Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist

Kovi and Benjamin finally get a moment to themselves without having to entertain yet ANOTHER amazing guest. "What should we talk about, Kovi," Benjamin asked. "Bugs," Kovi snapped back. He wasn't serious, but Benjamin was. So now we have an episode about bugs in space - both living critters brought up for experiments, or software bugs that either almost, or did, bring on an early end to many a mission.

Benjamin was crushed when he learned that 'starquakes' weren't actual ground-shaking events on a star's surface that shook little star buildings and cracked little star roads. Kovi's colleague, astroseismologist Courtney Crawford, explains how asteroseismology is the study of stellar oscillations - rhythmic pulsations in a star's brightness - that help astronomers understand a star's internal structure, composition and rotation. Courtney wanted to be a butterfly until she watched MythBusters - and that set her down the path to talking to us about starquakes.

We like big shuttles and we cannot lie... Kovi and Benjamin double up their guest payload this episode, as they speak with space historians and authors Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III. Emily and Bruce just released their new book 'Star Bound' about the evolution of the space program - from the very first person to build a little rocket all the way to astronauts today. They share how their experience brought them together, what inspired their book, and the awesome things we've done - and will soon do - in space.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Kovi laughed as Benjamin's mind was blown when hearing this knowledge nugget from this week's guest, researcher for the SETI Institute, Dr. Chenoa Tremblay. Who, you asked? Let's put it this way - if there are alien civilizations out there, Chenoa is the person who's going to find it. Seriously. Name a radio telescope - chances are she's used it to look for life, or signs of life, out there in the cosmos. Join us as we discuss biosignatures, technosignatures, and strong opinions on pizza.

Before we could even press record, astrobiologist Dr. Graham Lau was already explaining to Kovi and Benjamin how advanced alien civilizations have already discovered, and been taken over by, their own version of AI - and they're coming to get us. If that's not a reason to give this episode a listen we don't know what is. Tune in to our milestone 50th episode as the gang discusses possible life on other worlds, what they need to evolve, how we can detect them, is there possible extraterrestrial life in our own Solar System, and more.

Kovi got an astrophysics degree because he wanted to do astrophysics and then just kind of fell into this SciComm game. Benjamin got a film degree because he wanted to do film and then just kind of fell into this SciComm game. This week's guest, Rayner the Explainer, got both science AND arts degrees (at the same time!) specifically for SciComm, and has dazzled and sparkled her way across the scicommverse with no signs of slowing down. Join the boys as they talk to Rachel about her science comedy shows, science poetry, and her unique disco-ball-eqsue style of science communication.

From record-breaking rockets to stranded astronauts, 2024 was one hell of a year for space exploration. In this episode, Kovi and Benjamin take a look back at the most exciting, bizarre, and groundbreaking moments in space science and technology. They break down SpaceX's relentless launch streak and Starship's ambitious test flights, Boeing's Starliner drama, two astronauts' unexpected extended stay in orbit, new missions to explore our universe, a solar eclipse, deep space discoveries, private space milestones, and more!

In 2022 the Space Case Sarah Show was already quite the popular podcast, and Sarah knew if she wanted it to reach levels of awesomeness that broke the Karman Line there was only one thing she could do. She brought on Kovi and Benjamin to give her show that extra boost of science knowledge and whatever it is Benjamin does. Sadly the show ended in 2023, but that was a good thing. It brought The Nerd and The Scientist to life, and gave Sarah the room she needed to explore, learn, teach, get closer to that PhD, and open doors she never knew existed. Join us as we get the band back together and pick up where space case left off.

Kovi brings science to the troops - scout troops, that is! Ever wondered why Pluto got kicked out of the planet club? Or how close we are to mining asteroids like sci-fi heroes? In our latest episode, Kovi takes on the cosmos in a special scout-led Q&A with Boy Scout troops 175 and 4175 from Foster City, California. From what makes a radio telescope work to escaping black holes, no question is too big—or too out there. Tune in for thoughtful answers, surprising insights, and plenty of curiosity.

