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[graceoutinspace]

Hi Dr. Grace! I've been reading about the Hail Mary and was surprised to find you're doing a Q&A of sorts here. How's it treating you? Which do you dread more, the amount of work IRL or exposure to the internet? LOL

I'm curious- it seems like everything has gotten turned upside-down, which must be stressful, but in all of that- what's one pleasant surprise you've had since joining the project?

1. How's Project Hail Mary treating me? OH BOY. Listen, if nothing else, it's going. No adverbs required. There are times when I don't sleep for days because I'm too caught up in the fun of the science; there are other times where I have hour-long existential crises/breakdowns because, you know, the apocalypse; there are movie nights once in a blue moon with the crew; there are boring staff meetings and social events I'd rather skip; there are beautiful sunsets on an aircraft carrier. I don't think I can classify it as a solely good or bad experience -- it's just not dichotomous like that.

2. And, to be honest, I probably dread having to be the pro-tempore social media guy more than the workload. Science is Fun! "The Astrophage Challenge" (????) is not fun! I'm scared of it!

3. (Firstly, yes, this is just like the hit musical Hamilton: the world's turned upside down and gosh-darn it is stressful.) Honestly, despite the whole they're-eating-the-sun thing, aliens existing is/are SUPER cool! I'm a theoretical extraterrestrial molecular biologist by trade (say that five times fast), so it's no surprise that I find them cool as heck, but definitely getting to be the first guy to work with them and (by the way, not bragging at all, ahem ahem) getting to be the guy to name them was definitely a good experience -- though I'm not sure "pleasant" is the exact word.

I hope that answers your questions!! :)

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