Alba Moreno is 22 years old, she is from Alcalá de Guadaíra, a municipality just ten minutes from Seville, and she has become a social media phenomenon: she has conquered the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of young Spaniards by talking about science. She is studying the third year of her Physics degree at UNED, but her passion for the discipline is born from an inescapable love, above an academic interest. “Since I was conscious I have liked the universe and the stars. When she was little she pointed to the sky all the time and she told my mother: 'That's for me. I don't know what it is, but I like it,” she says. She was referring to astrophysics, but neither she nor her mother knew that yet.
Moreno explains concepts of thermodynamics, optics and quantum physics with a more accessible language than that of textbooks, in short videos that he publishes on social networks. His naturalness, the hours of work he dedicates to each publication, the care he puts into editing the videos and an aesthetic that destroys any prejudice What remains to be resolved for Generation Z has made it one of the most prominent science communicators in the country and a star of the moment on the Internet.
Moreno's publications exude naturalness and freshness, just like her personality, although she assures that she is rather shy and that talking about physics on social networks arose from a necessity. “Physics is my passion. I have always been the typical bore who wanted to talk a lot about physics, and it got to the point where I felt sorry for my friends. I recognize that it is a heavy topic. When I entered the race, I thought everyone was going to be just like me, freaking out about talking about news or books. But I didn't find that. So I created the account to see if I could find people like me to talk to,” she recalls.
At the moment he has found, without expecting it, a million followers On Instagram and half a million on TikTok who closely follow their publications. In the comments, young people and adolescents comment on them and discuss them as they would with those of a influencerwith the particularity that Moreno barely has haters: People listen to her entire videos, ask for more, analyze the concepts, praise her, call her “queen” and claim to do school projects about her.
Regarding the keys to her success and why she believes the audience connects with her in such a visceral way, Moreno has three answers. The first, that its content is attractive to all audiences because it arises from everyday life. For example, from a plate of macaroni you come up with an explanation for the turbulence in an airplane. The second response, the use of accessible language: “I am not going to change the way I express myself. If I have to explain a physics topic to you and I want it to reach you, to understand it, I have to do it in the way we feel comfortable. My information is just as valid, even if it uses common expressions and not just technicalities.” Finally, she acknowledges that her urban aesthetic, far from the typical imagination of a scientist in the laboratory, has helped her engage the public.
Moreno sports a kind of style raxet, now in fashion, normally associated with neighborhood girls: almost mile-long hair, stretched pigtails, long nails, tattoos, low-rise pants and tight tops. “I love nails, makeup, looking for different inspirations. “It blows my mind,” he clarifies before assuring that, if he had not studied physics, he would have studied something related to aesthetics. “It catches people's attention. “I have also had prejudices throughout my life that a person with my aesthetics could be studying physics and could be just as valid as the typical man who studies physics, with a bathrobe and glasses.”
Behind each of his videos there are hours of work. “When preparing a topic I study everything. To be able to explain it you have to know it perfectly. If not, it is impossible to summarize it,” she argues. Moreno pulls papers scientists, information in books that he reads for pleasure and content that he studies in class. “But the time she dedicates to each publication changes. Whenever I make a black hole video it's fast. I record directly, because I have been reading about them since I was a child. Now, if I make a video about something I haven't touched much on, like electromagnetism, for example, I can spend a whole day researching it. The next day I write the script and then record it. I repeat many takes. And then I edit it, which takes me an hour and a half or so,” she says. The most complicated part of the process, she says, is condensing all the information. “There are things that simply cannot be summarized in a minute.”
Moreno is just as methodical in her studies, to the point of having repeated a subject that she has already studied and passed, but that she has not understood. “It's just that I am also very picky [exigente] with that. I need to understand things so I can move on, you know? Even if I pass a subject, if I feel like I haven't understood it, I do it again. I take away all rights to scholarships, for example. And I always have to work hard to pay for college and it's a pain, but I can't study a topic that I don't understand and then move on to the next one as if nothing had happened,” she says.
He studied the second year of physics at the University of Córdoba, but the daily round trip transportation was too heavy for him, and now he is finishing his degree remotely, at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). Furthermore, he is overwhelmed by large cities and prefers to stay in Alcalá de Guadaíra. “I really am a super-townie,” she points out. Additionally, she prefers the time management that distance learning offers. She gets up, studies for a few hours, gives private lessons — “I can't leave them, they are my children” — and spends another time preparing the videos. Until eight in the afternoon. At eight it is time for the street and friends: “I don't really like university life, having to go to classes every day, having so many people. “I prefer to study at home, to have my own rhythm.”
Moreno's life was changed by the launch last October of the Miura I rocket, manufactured by the Spanish company PLD Space. He took the car and went to Huelva so he could see it from the beach in the wee hours of the morning. “I saw it live and that was crazy. In other words, from that moment on I am a different person.” His enthusiasm for physics transcends the screen through which he gives this interview to EL PAÍS. He has Stephen Hawking's face tattooed, although he has many more references. “My favorites are Jocelyn Bell, Vera Rubin. Those are my idols. Rosalind Franklin too,” he adds.
There is everything, old and young, but those who interact the most with its content are girls who are passionate about science like she was, who approach Moreno to ask for advice about their university and work careers, dominated by a strong male presence. “They talk to me a lot and it makes me very excited. It is a lot of responsibility, but I understand it because when I entered I was also afraid. I have always lacked female references in books, at school, at university and everywhere. That's why I encourage them, I try to make them see that there is no impediment.”
Not all of his social media journey has been in good taste. When she started spreading the word, most people only talked about her looks. “Before opening my account she was very innocent, she thought that the issue of prejudice was not so up to date, that it had gone out of fashion. I felt super disappointed, because I was working on topics that were the last thing people cared about,” she laments. They have also judged her accent. “Honestly, at first it affected me a lot. Now I don't care. I am not going to neutralize my accent so that you believe that what I tell you is more true. I also don't think I have to make twice as much effort as another person who acts as established to prove that I am valid. “No one should have to change the way they are, dress or express themselves to pursue what they want, as long as they are not disrespecting anyone.”
He will continue with the videos and wants to finish his degree in a couple of years to be able to dedicate himself professionally to research, although the lack of funding in Spain discourages him. He maintains the illusion, of course, of working at PLD Space and participating in the launch of a future Miura X. “That would be incredible, imagine. My dream since I was a child.”
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