This week's guest, Rowina Nathan, joins Kovi and Benjamin to talk about pulsar timing, the gravitational wave background, and what it means to be the Pink Astrophysicist! While there are many pulsars to work with, she only works with 'the best ones' - some of them, well, they have quirky personalities that make them difficult to work with. What led Rowina to study gravitational waves? Why does she find pulsar timing more elegant than blackhole collision nonsense? What's her favorite flavor of nuclear pasta? Tune in!

Our first ever guest returns and becomes our first return guest! Dr. Dimos Katsis is back, and this time he's talking about Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket which is planning on launching for the first time ever next month, December 2024. New Glenn is so big, it can fit Blue Origin's current rocket - the New Shepard - inside its payload. New Glenn's never flown before, never tested multiple stages before, never tested it fairings before, never launched a satellite before, and never used explosive-launched harpoons to help land its insanely massive first stage on a boat. That's right - harpoons. Join Kovi and Benjamin for the ride as they learn about - quite literally - the next very big thing in space.

During their last Standard Model episode Kovi said, "we really need to get an expert to talk about this." So they did! This week's guest is Ciaran O'Hare - an ARC DECRA fellow at the University of Sydney. He works on aspects of dark matter particle physics and astrophysics, including direct detection, axions, and dark matter halo models. Although Kovi and Benjamin pretty much wrapped up all you need to know about the Standard Model and quarks and neutrinos in their last episode - they thought maybe this guy could help a little. Fun sidenote : in this episode you can actually hear Benjamin's mind explode.

Episode 42 - the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Well, we don't actually have that answer just yet - but we're working on it - and the best we have thus far is the Standard Model. In this episode Kovi and Benjamin talk about the fundamental building blocks of matter, electromagnetism, the strong force, the weak force, why gravity's such a jerk it can't be worked into the Standard Model, and Kovi makes the decades long process of learning, researching, creating theories, getting a massive bathtub built inside a mountain, and making a new discovery seem very simple.

Time goes by fast when you're having fun - just like this episode! This episode goes by fast as Kovi and Benjamin have fun talking about the fastest things in the universe! Hypervelocity stars, the solar wind, supernova ejecta, fast radio bursts, neutrinos and more. They even cover the fastest manmade objects - both on purpose and by accident - and the fastest crewed vehicle in history.

Both science and art rely on imagination and creativity to explore new ideas, solve problems, and innovate. Art helps make abstract or complex scientific concepts more accessible through visual representation (e.g., illustrations, diagrams, models). In Kovi's and Benjamin's 40th EPISODE of the Nerd and the Scientist, they talk about different way scientific theories and information is presented to the general public in a variety of ways - from data plots to paintings, from sculptures to video games, and more.

Kovi and Benjamin like the superheroes, too! Comic books aren't exactly where one would go to learn science, but - believe it or not - a great many times they get the science right! The Flash felt more and more tired and leaded the closer he got to the speed of light. The tensile strength of Spider-Man's webbing is about 1,000 megapascals - close to the 1,200 megapascal tensile strength of an actual spider. Energy cannot be destroyed, only converted into some other form - as demonstrated by Thor's hammer hitting Captain America's shield, creating light, heat, and a shockwave. Apart from the power source, Iron Man's suit is pretty close to possible given today's technology. And don't get us started on The Atom 'picking up' a piece of white dwarf star in order to make the device needed to give him his powers.

Stars are so hot right now. Annie Jump Cannon, Henriette Leavitt, Antonia Maury, Florence Cushman, Cecilia Payne and others began cataloging and manually classifying stars in the late 1800's - over 350,000 of them. During that time, two astronomers simultaneously discovered a pattern in all that data. Between 1911 and 1913, Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung and American astronomer Henry Norris Russel plotted the stars recorded by Cannon and her team, and placed them on a diagram - the axes of which were the spectral classes devised by Cannon on one side, and their luminosity on the other. The diagram beautiful illustrated that in the randomness of the stars observed in the universe there is a clear pattern into which all stars fall. The diagram helps bring understanding to the temperatures and colors, brightness, sizes, and even the ages and lifecycles of the stars. Over 100 years later the diagram still holds true, and is a tool used in science today.

