How One Student is Using Music to Bridge the Gap Between Science and Art

Author: Will Isenberg

“Sometimes science is more art than science,” chemical engineer Justin Khalil ‘16 says, quoting popular cartoon Rick and Morty. For example, take Justin’s YouTube channel, Hip Science, in which one video demonstrates how to relight a candle by igniting its own smoke — art or science?

Justin’s passion is poetry. And by poetry, I mean educational rap. Justin’s Facebook page features engaging rap videos with killer background tracks about hot science topics.

Differentiating himself from other students who are simply dedicated to getting good grades and finding a good job, Justin is also interested in social impact. “For me, it’s all about inspiring people to learn to love science for themselves,” Justin explains. “I want to be way more exciting than your typical lecture, but still appropriate for college aged viewers.”

Justin developed a passion for poetry in the third grade, when he would frequently challenge and outperform fifth grade freestylers on the playground. Accompanied by his love of rap was a fascination with science, particularly high-school chemistry. But it wasn’t until his junior year at Cornell that he realized he could fuse the two into one dream.

 

“I had just given a presentation about my nanotechnology research in Austin, Texas,” he recalls. “I used the metaphor of sprinkles on a glazed donut to explain the nanoparticles. It was then that I realized, ‘hey, I like research, but I love explaining science even more.’ And that’s when it clicked.”

Since then, Justin has produced five outstanding rap videos with the help of his friends, including Cornell football team captain Rush Imhotep ‘16. The videos discuss topics from thermodynamics to skateboard physics.

“The skateboard video was the one that got me really noticed,” Justin says. “I was describing a cool, hip hobby— skateboarding— and lots of people find that relevant, so of course they’d want to hear someone rap about the science behind it!”

Hip and relevant is key, as his YouTube channel shows. With only five videos so far, Justin’s channel has already garnered 300 subscribers and 15,000 views, thanks to the desire of young Reddit-using skateboard aficionados. Even though he hasn’t made a new video in a few months, he still continues to get new views and subscribers each day.

 

With Justin’s successful Youtube channel came many exciting opportunities. He recently received the Cornell Kessler Scholarship, granted to undergraduate entrepreneurs in the School of Engineering. He also completed a summer internship with Knewton, a free online school that uses video lessons to teach 10 million children. Where does he plan on taking his skills next?

“For now, my goal is to create a community of artists, scientists, and everyday people who can connect to science on their own terms,”  Justin says. “I want to talk about Vinyl Records in my next video.”

Justin is also looking to get other Cornellians involved, particularly those with design experience who can help create graphics and a logo for his videos. He can be reached at jek327@cornell.edu.