If you stayed awake in science class as a kid, the payoff comes when you get a good laugh out of Freya McGhee's jokes. Stop me if you've heard this one before. An aspiring chemist goes to college, realizes she's not good at chemistry, and bombs her dissertation. She takes a class in standup comedy and decides the best way to talk about STEM is to make jokes at its expense. Based in London, the comedian had a strong interest in science as a kid, but after attending the University of Brighton to study chemistry, she realized that she liked learning science more than she liked applying it. Her thesis dissertation--"Synthesis of Iron Nitroxide radical species using radical derivatized ligands and its use as a single-molecule magnet"--flopped.

After generations of peering into a microscope to examine cells, scientists could simply stroll straight through one. Calling his project the "stuff of science fiction," director of the 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), John McGhee is letting people come face-to-face with a breast cancer cell. SEE ALSO: 'No Man's Sky' hack lets you travel the universe in VR Using data pulled from a high-resolution electron-microscope at the University of Queensland, the expert in CGI has recreated the cancer cell in virtual reality. McGhee told Mashable Australia his team uses Unity, the development platform for video games, to build a 3D mesh of the cell adding texture, colour, light and any effects. Putting on a HTC Vive VR headset, scientists can essentially step into the petri dish and observe nanoparticle drugs being absorbed.