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.
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49:32
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Pulsar : Guest : Rowina Nathan
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!
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49:55
We’re Gonna' Need A Bigger Rocket : Guest : Dimos
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.
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58:03
Bah Bah Black Hole Have You Any Mass : Guest : Ciaran O'Hare
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.
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51:48
Episode 42 - Life, the Universe, and Everything : Standard Model
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.
Brasil