Mary Roach takes the cake with her TED presentation on “10 things you didn’t know about orgasm”. Did you know that paraplegics can have orgasms by stimulating parts of their body not typically connected with sexuality, just above their sense-deprived bodyparts? That embryos masturbate? Or that there is a woman who can have an orgasm by brushing her teeth? A very entertaining topic and talk!
I like Mary Roach’s reduced presentation: ten slides, each with a short phrase, white on black (and a few rivetting photos and a film thrown in). It goes wonderfully with her lively and natural delivery. She’s a natural-born presenter, so why have competing slides? Less, as almost always, is more. Critical body language note to self and others: Don’t walk around too much in front of audience, stand still!
We’ll be watching this talk at Morphosys this week (a course with about 6 or 7 students, half of them scientists, half lab technicians) and I’ll ask each participant to create a short individual presentation using the model “Ten things you didn’t know about…” on a topic of their choice.
PS: Update after the class: Things went quite differently. We wound up talking about the Danish government plan for happy pork – and animal farming in general – and then about sex research and reproductive medicine – and then collected 10 things you didn’t know about biotech. Having people do actual presentations at the end of a long, hard day when it’s as dark outside as if it were winter is no-go.
