Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist

Doctor of science, filmmaker of science, and communicator of science - the one and only Petr Lebedev - takes a moment to chat with Kovi and Benjamin about AI. How AI's infiltrating our education system, the workforce, and it doesn't matter how much you thank your AI bot of choice - it's still coming for us all. Maybe. Probably not. 10%. Never mind all that - currently it's incentive is keep us super duper happy, so, you know, nothing to see here.

Are there alien civilizations out there looking for us like we're looking for them? Do they want to eat us? Meet us? Or fulfill this episode's guest's secret desire to merge into a hive mind with them? Dr. Graham Lau has watched all the 'Trek', read all the books, and talks to Kovi and Benjamin about the variety of societal and evolutionary impacts astrobiologists dream of as the result of coming into contact with another civilization.

Find Graham at : https://cosmobiota.com/ and https://www.bluemarblespace.org/affiliates/graham-lau

Follow Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

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Books mentioned on this episode:

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

Dawn by Octavia Butler

Ascent of Information by Caleb Scharf

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

The Tragic Life of Yahoo Serious : https://cosmobiota.substack.com/p/young-einstein-and-the-tragic-life

In the beginning... ...the was this huge bang from which all this ionized stuff came into the universe. Then a Recombination came along and cooled everything down and changed matter from ionized to neutral. Then the first stars and galaxies came to be, and produced enough UV light to re-ionize everything. So... Kovi and Benjamin ask the REALLY big question... How could there be an ionization before a REionization, but no combination a REcombination? Huh? Answer THAT, Dr. Jaiden Cook.

Find Jaiden at : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaiden-cook-250929115/ & https://www.atnf.csiro.au/daily-picture/2025/07/22/welcome-jaiden-cooke/

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Our very first guest and our very first return guest - Dr. Dimos Katsis - becomes our second 'third timer'. He's the principal engineer at Overview Energy - a company that's building the infrastructure to gather solar energy in space with satellites each as big as two football fields, and then beam it down to us here on Earth. To sum it up real quick... Kovi and Benjamin asked, "so, the microwave power plant from the video game Sim City 2000 is for real!?" Dimos, "yep."

Find Dimos at : https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimoskatsis/ & https://www.overviewenergy.com/

Follow Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

Follow Kovi at Fun Fact Science : https://www.funfactscience.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/funfactscience

Moondial! Get it? Like 'Mundial' but we made it say 'Moon' because we're space nerds? FIFA World Cup 2026 is over (congrats, Spain!), so get your vuvuzelas ready as Kovi and Benjamin get into some of the science behind soccer. Over time the ball was reengineered to be smoother until it actually ruined its aerodynamics, one venue is almost 1 1/2 miles above sea level where the air is 23% less dense, players lose up to 2% body mass due to sweat each game, and penalty kicks happen faster than the goalie's brain can process what's happening - so it's all chance.

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Kovi and Benjamin talk about things that explode in space. Well Kovi talks about things that explode in space, and then Benjamin says something along the lines of, "you mean like in Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country!?" Tune in and clearly see where the line's drawn between nerd and scientist. The boys talk micronovae, novae, supernovae, and 'movie physics'. (spoiler - those 'launch a nuke at it' solutions in the movies? yeah, they won't work)

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Dr. Bryan Scott's interested in principled inference and astrostatistics. His research focuses on the use of large galaxy surveys and intensity mapping experiments to constrain cosmology and astrophysics over cosmic time. His graduate work at U.C. Riverside focused on measurements of the Ultraviolet Extragalactic Background Light and on the sensitivity of future spectroscopic intensity mapping experiments to modifications of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. And he's won many certificates for his excellence in teaching all that stuff. And he loves LEGOs... And Star Trek... In this episode our nerd, Benjamin, and our scientist, Kovi, are faced with someone who's both. And did we mention he launched things into space? He's launched things into space.

Émilie du Châtelet : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89milie_du_Ch%C3%A2telet

Bryan Scott : https://github.com/bscot

Kovi Rose : https://www.facebook.com/funfactscience/

Benjamin Salles : https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

While Benjamin might be a working nerd, Kovi's a working scientist. In this episode Kovi walks us through this new thing he found, lurking out there in the universe. A rare binary star system in the Ara constellation. A 'Rosetta stone' for explaining mysterious, repeating cosmic radio pulses. You probably saw it online - it made all the news - we're talking about ASKAP J1745. Also, how does Kovi eat a sandwich?

Follow Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

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As this episode's guest, Anastasia Shavrova, explains - the road to studying and falling in love with spiders begins with hating spiders and loving ants. As Anastasia explains why some spiders' third pair of legs are very strong, Kovi and Benjamin can't help but fawn over Zilly - their guest's guest lizard.Follow us everywhere!

Follow Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

Follow Kovi at Fun Fact Science : https://www.funfactscience.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/funfactscience

...and follow Anastasia right here https://ashavrova.com/

What goes up, must come down - even if you send it up to space three times aboard a space shuttle. Just ask our latest guest, Rex Walheim, who flew on shuttle Atlantis three times - including the last shuttle flight... ...ever. Kovi and Benjamin did their very best to keep their composure as they spoke with Rex about how he became an astronaut, what it's like up there, does space really have a burnt smell!?, and just how powerful an experience being in space can be.

Follow us everywhere!

Follow Benjamin at Science, Actually : https://www.scienceactually.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/actuallyscience

Follow Kovi at Fun Fact Science : https://www.funfactscience.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/funfactscience

...and watch Rex go to space here, here, and here.