This episode's guest, teacher and science communicator Janet Ivey-Duesnsing from Janet's Planet, has Kovi and Benjamin traveling at the speed of thought! Listen in as Janet shares her journey from music, to science, to sparking an interest in science in thousands upon thousands of kids around the world.

Kovi and Benjamin talk about stars and planets and galaxies all the time on this show - but how do we see them? In this episode the lads discuss the evolution of the telescope - from the first lenses thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, to the curiosities of eyeglass makers in the 13th-16th centuries, to some tourist in Venice in 1609 who saw a spyglass and thought he could make a better one. That tourist was Galileo Galilei, and after he turned his own hand-made telescope skyward, word spread like wildfire. Then there were reflecting telescopes and refracting telescopes, and after a long while radio telescopes and telescopes in space!

Executive Director of the Israel Space Forum, Space Mission Manager for the Rakia Mission, SpaceLab mentor and Flight Operations Manager for the Ramon Foundation, and Stargate SG-1 fanatic, Melody Korman, took time out of her ridiculously busy (and all-things-space packed) schedule to talk to Kovi and Benjamin about just some of the things she's done. From helping kids get their science experiments to space, to being the one who tells astronauts what to do, these are the things Melody calls fun.

Blazars are just quasars that are pointed at us? That's it? Yep, that's it according to our guest, PhD candidate Emily Kerrison, in our latest, 'scintillating' episode. Do you mean 'scintillating' as in 'radio scintillation'? The same! Joining us from the University of Sydney, Australia, Emily tells Kovi and Benjamin the ins and outs of AGNs (Active Galactic Nuclei). Quasars, blazars, and BL Lac objects - oh my!

In talking about the show one day, Benjamin told Kovi a corny space pun. Kovi chuckled and told another one to Benjamin. "We should make an episode entirely us telling bad jokes!" they said to each other - and here we are. This week Kovi and Benjamin tickle your funny bone and tackle your patience as they share some of the worst space jokes in the universe. Buckle up, because these jokes are light-years from funny. Join us for an episode that's guaranteed to make you groan, cringe, and possibly question your life choices.

Things get messy-ier in this episode as Kovi and Benjamin discuss Messier Objects, supernova remnants, nebulae, and stellar nurseries where stars are born. Tycho's Supernova is just as spectacular as the golden nose of the man who discovered it, there's a Jewel Box out there just as sparkly as the jewel boxes here on Earth, and before you Google 'Trumpler', be sure to add a 14 to it if you want to see something absolutely beautiful tucked away in the Carina Nebula.

Kovi and Benjamin get all wibbly-wobbly as they talk about the timey-wimey scifi gadgets in scifi films and shows. Independence Day, Doctor Who, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. We don't have a sonic screwdriver just yet - but we're getting there, the HAL 900 was, basically, Siri and AI all wrapped up with a thirst for murder, and that goodness our phones can translate just about anything without the need of squeezing a Babel fish in our ears.

The science between the science! Kovi put on his special science goggles as he and Benjamin discussed the Interstellar Medium (ISM). The space between the stars is massive - but not empty! Going back to the 1860's we began to learn there's something out there, in 1904 we confirmed it, and since 1909 we learned that there's gas, dust, cosmic rays, shock-heating from supernovae, nebluae and more. Where does a nebula end and interstellar space begin? What IS a nebula? Join the nerd and the scientist is they wrap up their third season (their 30th episode!) with some learnin' and laughin'!

Astronauts go to space. Space tourists go to space. So... What's the difference? Kovi and Benjamin have a conversation this episode about when space travel switched from only sending the best of the best military trained and/or highly science educated into space to just sending anyone who could afford a ticket. A space traveler was once a young, healthy, heavily trained person who's been pushed to the physical limits in preparation for a solo flight. Nowadays anyone can go, old or young, as part of a crew just for the fun of it. Will Shatner's overview effect was a beautiful thing to watch, and so long and thanks for all the fish.

