Graduate of the Institute of Natural Sciences of North-Eastern Federal University Konstantin Protodyakonov won the “Science Slam”, science stand up competition, held on October 11 at the U-NOVUS forum in Tomsk. The scientist presented a research project on Tumat dogs, who lived 12,000 years ago in Yakutia.

Currently, Konstantin Protodyakonov is a master’s student at the Paleontology Department of Tomsk State University. As the scientist notes, in 2015, while studying at NEFU, he participated in excavations in the Ust-Yansky region of Yakutia, where the mummy of one of the Tumat dogs was found in the permafrost.

“The first mummy was discovered in 2011, the second - in 2015. According to the results of the discoveries, I prepared a scientific paper. They called them Tumatsky dogs because the remains were found by the residents of Tumat village, Ust-Yansky region”, said Konstantin Protodyakonov. “They are kept at NEFU Mammoth Museum now, staff of which I thank for supporting the research”.

According to the scientist, the preparation for the scientific stand up lasted more than 10 days. “They explained to us how to communicate with the audience, how to go on stage”, said Konstantin Protodyakonov. “The task was to explain the topic in an accessible language and the most productive description of it to an ordinary listener”.

Under the terms of the competition, each of the participants had to tell about his research within 10 minutes. Performances were evaluated by the audience. “The audience’s reaction was applause and cries — the organizers measured it with a special instrument, a sound level meter, and the audience supported me louder”, he said. “I hope that Yakutia and Tomsk will cooperate together in the field of paleontology: such research is new for Tomsk scientists, while we find not only the remains of mammoths, but also frozen dogs preserved from the ice age in Yakutia”.

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Science Slam (from the English "scientific battle") - originated in Germany, the format of popularization of science, in which young scientists present their research during an exciting stand-up show in an informal setting.