Many might consider astronomy to be a knowledge that is difficult to access, beyond the pictures that some remember having read in their elementary school days. But characters like Patrick Zain (35) seem to shoulder the mission of making the difficult easy: that is, spreading the word. Zain is a Doctor in Astronomy, professor and researcher at the Faculty of Astronomical and Geophysical Sciences of the National University of La Plata.
In his videos on social networks and on his YouTube channel, he tries to explain with humor and a little self-confidence why the universe is so fascinating. Always dressed in black — an emblem of his love for heavy metal — and almost always wearing his LGBT Pride bracelet, Zain mocks every time a news item states that a meteorite will wipe out life on the planet, accompanied by his cat. , “The Lady”, as he calls her.
Zain just posted “A Tour of the Solar System” (Aguilar), a book where planets, asteroids and related topics are explained in an entertaining and fun way, with pop references to series, movies and bands. There it is explained why Mercury is “the most metal planet”, or why almost nothing is known about Uranus, despite the fact that so many songs have been dedicated to it, such as “Rocket to Uranus”, by the Venga Boys.
The astronomer is also the son of writers: his mother is Mirta Hortaspassed away in November, and her father is the author and political analyst Jorge Asisquite a character in the Argentine media.
News: How is the publication of your first book going?
Patrick Zaín: At first it was weird when I started seeing it in bookstores. And when I received it, I was still dealing with the subject of my mother, who passed away in November, and my head was still very hooked on that subject. And the book completely ripped me out of all that feeling, which was very good.
News: He comes from a family of writers. Is there any of that that you sucked on?
Zayn: Not really. And I don’t know if I consider myself a “writer”, even though I have published a book. Also, my parents were novelists, and my thing is disclosure. I don’t know if I will have features of my parents in writing. I do believe that I inherited the eccentric part of my personality from my old man, I have no doubt about that. But something about this that was crazy is that I presented my book in Palermo in a place that was the same place where my mother presented “Punta raza”, her third novel, which was something really exciting.
News: Have you read their work?
Zayn: I read something of both, but not the complete work. As for my old man, what happens to me is that the times I tried I detected certain autobiographical things, fiction mixed with reality and I kept wondering if certain things had happened or not, and I entered a state of “less God find out and forgive” (laughs).
News: In the prologue he says that at first he was not interested in science, but rather in journalism. And he criticizes the way in which journalism communicates science news.
Zain: My criticism points to the fact that there are not many journalists specialized in scienceIn other words, they know how to interpret science news. And there is always some news of an asteroid that passes nearby and is going to hit us. And there is a kind of domino effect, that some journalist somewhere in the world writes an article saying that an asteroid the size of the pyramid of Giza is going to hit us and that the apocalypse is going to come, and it is replicated without any kind of criticism, analysis or verification. And so fake news ends up going viral.
News: Is it appealing to a certain fatalism?
Zayn: Yeah! They don’t just say “it’s going to shock us”. They load it. I remember a news item from a few years ago that was titled “The killer asteroid”. And the news was not that the asteroid was going to kill us, but that it was going to pass close by. One more of hundreds of thousands that pass by periodically. It is precisely sometimes that I am consulted by the media to deal with these issues.
News: He is also a YouTuber.
Zayn: Yes, that was born in the pandemic. I started producing videos on these topics. Right now the channel is not active, but the other day I was in the dietetics buying my vegetarian things and someone greeted me and said “you’re the one from the astronomy videos”.
News: How long have you been a vegetarian?
Zayn: A year ago. Mainly for an environmental issue, to reduce carbon gas emissions. Much of what we know about Earth comes from studying other planets. And the emblematic example of what can cause global warming is Venus: its atmosphere is almost all carbon dioxide. TOOther than that, it’s much cheaper. That myth that being a vegetarian is expensive is ridiculous.
News: Much of his style to communicate is full of pop references to music, series, and he explains with a lot of humor. Is it his personality or a style that she built over time?
Zayn: People who know me tell me that they read the book listening to my voice. This is not “a popular book” where you have the solemn scientist. I don’t tell the story of the solar system as if I were teaching a class, but rather as if I were getting together with some friends to talk about Venus over drinks. In this book, in addition to talking about science, there are all my tastes. I really like music, particularly pop and metal —I’ve been a metalhead since I was twelve, and I’m also gay, so: pop. And within pop culture there are many references to disseminate knowledge. I could tell you about the conditions of the surface and atmosphere of Venus. But we have Lady Gaga who on the album “Artpop” has a great song called “Venus” where the lyrics say “we are going to the planet Venus”. And I’m talking about Venus, which is associated with the goddess of love, but it’s the most toxic planet in the solar system, so it’s a toxic love. And then I tell you that if Lady Gaga could go to Venus, at the touch she would be crushed by the atmosphere, she would suffocate due to the amount of carbon dioxide, she would die incinerated due to the high temperature, etc.
News: In the book he makes fun of astrologers and flat earthers with a very acid humor. Are you worried that a reader who believes in such things might be offended?
Zayn: Whether they get angry or not is the least of my worries (laughs). I don’t believe in astrology, but I don’t hate it either, in fact I have a sister who is an astrologer. But I am an atheist and a scientist, and astrology is similar to a religion. There are people who attribute supposed catastrophes to what happens with Mercury’s orbit, “Mercury retrograde” and all that.
News: And what is it like to be the son of someone who appeals so much to Chinese astrology in his political analysis?
Zain: We don’t fight about those things. We have dialogues of father, sons, brothers. We love each other very much, but they know that I am the scientific sheep of the family. Maybe when I was more stupid it was a little more spicy, but hey, now I’m 35.
News: You can tell that he has a strong bond with music.
Zayn: Yes, I was always linked. I started studying piano at the age of fifteen, I was in Iron Maiden tribute bands, I composed music during my teens, I played live as a keyboardist during my degree. Then it was left a bit to one side.
News: And what is the next step after the book?
Zayn: I continue doing research and teaching, there is nothing planned. The book has some walking to do, but there is nothing planned on whether or not it will have a second part. I guess I’m always going to do disclosure in whatever format it is. Many people tell me that I am “the Argentine Carl Sagan” and some tell me that I am “the Carl Sagan trolo”. It would be nice to do a “Cosmos” but Argentina.
News: And a gay “Cosmos”?
Zayn: Well, if I’m involved in a project, there will be a gay component. In the book I mention Britney, Madonna, Spice Girls…
News: Do you consider yourself a “militant” person in that sense?
Zayn: I don’t know if exactly militant. Yes, at the time I was an activist for equal marriage in 2010. But it is important that LGBT people show up and occupy spaces of visibility. TOl closet we will never come back.
News: Was everything okay in your family with your sexuality?
Zayn: Yes. Maybe when he first came out of the closet it took a while but now everything is super good. In fact, many times my old man asks me “are you with someone, do you have a boyfriend?” Or when we go to lunch and he sees that I was looking at where there is a man, he laughs and asks me, “you like that one, don’t you?”
