Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist

How is 'qubit' pronounced? Is it 'cue-bit'? Or is it 'kwi-bit'? And what is a 'qubit' anyway? Welcome to season number 10 of The Nerd and The Scientist! Kovi and Benjamin kick things off with quantum physicist, Dr. Danni Holmes. She not only answers those qubit questions, but also sheds a little light on how Marvel movies don't get 'quantum' exactly right, how the European Robin uses quantum physics to navigate, and Santa is a positron.
She also has a new book out, Wonders of the Quantum World: Uncovering the Secrets of our Universe, Life on Earth and the Future of Technology. You should get it!
Find Danni at : https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/danni-holmes and https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-holmes-unsw/
Get Danni's book! : https://www.amazon.com/Wonders-Quantum-World-Uncovering-Technology-ebook/dp/B0GN48YKCR/ref=sr_1_1
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

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

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