting analysis at Lowlands also can have skilled advantages, particularly as a result of lots of the researchers are usually at an early stage of their profession. Nas says, “50–60% of my thesis was primarily based on Lowlands, so my PhD is definitely largely performed on Lowlands information.”
Wanting ahead
When doing analysis in uncommon locations, corresponding to a pageant, Pander emphasizes the necessity for applicability. Though persons are often prepared to contribute to science, they should know the impression of their participation. “One main tip is to consider the way you body one thing, so that individuals realize it’s truly one thing that issues,” Pander says.
And since there’s quite a bit happening on the pageant, competing for individuals’ consideration, initiatives ought to be brief. As soon as initiatives are chosen, the Lowlands Science group helps the researchers to adapt their examine, ensuring it requires solely 20–half-hour of the festival-goers’ time.
Format can be key to creating the method interesting and alluring — individuals can get fatigued with analysis and intensive surveys. For instance, the Shitty Science researchers made their mission stand out by placing a big golden rest room in entrance of their delivery container.
Contributors use a motorbike to pump lakewater by means of a filter to research native biodiversity.Credit score: Michelle Piergoelam for Nature
“Search for artistic methods which can be empirically sound to do but in addition engaging to a analysis inhabitants,” van Bohemen says. “Get into the sneakers of your audience.”
Tailoring research to the demographic being studied can be necessary. Wieling and his group, who work in a cell lab, attend different festivals throughout the yr. They tweak experiments to suit the inhabitants they’re working with.
Researchers additionally highlighted the significance of with the ability to talk the science successfully to individuals so that individuals know what they’re contributing to.
“Folks actually appeared to observe our prepare of thought there,” Scheurink says. “Numerous necessary science is being performed a bit secluded, away in an ivory tower of types. I feel it’s essential to have the ability to make your analysis accessible and comprehensible to a normal public.” When participating with individuals, Scheurink and his colleagues would clarify the idea of their analysis: that the intestine and mind are linked and that due to this fact the micro organism current may affect an individual’s temperament.
“Most individuals discovered it very humorous and have been fairly intrigued by the truth that we may the truth is see the hyperlink between the intestine and the mind,” he provides. “Most individuals hadn’t actually heard about it.”
And, as Pander notes, persons are sceptical about science. “Lots of people assume it’s one thing scary that’s taking place in these huge labs,” she says. “And I feel it’s good you can present individuals ‘we truly take our work very critically’ and that they will see it and contribute to it themselves. I feel that helps.”
Again at Viva La Vaginoom’s non permanent headquarters, the Sugababes have completed their final music. A festival-goer heads to the underwear-lined delivery container. “I’ve to get my outcomes,” she tells me. By the top of the weekend, Schrauwen and her colleagues have collected 225 samples, which can assist them to grasp what contributes to a wholesome vagina. Within the distance, the gang thins out, for a break earlier than the Irish rock band Inhaler takes the stage.
