That was it: The Science Slam Bern at the "Nacht der Forschung"

The "Nacht der Forschung" was a colorful celebration of science. 10.000 visitors met 100 researchers and were able to experience science together at experiments, lectures and many interactive stations. The UniBE alumni were also part of this great science festival and were able to show with the Science Slam Bern that science and humor are not mutually exclusive.

Current researchers and alumni of the University of Bern competed against each other in three duels and presented their research and scientific topics on stage in a funny, simple and approachable way.

They took the audience on a journey through the topics of medical technology, AI and music, as well as law, digitalization and physics. In ten-minute duels, they tried to inspire the audience with their contributions, creating both exciting and amusing moments.

Reto Nardini opened the evening in the first duel with his slam "Experience - where machines reach their limits". He took the audience on a short journey of experience and showed on the cello that AI cannot grasp the experience of the environment in the same way as we humans can.

With his slam "From Gollum to scoliosis: How motion capture reveals more than just movie magic", Philippe Bähler competed against Reto in a duel.

Philippe showed the audience that motion capture can be used for more than just special effects in films. He used an experiment to show that it can be used to develop precise new physiotherapy exercises to better help young patients with scoliosis. He illustrated this with the creation of the character "Gollum" from the film Lord of the Rings.

The audience was enthusiastically transported into the world of the film by Philippe and voted him the winner of the first duel.

The second duel again dealt with exciting topics. Simona Procacci took the audience on a journey with her slam "What is the maximum temperature in the universe?", which showed the audience how temperatures behave in the universe and what conclusions can be drawn from the temperature of the universe.

Ercan Isik showed in a humorous way why digitalization does not work and how it can still succeed. In his slam "Fail better: The philosophy of digital failure", he impressively combined philosophy with the topic of digitalization.

The second duel was also decided by the audience: the winner was Simona with her exciting insights into the wide universe and its temperatures.

The final duel of the evening was contested by Silke Möbius with her slam "Upgrade gefällig? - How ATLAS gets the perspective" and Simon M. Graf with his slam "When law and AI meet".

First, Silke Möbius took the audience to CERN and gave an impressive explanation of what a particle accelerator is and how data is obtained in order to better understand physics. She showed the audience the "Made in Bern" optical system and gave them an insight into data acquisition and production during experiments.

Simon took the audience into the world of AI and law using the example of playing the lottery. The audience was able to become part of the experience themselves, as Simon involved them directly in a game to show that AI cannot grasp the (ir)rationality of law.

The Science Slam Bern as part of the "Nacht der Forschung" was a successful and interesting evening all about science. The final duel ended with two winners.