Tim Blais

Tim Blais is a Canadian science communicator. He explains scientific topics via writing and performing a capella parodies of popular music which he records and posts on his YouTube channel, A Capella Science.

Early life and education Blais was born in Hudson, Quebec. Blais states that he comes from an "incredibly musical" family. His mother leads a church choir; Blais joined the choir when he was three. He also plays drums, piano, and stringed instruments including guitar. from McGill.

Career Blais created his first parody video in 2012, motivated by a desire to help people understand the world around them. He was also inspired by the group The Maccabeats, an a cappella group that sings parodies of songs with replacement lyrics about Jewish themes.

Blais' first video parody was "Rolling in the Higgs", based on Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". The video was one of a handful of musical creations that followed the 2012 announcement of the discovery of a boson particle with Higgs-like characteristics. Blais' YouTube video generated over 17,000 hits in its first five days and has almost 1.2 million views as of April 2025. Blais' second video, "Bohemian Gravity," parodied Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" to explain string theory. The video features a sock puppet portraying Albert Einstein. The work attracted the attention of Brian May, Queen's guitarist (who also holds a PhD degree in astrophysics), and May posted the video on his website. Although Blais' career in science includes previous employment at the TRIUMF particle accelerator center in Vancouver, Canada,

Blais also does public talks which include performances of his creations and as well as discussions of science culture and his experiences as a science graduate student and an artist in new media. In 2014, he was an artist-in-residence with the National Music Centre in Alberta, during which he experimented with new sounds and recorded tracks for an album. In 2015, he appeared on Canada's reality television program, Canada's Smartest Person, in which he won his episode but lost in the season finale.

Discography "Winter Wonderland" – Bing Crosby "The First Noel" – Trad. "Jingle Bells" – Trad. "Angels we have Heard on High" – trad. "O Holy Night" – Trad. "Sleigh Ride" – Leroy AndersonSeven Christmas Carols modified to parodies about Scientific topics like The Scientific Method, Evolution, The Nobel Prize, The VSEPR Theory, Black Holes, Molecular Biology, and Scientific Integrity.December 25, 20247:16Each of the songs was (Except the Parody of "Sleigh Ride") teased through Short Form videos on the channel throughout the Month of December.