When I asked my advisor for three weeks off from my PhD research to attend Burning Man in the Nevada desert, I was nervous. Burning Man has been a fascination of mine since I was in high school; at 16 years old, I was floored that 70,000 people could come together in a hostile environment and build a functional city for just one week. The opportunity to attend presented itself this year, four years into my PhD research. My good friends from North Carolina were running a theme camp that I had been involved with at other small events, and I had financial support for my travel and ticket. I knew this was my chance, so I presented the idea to my advisor, Martha.
Thankfully (but not surprisingly – Martha is awesome) she was supportive of my adventure, with one stipulation – when I return, I would write a blog post on the science at Burning Man. If you only know about the gathering through the media, this might seem like an impossible task. How can a desert festival have anything to do with science? Well, the truth is, science is the very heart of Burning Man. Every year, brilliant minds from all fields come together to create a fully functioning, off-the-grid city with everything you’d expect from a metropolitan epicenter. The city has restaurants, shops, childcare, repair shops and even a post office (you can send mail to your friends across the city!) and science is what makes this possible.
First and foremost: you can’t build a city off the grid without science. This event takes place in the inhospitable desert, on sacred BLM land. Burning man is a Leave No Trace event (the largest in the world!), and science is at the forefront of keeping the playa pristine. “The Man” (the large wooden effigy that is burned at the end of the week) is entirely run on solar power designed by the Burning Man Project. Many camps have shifted to solar panels over generators, and multiple renewable energy camps provide resources for Black Rock citizens to make the switch from gas-powered generators to renewable, clean energy sources. In 2024, 730 camps ran on entirely solar power, and that number is increasing every year! The innovation doesn’t stop at energy, though – I met a burner who told me his camp built a wastewater treatment system to filter grey water. It was their first year implementing this system, and he said it worked perfectly!
Not only is science present on an infrastructure-level, it’s also a major theme among camps and attendees. “Math Camp” (aptly placed at 3:14 on the map every year) is a theme camp made up of mathematicians and math enthusiasts that teach workshops and serve chilled pie every day at 3:14. The Academy of Arts and Sciences is a theme camp that hosts seminars every day, where science-minded Burners and researchers present on topics ranging from pharmacology to astronomy to chemistry and more. This year, you could even melt playa dust into crystal, or check out what’s hiding in the playa under a giant home-made microscope. These activities were popular with both kids and adults – it was inspiring to see everyone connecting with their inner child and getting excited about an experiment. While walking through this camp, I was delighted to see posters on the geothermal potential and unique environment of Black Rock City. You can even receive a degree from the UniverseCity camp (although I don’t think they are accredited).
Walking through deep playa (the vast open desert on the outskirts of the city), the intersection of art and science isobvious. I saw giant planets, installations resembling double helixes, and giant recreations of all types of flora and fauna. My favorite science experience at the Burn came to me by surprise. While exploring the deep playa late at night, I came across a giant homemade telescope, and was able to see Saturn for the first time. Curiosity is the heart of the Burn, and the heart of science. No wonder the two mesh so well.
My first experience at the Burn was magical, and it was so encouraging to see my passion for science shared among so many attendees. I hope to be back someday, and next time, I’ll be prepared to offer my own scientific expertise as a gift to the community.
