Yes, there’s protein folding as explained by puppets,

An April 25, 2019 article by Madeleine O’Keefe for BU (Boston University) Today describes both the course “Thinking through Puppets and Performing Objects: Using Theatrical Tools to Communicate the Complex, the Abstract, and the Technical” and a then upcoming Puppet Slam performance (Note: Links have been removed),

Thinking through Puppets is the brainchild of Felice Amato, a College of Fine Arts assistant professor of art education and a Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future faculty associate, and Anna Panszczyk (CAS’97), a College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program senior lecturer.

The course is part of the BU Cross-College Challenge (XCC), the Hub’s signature project-based, one-semester four-credit elective course open to juniors and seniors from all 10 undergraduate schools and colleges. It fulfills four Hub units: Creativity/Innovation, Oral Communication, Research and Information Literacy, and Teamwork/Collaboration.

Amato previously taught K-12 art in public schools and focused her doctoral work on puppetry. Panszczyk focuses on children’s literature and culture in her writing, and says she was interested in working with Amato to see how a puppet project could help students develop the aforementioned four Hub skills.

The course attracted six undergraduates, … . Suddenly, they were thrust into a world of cutting, crafting, sewing, gluing, shaping, and molding. They worked with fabric, wood, paper, everyday trash, and more—even M&Ms.

“It was definitely challenging,” Kasanaa [Vinamre Kasanaa. senior at BU] acknowledges. “Taking the leap from our passive classes, which are information-intensive—you get the information, you regurgitate it out on paper, you write, you debate—it’s all abstract.…Tapping your fingers on the screen is not a replacement for craftsmanship, where you’re using your hands. So that’s the one thing that we all were able to learn, because most of us made our own puppets and made these things by ourselves.”

An important aspect of the XCC courses is working on real-world projects with a variety of on-campus and community clients. As the culmination of Thinking through Puppets, Amato, Panszczyk, and their students produced puppet slams …

What exactly is a puppet slam? Amato defines it as “a series of short experimental pieces,” each typically about three minutes long. Puppet slams got their launch at Puppet Showplace Theater, but have become so popular that they now are held all over the world. Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson, the Emmy-winning creator of the Muppets, supports a national Puppet Slam Network.

…

Devyani Chhetri’s March 26, 2020 article for BU Hub updates the story with a description of the 2020 class’s Puppet Slam,

They say that actions speak louder than words. Nothing was more true when XCC students took the stage last Friday to reveal the anxieties of the world borne from issues such as climate change, sexual harassment and immigration— through puppets.

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In …, “Puppets against Climate Change”, two puppets are seated in a car and driving around puppet city when they ignore a sign that said ‘no dumping’ and throw trash out of the car.

With Rindner’s [Alexis Rindner, BU student] exaggerated puppet voice leaving the audience in splits, the two puppets are struck soon after by a ‘trash’ comet that decimates the puppet planet.

The humor of the moment gives way to a grim montage of a destroyed planet when the ghosts of the puppets go over the years of excesses where deforestation and pollution in the name of progress led to global warming and the puppet planet’s eventual demise.

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You can find the Puppet Slam Network here. The homepage includes a map of various Puppet Slam members.

There are three network members in Canada: Vancouver International Puppet Festival (VIPF) in British Columbia, Calgary Animated Objects Society (CAOS) in Alberta, and the Winnipeg Puppet Slam in Manitoba.

As far as I’m aware, none of the three Canadian members are focused on explicitly communicating research in the manner of the Boston University programme.