your comedy roadshow idea seems fantastic! tell me how that would work, one of the things i am most interested in about

Question: your comedy roadshow idea seems fantastic! tell me how that would work, one of the things i am most interested in about science is the brain.

Asked by madeleine to Martin on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: Test methods.
- Martin Coath answered on 16 Mar 2010:
  
  I always try to mix good science with some jokes when I do stuff in public. So I try to set up activities that draw the people in and get them actively involved.
  
  I have seen too many science “demonstrations” wher the audience just gasp and clap in the right places. In any case I know half a dozen guys who do this much better than me.
  
  I have this grand idea for a short piece which illustrates how neurons in the brain communicate with one another by using members of the audience to “act” as neurons and get them to sort of “poke” one another in groups of three or four.
  
  Neurons in the brain send out little pulses (called spikes) which travel down the output parts of the cell (called Axons) and arrive at the input parts of the cell (called Dendrites) at special junctions (called Synapses).
  
  See how dull all of that sounds on paper! We could turn it in to a sort of party game 🙂

Question: your comedy roadshow idea seems fantastic! tell me how that would work, one of the things i am most interested in about science is the brain.