Celebrities on Reddit

Katie Mack

Cosmologist and author of The End of Everything

How we know it's theirs

Her 2014 r/science AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 2 posts and 50 comments from u/astro_katie, dated 2014 to 2022, most often in r/science, r/askscience and r/space.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/askscience

On “AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Katie Mack, theoretical astrophysicist, TED Fellow, and author of The End of Everything, which describes five possible ways the universe could end. I'm here to answer questions about cosmic apocalypses, the universe in general, and writing (or tweeting) about science!”

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today! I'm writing this for my grandfather, whom I gave a copy of your book a few months back. He says and asks: I'd like her to know that I read The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) and found it to be tremendously interesting…

u/astro_katie replied

Thank you so much! :) I'm not currently working on another book. It turns out that DESTROYING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE is a very hard act to follow, and also I have a bunch of research I should catch up on…

Read all of itShow less

Thank you so much! :)

I'm not currently working on another book. It turns out that DESTROYING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE is a very hard act to follow, and also I have a bunch of research I should catch up on that I have neglected a bit recently. I have some vague thoughts about future book topics, but I haven't settled on anything yet.

As for my research -- I'm thinking about several things lately. Mostly: dark matter's possible particle physics interactions (i.e., stuff it might do other than sit there and gravitate) and how it may have impacted the first stars and galaxies in the universe; other kinds of dark matter beyond the usual suspects; and a few things connected to vacuum decay and how we might learn about it through cosmological observations. All fun stuff. :)

More moments

In a thread on r/science

I'm Dr. Katie Mack, an astrophysicist studying dark matter, black holes, and the early universe, AMA.

u/astro_katie replied

Dark matter is way less scary than angels or demons or ghosts because it can't touch you or see you.

But it is probably passing through you right now. And all the time. Your whole life. You can't escape it ever. Sorry.

A redditor wrote in r/askscience

Hello Dr. Mack! I really enjoy your work. My question is what is your favorite bad science movie? As a geologist I have a lot to pick from but the Core is probably my favorite. :)

u/astro_katie replied

Read all of itShow less

I'm going to interpret this as "favorite movie in which the science is not very accurate" and I'm going to specifically focus on movies featuring something astronomy related, so my answer to that is Sunshine. There is really no way that throwing nuclear bombs into the Sun could "restart" it, and for that matter the way the Sun is initially failing in the film isn't plausible either. BUT. It's a beautiful film! Gorgeous visuals! Great soundtrack! And the way the crew of the spaceship work together to figure out what to do and all that is very cool! And about 3/4 of the way into the film it suddenly and drastically changes genre, which is very unsettling! Also it has Cillian Murphy in it. So, really, what's not to like? It's very good. Highly recommended.