The Bearded Scientist

The most enthusiastic scientist in the universe

Books, apps and digital adventures for curious minds. Everything fronted by your favourite bearded astrophysicist, and every word of it true.

The Bearded Scientist, a cartoon scientist with a large orange beard and goggles

Welcome to The Bearded Scientist, the universe's most enthusiastic astrophysicist and your guide to extraordinary science. Through beautifully illustrated books, apps and digital adventures, The Bearded Scientist makes science unforgettable: funny, factual, and perfectly pitched for curious young minds.

The First Steps series

Fill your shelves with wonder

Beautiful, factual, funny science books for children, written in the voice of the universe's most enthusiastic scientist and illustrated to be pored over.

Cover of Comets Blaze and Amaze!, a First Steps book by Tony O'Sullivan illustrated by Nathan Chitsiga

Comets Blaze and Amaze!

First Steps · Ages 5 to 10

Discover the ancient dirty snowballs of space: cosmic travellers carrying the secrets of how our world began. Written by a working scientist.

Available soon
Cover of The Solar System Is Wild and Vast, a First Steps book by Tony O'Sullivan illustrated by Nathan Chitsiga

The Solar System Is Wild and Vast

First Steps · Ages 5 to 10

Journey through our cosmic neighbourhood, from Mercury's scorching surface to the icy outer reaches of the Solar System.

Available soon

Made by

Written by Tony O'Sullivan. Illustrated by Nathan Chitsiga. Designed by Jane Gollner.

What comes next

More First Steps titles and a Bearded Scientist card game are on the way. Join the mailing list below and you will hear first.

The apps

Science that carries on at home

Out now

Science Together

One question a night. Everyone guesses. Then you talk.

Every evening, Science Together gives your family one short science question, written to be read aloud at the table. Everyone locks in a guess, the grown-up reveals the answer, and the family talks. That is the whole app. The screen is the spark; the table is the app.

  • Questions served one a night in your family's own shuffled order, never repeated
  • Written by a working scientist, with a simple answer to read aloud, a deeper layer for when they ask why, and something to try with what you already have at home
  • One family account on the grown-up's phone. No child logins, and there never will be
  • No ads, no tracking, no analytics, nothing to scroll
  • The only streak is the family streak, and it rewards talking rather than screen time

£3.99 a month or £30 a year, always starting with a free trial. The first 100 Founding Families pay £30 once and keep it for good.

Science Together showing tonight's question, ready to be read aloud at the table The Science Together family streak calendar, showing nights the family talked

Why it matters: families who talk about science at home raise children who feel science belongs to them. Not children who know more facts, children who ask better questions.

In development

What we are building next

Ask The Bearded Scientist

Ask any science question and get an extraordinary answer, in The Bearded Scientist's own voice.

Coming soon

First Steps to the Periodic Table

Every element, one curious child at a time. Built for ages 5 to 10, in the same voice as the books.

Coming soon

First Steps to Physics

Forces, light, energy and motion, explained the way a five year old deserves to hear them.

Coming soon

Follow along

@the.bearded.scientist

Extraordinary science in under a minute, most days. Facts, experiments and the occasional magnificent beard.

Every book and every subscription supports school visits

Profits from the books and the apps go back into bringing science sessions to state schools that could not otherwise fund them.

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New books, new apps, and facts that stop you in your tracks

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