Ever since we've been sending spacecraft out into the universe, we've sent little bits of cargo with them. Be it for hope and optimism, the preservation of our culture, or an olive branch of sorts to whomever might find it drifting out there in space, human beings have long been fans of the ultimate messages in a bottle. From the famous golden records on Voyagers 1 and 2, to an astronomer's ashes speeding past Pluto, Kovi and Benjamin take a look at messages humans have sent to space and are planning to send to space. And if you're planning a trip to Mars, watch out for Elon's car.

Transits and microlensing and radial velocity - oh my! Are there other civilizations out there? Maybe. What there's definitely a ton of beyond our Solar System are other worlds. This week Kovi and Benjamin talk about exoplanets - from the beginning of how we first began discovering them in the 90's, to today where we not only have a catalog of thousands of exoplanets, but we know their sizes, masses, atmospheres, and have even snapped a photo of a few.

This week Kovi and Benjamin discuss the aurorae many of us witnessed last week as a result of a particularly large solar storm. ...and not just that! They also go on to discuss how aurorae are formed, why the northern and southern lights are different, what they look like on other worlds, and mention that even some brown and red dwarf stars that have aurorae. They even discuss the proper pluralization of aurora ... aurorae. Trust us - it gets nuts.

Getting things to space is relatively easy - just hop on a rocket - but still somewhat expensive. Once in space getting from place to place is hard - once you've launched you're either going into orbit and staying there, or on your way to a far away destination - and takes a very long time. What can we do to make space travel quicker and cheaper, can we speed up communication with these far away places, and is that a giant dinner plate standing in the desert? Kovi and Benjamin answer all these questions - and talk about their dogs - in this episode.

We want to wish a Happy Passover to all of our listeners who celebrate, and in that spirit this week we're talking about things that are 'passing over' us! Get it? Passover? Passing over? Trust us, it's funny. Don't touch that dial, as Kovi and Benjamin discuss all the different altitudes and orbital zones in which things actually do pass over us - from satellites to space stations, comets to asteroids, and a mind altering, life changing experience Kovi had in Texas.

At last, Kovi and Benjamin meet again for the first time for the last time. It is a period of science skepticism in the world. A fledgling podcast, recording from a hidden location, had just finished their second season. During the recording, the podcasters kept quiet so as not to be discovered until they met the ultimate nerd, the first person to BUY THEIR T-SHIRT - a comfortable, all cotton garment powerful enough to have a rubber duck on it. With onlookers getting suspicious, and even beginning to laugh, they kept their recording brief and then raced home aboard their spaceship - custodians of the stolen plans that can save the galaxy...

Benjamin used to be super impressed with Kovi's profession, but when he learned that back in 1937 all you needed was some wood, piece of sheet metal, and a few parts from a broken down Model T... eh, now, not so much. Tune is as Kovi talks shop - we learn about the accidental invention of radio astronomy, how insanely big radio telescopes can be and how they work, and some incredible discoveries they've made along the way.

Kovi and Benjamin kick off season three of The Nerd and the Scientist with an episode about water worlds. Tune in as they discuss many of the worlds we know have water, and worlds for which the data suggests they have water - regardless of said worlds' Kevin Costner content (KCC).

There are so many things in our day-to-day lives that we take for granted that got their start as part of humanity's greatest endeavor - exploring the universe. Before memory foam mattresses carried you off to sleep, they were the lining of pilot seats for NASA's jet planes and even the space shuttle, the best Speedo bathing suit got its start in a wind tunnel, and the jaws of life that firefighters might use to open wrecked car doors first were used separating spacecraft. Join Kovi and Benjamin as they talk about how space inventions help us down here on Earth.

There are so many things in our day-to-day lives that we take for granted that got their start as part of humanity's greatest endeavor - exploring the universe. The first, true laptop computer flew on the space shuttle, the first Bowflex helped astronauts keep in shape on the ISS, thin foil blankets often seen at the end of marathons were first used as lining on spacecraft. Join Kovi and Benjamin as they talk about how space inventions help us down here on Earth.

