Science, Actually Presents : The Nerd and the Scientist

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.

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.
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...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.
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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)
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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.
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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