Nine contestants from the University of Otago provided their own answers to that question during the finals of a three-minute thesis contest held on campus recently.
Seventy-five postgraduate students had competed in heats throughout the university, to produce the finalists.
Six PhD candidates, joined this year for the first time by three masters students, sought to boil down to its essence and briefly discuss their research on many topics - ranging from why glowworms glow, to the philosophy of language - while about 150 people, including high school pupils, watched.
Philosophy researcher Daniel Wee Ming Kho took first prize, winning a tablet computer, as well as air travel, enabling him to represent Otago in an annual Transtasman Three Minute Thesis competition being held in Sydney next month.
Otago Graduate Research School dean Prof Rachel Spronken-Smith praised the high quality of the talks given in the annual event.