Set phasers to science! You know that cellphone in your hand? You can thank Star Trek for that. Medical diagnosis equipment at the hospital? Thank Star Trek. Beaming? Yeah, it works. Right now. Here in the real world. Who ya' gonna' thank? That's right - Star Trek? Join Kovi and Benjamin as they talk about Star Trek's contributions to science, and how many Riker's is enough.

Are Kovi and Benjamin neuroscientists? NOPE! ...but they think a lot, and got to thinking about thinking, which gave them a thought, "let's talk about thinking!" Join the lads from Fun Fact Science and Science Actually as they figure out how our noodle noodles.

What came first - black holes or the galaxies? Find out as Kovi and Benjamin are joined by Dr. Markus Mosbech, and discuss cosmology, astroparticle physics, and possible death and serious injury caused by dark matter.

How far away are things in space? A parsec is a measurement of distance - not time - unless you're Han Solo. Eight Taylor Swifts flew by Earth the other day - or were those alpacas? Kovi and Benjamin make their way through all that madness just to talk about the Kessler Syndrome - aka space junk.

Will the luna-cy ever stop? Get it? Luna? Moon? Hello? Holy smokes Kovi and Benjamin think they're funny - and they're in love with the Moon! It's the biggest and most familiar object in the sky after the Sun, and we've been sending landers and rovers and robots and people there since the 1950's - and next month, Canada's sending a meme.

Kovi and Benjamin are joined by their very first guest, Dr. Dimos Katsis - former Blue Origin rocketologist, clean energy aficionado, and cohost of the LuxeSci podcast. We discuss Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, the science learned from it that can help future explorers on the Moon, and the New Glenn that'll get us there.

Purely by coincidence, the second episode of the first season and this episode - the second episode of the second season - are about how we classify things in space! Benjamin is, shall we say, just a little obsessed about how scientists categorize stars, planets, nebulae, black holes and quasars - and he asks Kovi to explain it all in a kind of quasi-quiz/Q&A conversation. Say it three times fast, "Chthonian..."

The first episode of our second season! The second episode of a two-parter! Kovi and Benjamin dive once again into some of science's weirdest NOPE's and mull over spacecraft crashing into our planet, storms on Saturn caused by aliens, and all the doomsday predictions that have come and gone without a doomsday happening.

In the beginning there was only ice! (say Welteislehre three times fast!) Venus was comet before it was a planet! The Moon doesn't turn! Bigfoot seen on Mars! Kovi and Benjamin discuss some of science's biggest NOPE's.

From ancient stone calendars to the cosmic calendar, can Kovi and Benjamin cram 10,000 years of humans documenting the seasons and the passage of time into 30 minutes? NOPE! They do try - and made up two commercials - so buckle up.

Saturn's rings are the biggest in the Solar System, but not the only ones? Stars don't twinkle? Mercury's the closest planet to our Sun, but has glaciers? What the what? Listen to part two of Kovi and Benjamin's debunking space myths extravaganza!

Black holes don't suck, the Sun is not on fire, and the Moon doesn't have a dark side - just a plain 'ol boring 'far side'. Join Kovi and Benjamin for part one of a two part series where they share and debunk some common myths and misconceptions about space - even if it did look cool in Star Wars.

Taurus the cockatoo? Scorpio the ostrich? Perseus the elk? Orion the baby buffalo? Leo the horse? We're familiar with the modern, western names of the constellations, but there have been countless cultures over thousands of years putting their unique stories on the same stars. This week Kovi and Benjamin discuss the emus, lost men, grills for cooking fish, and blue women that other civilizations saw in the night sky.

Kovi and Benjamin had every intention to speak about what makes for good seeing (clear skies, low light pollution, and little atmospheric turbulence) - and eventually did - but spoke about the Voyager spacecraft's famous Pale Blue Dot photo for a bit first.

Kovi and Benjamin bumble their way through an episode about asteroids, a nameless astrophysicist, and the Beatles. And what's the deal with M-class? M-class asteroids, and M-class stars, and M-class Star Trek things - we should call it mmm-class...