The Cosmic Shed

In a bit of a departure for the shed, today's episode comes to you courtesy of Bristol Science Film Festival.

Shed regular Ti Singh was on the panel for a special screening of the 2003 film The Core. Joining Ti were Beth Cotterell, Katie Cooper and Chris Dunford.

They split into teams to defend or destroy the film, ably hosted on the night by Robbie Kornitschky.

Bristol Science Film Festival continues until March 19th 2017.

Ti was there in his capacity as Bad Film Guru (a title, we've just given him) due to his love of Bad Films and his Bad Film Club.

Left to right: Ti, Chris, Katie and Beth.

NASA made the most stunning announcement they've made for some time when they told us they'd found seven potentially Earth-like planets orbiting the star Trappist 1, just 40 light years from Earth.

The lead scientist on the discovery was Michael Gillon. He describes the system as something straight out of science fiction so we were somewhat delighted when Michael agreed to join Andrew for a very special episode of the Cosmic Shed.

Michael tells us which science fiction he likes to chill out to and why he finds it such an inspiration for the amazing science he is doing looking for habitable exoplanets around ultracool dwarf stars in our stellar neighbourhood. He describes what we might see if we stood on the surface of one of these stunning planets and gives us a real insight into what it is to be a scientist, like him, at the forefront of discovery.

Andrew tries to excuse the lack of a Cosmic Shed episode for a few weeks by saying he's been recording episodes of the Physics World podcast. It actually turns out to be true, believe it or not and you can listen to them here. In fact, the April 2017 episode of that podcast explore the Trappist 1 planets yet further with our Andrew having his mind blown every minute or so.

As always, thank you for listening. Don't forget to give us a review over on iTunes, we'd very much appreciate that.

Rachel Ignotofsky's new book Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) from Hypatia in ancient Alexandria to modern day science like the discovery of the Higgs Boson by the team led by Sau Lan Wu.

Rachel is an illustrator, designer and author with a passion for science fiction, comics and fantasy as well as science and history.

Andrew caught up with Rachel and they talked about Rachel's work, inspiration and some of the amazing women featured in the Women in Science book.



Rachel tells Andrew about her work for Fandango.com including these infographics on the Hunger Games and The Hobbit. Click on the images to see them in full on Rachel's website

 

Andrew asks Rachel about the designs she did for this Ray Bradbury collection, sadly not for sale, and her Ecosystem infographics and, of course, her work on the Avengers infographics. Again, click on the images to see Rachel's work in its full glory on her website.

 

Buy the Women in Science book now and make your life better. Alternatively, buy 2 copies and make someone else's life better too.

As promised in our Planet Earth 2 - The Producers episode, this is Planet Earth 2 - The Science.

Steve met with Professor Rich Pancost of the Cabot Institute to discuss the Planet Earth 2 series and the science of climate change.

Is the Earth still warming? What causes the warming? Is climate change real? You know the answers really. It just depends whether you wish to deny them or not. Either way, here's the science.

You can listen to our chat with the producers of the Planet Earth 2 series here

show notes

Rich mentions Skeptical Science as a good way of learning about the real science of the climate.

The BBC's flagship Natural History Series Planet Earth 2 has broken all records. More than that; It's undyingly wonderful. As such, it was with no little excitement that Andrew, Maddy and Steve welcomed two of the show's producers into the shed for an exclusive chat. Exclusive in the sense that only 5 of us can fit in the shed. Anyone can actually listen to it here.

Emma Napper and Chadden Hunter sit back in the shed and we talk about what it takes to make such a landmark television series. We talk about that cayman, that iguana, that fieldmouse, that music...and so much more.

Did Andrew enjoy it? To quote John Motson. "Look at his face! Just look at his face!"

Our second episode Planet Earth 2 - The Science is now available here.