Did you know that our galaxy contains natural alcohol — not in bottles, but in vast clouds of gas and dust between the stars? In this episode, Karolina speaks with Dr. Beatrice Kulterer, an astrochemist who studies how these complex molecules form and what they reveal about the chemistry of life in the cosmos.

It’s a conversation about curiosity, the invisible connections between space and life, and how something as simple as alcohol can tell the story of our galaxy.

Formation of the Galaxies with Dr. Kaley Brauer explores how scientists use the world’s most powerful supercomputers to simulate the birth and evolution of galaxies. Together, we dive into the creation of “fake universes” — sophisticated numerical models that test our understanding of gravity, gas dynamics, dark matter, and star formation. These cosmic simulations allow researchers to rewind time and uncover how massive galaxies like the Milky Way emerged from the early universe.
Dr. Kaley Brauer is an astrophysicist and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She studies galaxy formation and evolution using cosmological simulations, exploring how stars, gas, and metals interact to build the complex structures of our universe.

Karolina welcomes Dr. Romy Rodríguez Martínez, an astrophysicist and Future Faculty Leaders Fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Romy’s research focuses on the discovery and characterization of small, potentially habitable exoplanets, and on how the chemistry of stars influences the planets that form around them.

In this episode, they explore the cutting-edge techniques used to detect exoplanets, the challenges of measuring their composition, and what these distant worlds can tell us about the possibility of life beyond Earth.