{"id":19513,"date":"2023-03-06T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=19513"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:12:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:12:53","slug":"mad-science-with-caroline-duncombe-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/mad-science-with-caroline-duncombe-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad Science with Caroline Duncombe &#8217;18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Catherine Kane &#8217;26<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caroline Duncombe \u201918 watched many improv shows while at Macalester, but most of her time was spent in the Chemistry Department, where she completed her major and co-chaired the Women in STEM student organization. Before moving to Seattle to begin her PhD in pathobiology at the University of Washington, she heard about a science-themed improv show in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI thought it was a great idea to combine science and comedy, but never had the talent to be able to perform myself,\u201d Duncombe says. \u201cYou have to think really fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After ruminating on the idea for years, she teamed up with a local improv troupe, Bandit Theater, to create a science-themed show. Her show, \u201cMad Science,\u201d invites Seattle-area scientists to give a short presentation on their work; then, the troupe riffs off the talk to create a twenty-minute set. \u201cThe scientists who participate love this unique opportunity to watch their work be interpreted by a professional improv team,\u201d Duncombe says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Audience members also get a dose of education and fun. \u201cIt\u2019s actually a fantastic way to learn because the scientist has presented the concepts and then it\u2019s twisted and warped into improv in a very funny way,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her producer role for \u201cMad Science,\u201d she books researchers. In one show segment, for example, she invited an atmospheric scientist to explain clouds, and a technology expert to explain the cloud. Duncombe thinks of her audience as \u201cpeople who listen to Radiolab,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople who like learning, which I feel is a lot of people at Macalester, are the people who enjoy the show most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting a PhD at University of Washington during the beginning of the pandemic, she realized her research has limitations if it can\u2019t be communicated effectively. Alongside her work on \u201cMad Science,\u201d her PhD program is part bench work and part public health, a dual focus that is aligned with Duncombe\u2019s interest in science communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLearning the stories on how scientists do their work is just as important as learning about the answers they provide,\u201d she says.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Duncombe&#8217;s improv show invites Seattle-area scientists to present their work, which improvisers then create a set about the research.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":19659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30989,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513\/revisions\/30989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}