The Science of CSI: Crime in the Laboratory!

Science Reactors and ATRAKTOS invite you to the theatre performance and both educational workshops they are co-organising on 1 March at 17:30, with free entry.

The Science of CSI: Crime in the Laboratory!

How science becomes science theatre!

Come and enjoy the quirky detective duo trying to solve the mystery and find the murderer. In their efforts they turn to many sciences for help... from biology, criminology and computer science all the way to nanotechnology. 😎🥸🔍

And the show begins!!! 😍📢 at 19:00

Before the performance, researchers from the Hellenic Pasteur Institute will present two original educational workshops. The workshops run in parallel in small groups of 15 people and start at 17:30

How is a DNA test done?

What are impressions and what do they have to do with fingerprints?

Why is a UV lamp always useful at a crime scene?

How does technology help in detecting a crime and what does a 3D… scanner have to do with it?

These are just some of the questions the scientists are called on to answer in the performance. A researcher is found dead under strange circumstances... was it murder or a lab accident?

“Crime in the Lab” is a performance that, following the usual practice of Science Reactors, invites us to see science... differently! To discover it in our everyday lives, to combine it with art and to accompany it with original music. All of it delivered with humour by young scientists who make up the team.

“All the participants are scientists, that is the basic condition for anyone taking part. And this usually surprises the audience; everyone assumes they are going to see an amateur performance, since the participants are amateur actors and professional scientists. But it is an extremely carefully crafted, professional piece of work, with music written especially for the occasion, a distinctive visual intervention and a professional director, Kostas Vrettos,” says Ms Eleni Grammatikopoulou, the team's coordinator.

Crime in the Lab has been presented at major scientific events and festivals – as well as in performances at the Foundation of the Hellenic World. “The play has changed quite a bit since it was first presented. There are new roles, and, as the team's lineup has been renewed and there are quite a few who love experiments, experiments have been added on stage, but also off stage, that help solve the crime,” says Anna Christodoulou, who wrote the script.

Science and the important role of research behind our favourite detective TV series are revealed and invite us to an evening of humour and mystery. “Crime in the Lab” and... the show begins!

Performance duration: 60’

Credits

Script: Anna Christodoulou

Direction: Kostas Vrettos

Original music: Dinos Prassas

Video: Antonis Lekopoulos, Kyriakos Makaronidis

Advisor: Katerina Chatzistamatiou

Art advisor: Chara Papatheodorou, art historian

Production Management: Eleni Grammatikopoulou, Science Communication

Show video operator: Thomas Pappas

Rehearsal photos / video: Timos Koniditsiotis

Archive material: Museum of the Greek Nobel Collection

Banner: student graffiti from the "Science and Society" programme of the National Hellenic Research Foundation

Cast:

Maria Memou: – Researcher (the link between beginning and end)

Christina Skoulikidou: Eva Pappa, corpse / video (a researcher while she was alive)

Stavros Dimitrakoudis: Miltiadis Argyros, Scientific Director

Kostas Karpouzis: Giorgos Doukas, researcher (video)

Chrysanthi Saliagkopoulou: Ada Zografou, researcher

Marina Papagiannaki: Mary Karra, cleaner

Athanasis Koustenis: Dimitris Sakellarios, police officer

Nikos Papadimitriou/ Konstantinos Antonaropoulos: Theocharis Nikolaou, deputy police officer

Warm thanks to:

ATRAKTOS for our collaboration

The researchers of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute for the presentation of the Laboratory

Chemist Dimitris Koniditsiotis – Science is fun

The National Hellenic Research Foundation for its support

Before the theatre performance, two original activities will take place, run by research teams from the Hellenic Pasteur Institute. The activities will run in parallel.

START TIME 17:30

A. "CSI Lab – The fingerprints of a crime"

Presented by the researchers of the Pasteur Institute: Toumpanaki Dimitra & Efstathiou Antonia,

(based on an idea from the School of Kastellorizo)

"In the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind," said Louis Pasteur, the great chemist and "father" of microbiology… From babies, we observe everything around us and constantly want to learn how all the things that impress us are explained. Observation and the science of Biology are also the basis of solving crimes… big or small!!

With the help of Biology and Chemistry, we're waiting for you to find the culprit… We'll enter the crime scene, collect evidence and evaluate it: fingerprints and… other prints, DNA and blood, hairs and fabrics…

Through play, we'll learn the structure of DNA and how the alphabet of life is read, what cells look like in various biological materials, and what makes us the same and at the same time so different. Are you ready to become CSI researchers with us?

Duration 20' and aimed at groups of 20 people, aged 14+

Antonia Efstathiou

Dimitra Toumpanaki

B. An astronaut in the… Lab!!!

Presented by the PhD candidates of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute: Makka Sofia & Koutantou Myrto (based on an idea from the Riddle Festival, Kastellorizo 2023)

This research team, under the guidance of Dr. Manolis Angelakis, Research Director/HPI, will initiate us into the… secrets of a high-biosafety research laboratory!

We'll learn what this laboratory is, how it operates, what experiments are carried out in such a specially designed space, how samples are handled, and why it matters!

As part of this, the boldest volunteers will be invited to transform into….. astronauts of the high-biosafety laboratory!

The adventure into the world of dangerous microbes starts in… 3, 2, 1!!!

Duration 20' and aimed at groups of 15 people, aged 14+

Photos from the Labs:

The theatre performance CSI Science: "Crime in the Lab", staged on Friday 1/3/24 at Atraktos, proved that science can take to the stage with flair and that scientists can play all sorts of roles to bring scientific topics to life vividly, even through solving a crime. Above all, though, it proved that with their humour they can win over audiences of every age!!! 🥰🥳😎

Photos from the performance: