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Are you a geek? Are you chic? Can you rock with the best of them?

Check it out now… in its fourth year, the Geek Pop festival is an annual virtual event showcasing artists inspired by science. A vigorous hybrid of geek-leaning musicians and bona fide scientists moonlighting as musicians play online–and you can listen for free on the web. Some of the tracks can be downloaded for free too–others you’ll have to pay for, but profits get ploughed back into the music/geek/science scene. Read all about it, and don’t forget to tweet #imageekbecause.

This year, Geek Pop is taking place together with the British Science Association’s National Science & Engineering Week, which runs until Sunday. NSEW, funding by BIS, redefines the week, being a ‘ten day programme of science, engineering and technology events and activities across the UK aimed at people of all ages,’ and has now been running for 18 years. Its aims are to

• engage and inspire people of all ages with science and technology and their implications
• promote discussion and understanding of what science, engineering and technology can and cannot achieve
• promote knowledge of the scientific method, i.e. how scientists go about their work and reach their conclusions
• promote science, engineering and technology studies beyond the age of 16 and science, engineering and technology as career options.

There you go. Back to rock and roll: Stuart Clark is a science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics. Recognizing the futility of such a degree, his alter ego is the rock god Steve Harris Dr Stu, of Dr Stu and the Neutron Stars. Here’s a rare, live performance of their Iron Maidenesque signature tune (warning–it’s loud):

Music: Dr Stu
Lyrics: Dr Stu and James Urquhart

Too small for human eyes to see Squeezed into a stellar pea The neutron stars do not burn bright But hide away inside the night

A hundred billion shining stars Flung across the heavens far But neutron stars do not burn bright Crushed away, by gravity’s might

Neutron stars unseen by earthly eyes just ten miles wide Neutron stars so dense they’re heavier than metal

Electrons forced into their core Where protons crowd and join for more The neutron stars do not burn bright But hide away inside the night

The magnetic force is squeezed as well To strengthen up and spit like hell But neutron stars do not burn bright They send radio beams into the night

Geek on, rock out.