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

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

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.

Jennifer Swanson woke up one day and thought, "what have I done with my life?" So at the ripe old age of 5 (yes, FIVE), she wrote and illustrated her first book about science. Since then she didn't do much - other than graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in Chemistry, taught chemistry, got a master’s degree in K–8 Science Education, gave a Ted Talk and wrote 55 more books. Kovi and Benjamin, however, have an assortment of rubber ducks.

Follow us everywhere!

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

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

Find Jennifer here https://jenniferswansonbooks.com/

Welcome to The Nerd and The Scientist's Book Club. Today Kovi and Benjamin will be talking about Project Hail Mary. Specifically - THE BOOK - as Kovi hasn't seen the movie yet. The book does raise some interesting questions, however, like how would we go about communicating with aliens? Extreme environments where liquid water could still exist. How life might evolve on other worlds. And was it funny? (It was)

Follow us everywhere!

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

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

As they watched a jar of Nutella float by, Kovi and Benjamin knew right then and there they needed to do an episode about all the goings on aboard Artemis II. From a broken toilet to googly eyes on the CO2 scrubber to the toilet breaking again, it was quite the ride. But also all the sentiment - a message from the first astronaut to go around the Moon, a flag from Apollo 18 that never got to fly, and naming a crater after a loved one.

Follow us everywhere!

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

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

Dr. Zoe Xirocostas joins Kovi and Benjamin to talk about peer reviews, getting grants for research, the effort behind getting a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), and creating mutant super plants that can survive any habitat.

Follow us everywhere!

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

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

Find Zoe here https://zoexiro.com/