Catherine Heymans and Joe Zuntz

How do you make astronomy funny? Scotland's Astronomer Royal Catherine Heymans is joined by comedy partner and fellow astrophysicist Joe Zuntz to discuss dark matter jokes, why astronomers love puns, and making maps of the Universe.

Show Notes

Catherine Heymans is Scotland's Astronomer Royal and a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh. Joe Zuntz is a Reader in Astrophysics at the University Of Edinburgh. Together they perform a comedy show called The Universe: Does Anything Matter?, which is coming to the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival in 2022. In episode six of our festival podcast they talk to festival director Andrew Eaton-Lewis about the evolution of the show, from an impromptu stand-up night at an astronomy conference to the Edinburgh Fringe. They also discuss dark matter maps, diversity in the astronomy world, and their favourite space jokes.

What is Hebridean Dark Skies Festival podcast?

The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival presents a series of interviews with fascinating people from the worlds of astronomy, psychology, and the arts, exploring our festival themes of winter, darkness and the night sky. The podcasts are presented by festival director Andrew Eaton-Lewis, with sound mixed by Hamish Brown.

The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival is an ambitious annual programme of events taking place each February on the Isle of Lewis, including live music, film, visual art, theatre, astronomy talks, and stargazing. To find out more visit www.lanntair.com/darkskies.

The festival is led by An Lanntair arts centre in Stornoway in partnership with Stornoway Astronomical Society, Calanais Visitor Centre, Gallan Head Community Trust, and Lews Castle College UHI. The festival is supported by Caledonian MacBrayne, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Culture & Business Fund. For its first three years it was part-financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Outer Hebrides Leader 2014-2020 programme.