On October 21, famous YouTube content creator and science communicator Gue-do gave a lecture in the KI building (E4) on the topic of “Why is science communication useful?” This lecture was organized by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) under the “Wise Graduate Life” program, which invites various professors and guest speakers to share their insights to students on science, school life, and beyond. 

Gue-do, whose nickname means “orbit” in Korean, is a science communicator who co-manages a YouTube channel called “Unrealscience” with “Gong-jin”, “Yak”, and “Hang-sung”, which has over 645,000 subscribers. They create videos that introduce audiences to diverse fields of science. Their “lab meeting” videos make scientific concepts more reachable to non-experts through a lab meeting setup wherein professors or researchers who specialize in a particular field are invited for a discussion as a “lab leader”. Their “urgent science” videos entertainingly unwrap several complex science topics using trendy memes and a fast narration style. Gue-do mainly discusses topics related to physics, astronomy, and mathematics. He has also starred in other TV shows and YouTube as a science panelist.

Gue-do began his lecture by discussing the difficulties of cultivating a widespread, public culture of science, mainly attributing it to the high barriers to attaining scientific knowledge that discourage non-experts from learning about and joining scientific discussions. He also shared insights from both his professional experiences and his experience as a YouTuber. Having graduated from the Department of Astronomy at Yonsei University, Gue-do has worked for the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, where he was involved in calculating the trajectory of Phobos-Grunt, a Russian probe that failed to land on a moon of Mars and instead carried a massive amount of explosives to Earth. Although South Korea was within the expected fall range and heavy casualties could have resulted, he was shocked that the public was not aware of the issue at all. This motivated him to become the bridge between the experts and the public by explaining complex scientific concepts as simply and entertainingly as possible. Apart from professional experience, Gue-do has also had experience as a science consultant in “Potato Star 2013QR3”, a South Korean comedy sitcom that ran from 2013 to 2015 wherein an asteroid about half the size of Earth nearly crashes on Earth. Through the lecture, Gue-do encouraged the audience to grow as humble scientists who can effectively communicate scientific concepts to the public and lower the barrier to entry.