Between Two Nerds

Athena & Raafae, aged 11, joins the nerds to have a little chat about relativity!Are space and time absolute? What is the theory of special relativity? And general relativity? How did Einstein come up with it? What is Length Contraction? What is Time Dilation? How come we don't observe all the strangeness of relativity? Can we test relativity?Another great mind-bending chat with Athena & Raafae during the lockdown!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Athena & Raafae join one of the nerds to have a chat about one of the most mysterious areas in physics... quantum mechanics!This chat was really an overview of the major ideas in the field. Quanta and photons. Wave particle duality. Matter as a wave. The Uncertainty Principle. Schrodinger's  Equation & the Wave function. The measurement problem & the Copenhagen Interpretation. Entanglement & Bell's Theorem. Hidden Variables and Many Worlds.It is near impossible for us to explore all of the mysteries of Quantum Mechanics in one sitting! But if you would like us to do more in-depth chats about more specific topics, let us know!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

The nerds debate the possibility of finding complex alien life somewhere else in the universe.We discuss the probabilities of finding extraterrestrial life elsewhere and the probability of it evolving into "intelligent life" by looking at from two viewpoints; an astrophysicist's and a biologist's.Due to the lockdown, this episode had to recorded remotely, and without our customary small human being. :(If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Raafae & Athena, both aged 11,  join the nerds remotely while we are all social distancing during the COVID 19 outbreak to talk about aliens!(Apologies for the uneven sound quality. It's the best we can do under the circumstances.)Are we alone in the universe? If no, where are the aliens? Why haven't we heard from them? What's the Fermi paradox? What type of aliens should we expect to find? Where would we find them? What's the goldilocks zone? How probable is it for intelligent life to arise on other planets?This was a stimulating discussion of all things to do with extraterrestrial life to take our mind off the uncertainty in the world at this unprecedented time.If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Oscar Blue, aged 6, returns to ask the nerds all about rainbows.How on earth do light and rain make a rainbow?! What's refraction? Can you catch a rainbow? Why are there only 7 colours in the spectrum? Can we make our own rainbows?This is a simple explanation of the physics of this beautiful phenomenon.If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

James, aged 7, asks the nerds about the speed of light.He wants to know why light is the fastest thing in the universe and we tell him all about the weirdness revealed by Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. Objects get heavier. Space shrinks. And time slows down!James also throws in a question about hair growth at the end. He has been wondering why hair grows in strange places as we get older. Oh dear.If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Muhammad, aged 8, is curious about the big bang and wants to know who discovered the Big Bang.As we discuss the contributions of Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble and how they discovered the evidence for the Big Bang theory, we end up having a great chat about astronomy in general.What can we observe through telescopes from Earth? Can we see any galaxies? What's the Hubble Space Telescope?We seem to have blown Muhammad's mind with a few of our facts too!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Hussein joins the nerds to talk about a pressing issue... the COVID-19 coronavirus!It's impossible to escape the news of the novel coronavirus outbreak, but with this, there are a lot of half "truths" and myths floating around, as well as people's feelings towards it ranging from indifference and annoyance to full-blown panic. So, we called in Hussein to help us discuss this virus outbreak that is getting ever closer to a pandemic.What is the coronavirus? What are its symptoms? Where did it come from? How did it start? Who is most affected by it? How fast is it spreading? How deadly is it? is there a cure for it? How worried should we be? What can we do to stop the spread?This video isn't meant to inspire panic! We just want to make sure everyone is well informed and taking this seriously. Hope it helps!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

In this episode, the nerds answer some of our subscribers' most pressing questions in the arena of science, with the help of Indiana, aged 9, who lent his voice and spoke for all our subscribers.What are our thoughts about the Flat Earth "theory"? Do we think aliens exist? Thoughts about the Fermi Paradox? How are auroras formed? How does anaesthesia work? Can entropy be reversed? Why do we get black when we mix red, blue and green paint but white when we do the same with light? What is music made up of and why do we enjoy it? How did mitochondria help us trace the movement of humans through history?These questions were sent to us through our YouTube channel, so if you would us to answer some of your most pressing science questions, please click the link below, hit subscribe and join the conversation. This will be the first of many such "Ask Us Anything" episodes!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Selim, aged 9, came in to ask the nerds about how nerves work, but his natural curiosity led us into a discussion of artificial intelligence, the brain, consciousness and neuroscience.How do nerves work? What are reflexes? How can someone program a computer to beat a chess grandmaster? How did Alphago beat the world's best Go player? What is machine learning? What is the central nervous system? How does the brain work? How do we know what all the different parts of the brain do? What is consciousness? Are animals conscious?Thanks to Selim, this turned out to be a great chat about intelligence in general!If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerdsAnd for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out:https://www.curiositylab.ae

