Javier Santaolalla is an engineer, he is a Doctor in Particle Physics, and is dedicated to dissemination. “I try to explain difficult science in the easiest way possible.” and is dedicated to the dissemination, communication of science and education. For years, Javier has used various channels through which he brings science closer to the general public. Santaolalla uses humor as a vehicle for outreach together with the Big Van science outreach team, through its YouTube channels Date a Volt and Date a Vlog, and writes popular books. In his own words, “I try to explain difficult science in the easiest way possible.”
“People really like mysterious questions,” acknowledges Javier. The formulas ‘what happens when …’ or ‘what happens if …’ are very successful. Questions that any curious mind may think of, that do not have an easy answer, but that Santaolalla brings us closer thanks to physics, which, in the end, is in everything that surrounds us. “The video that you have the most visits on my channel is ‘What happens if you fall into a black hole?'”, Javier acknowledges.
A good time for dark matter
We asked Javier: what scientific breakthrough would you like to see this year? And since Javier is “fed up with traveling”, he would love to see teleportation invented this year. But, more realistically, Santaolalla lands a bit more on our question, and mentions the discovery of dark matter as one of the great nearby discoveries. A subject that has been investigated for half a century, and, for Javier, is quite close to being understood by scientists.
For Javier it would be “a great thing” if traces of dark matter are produced in the Large Hadron Collider or in other experiments.
“I think it could be a good year for dark matter, let’s see if researchers around the world are lucky, and also the Spanish , there are many investigating this issue,” Javier highlights.