Tia, aged 13, asks the nerds how much the Earth weighs and the conversation quickly leads to far more mysterious topics in astrophysics, like dark matter and dark energy. How much does the Earth weigh? What the difference between mass and weight? How can Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation help us find out the mass of distant celestial objects? How can it help us discover objects that are invisible to our eyes? What is dark matter? What is dark energy? This chat helps to illuminate the importance of math and its power in leading scientific discoveries! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae

Zaraar, aged 8, has questions about the Earth's magnetic field. Why is the Earth's magnetic field so weak, even though the Earth is so big? What causes the Earth's magnetosphere? Do other planets have magnetic fields around them? Great questions that lead to discussions about some of the quirks of our magnetic field. Like the South Atlantic Anomaly, magnetic pole reversals and the most stunning light show on the planet; aurora borealis and aurora australis. If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Ayla, aged 6, wants to know more about her favourite animal...tigers! What's the deal with tiger stripes? How do stripes help a tiger camouflage? Where would you find the most tigers in the world? Who would win in a fight, a tiger or a bear? Could you have a tiger as a pet? This little tiger is obsessed with tigers and impressed the nerds with all her tiger knowledge! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Marwan, aged 6, asks the nerds some great questions about gravity and orbits. He even throws in a random question about popcorn! Why does the Earth orbit the Sun? Why does it take a year? Why does the Sun bend spacetime? What is escape velocity? How do we predict orbits? What are eclipses? This chat is orbital mechanics 101! Oh yeah, Marwan also asked why popcorn is soft when the corn kernel is hard. A great random question to start things off! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Shehrezad, aged 11, want to know more about some of the things kids are obsessed with... Slime, Blue Tack & Oobleck! How does slime work? Why does soap dissolve blue tack? How does oobleck work? Trying to answer these questions, the nerds discuss the states of matter and molecular arrangement, adhesives and friction, non-newtonian fluids and the obsession with slime! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Athena, aged 11, wants to know if time travel is possible! We will be upfront and say that the nerds don't really have an answer to this one because there really isn't one yet. We discuss Einstein's theory of relativity and how it says that we are all travelling into the future at different rates due to time dilation. And how the bending of spacetime and wormholes may create opportunities for travel into the past, but there is probably some undiscovered law of nature, like quantum gravity, that makes it impossible. Oh, and there is no such thing as the "present"! This turned out to be a great little chat on the mysterious nature of time. If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Indiana, aged 8, ask the nerds all about human evolution! How did human beings start? Did we evolve from apes? What are the milestones in human evolution? What were the other human species? Like the Neanderthals? Why did the other species go extinct but we survived? What's so great about standing up? Why was controlling fire so important? Why are our hands so great? This is a controversial topic and we clarify a lot of misconceptions about it as we delve deep into anthropology and travel through the six million year history of human evolution! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Hussein, aged 9, ask the nerds all about DNA and genes! What is DNA? What is RNA? What is it made from? What are genes? What are chromosomes? What is a gene mutation? How can DNA be responsible for all this genetic variation we see? What is genetic engineering? We loved this chat! Hussein was an awesome guest. Genuinely curious and hilarious! And the questions came thick and fast! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Mia, aged 5, ask the nerds all about germs in this episode. Yuck! What are germs? Bacteria, viruses, fungi and protists? How do they spread and make us ill? Why do I keep getting the flu? What is our microbiome? What are good germs?  How can they keep us healthy? What are antibiotics? How was penicillin discovered? How did we discover microbes? Believe it not, even though they may be disgusting, we owe a lot to these little guys! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae 

Spatika, aged 6, gets electric with the nerds and asks them all about electricity. Who makes our electricity? How do we make it electricity? What is a generator? How does it work? How can we replace fossil fuels with renewable energy? How does solar power work? What are the challenges with solar power? One thing is for sure, it has nothing to do with hamsters running on wheels! If you would like to see what the nerds look like, check us out on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetweenTwoNerds And for more information about Curiosity Lab, how we make kids fall in love with science, check out: https://www.curiositylab.ae