A boffin dubbed the ‘world’s hottest scientist’ saved a huge snake trying to cross a busy highway.
Geoscientist Rosie Moore was driving to look for alligators when she encountered the stranded serpent.
The 28-year-old parked on the hard shoulder and said: “Okay, so I just pulled over on a main highway because I just saw a snake.
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“Let’s go out and get it.”
She approaches the reptile as it starts to venture onto the main road from the hard shoulder.
She says: “Oh buddy, ‘hi’.”
The snake starts to panic and the fearless scientist quickens her step and grabs its slimy body.
Rosie carries it away from the highway while saying: “Come on, off the road we go.”
She adds: “You are f*cking huge!”
The glam geoscientist carefully drops the snake on the other side of the road barrier before heading back to her parked Mercedes.
Rosie rescued the snake while driving on the Route 41 highway, near Miami, Florida, US.
She said she was travelling on the Tamiami Trail – a 284-mile stretch of Route 41 at its southernmost point – while heading to the Everglades National Park.
Rosie told What’s The Jam: “I was headed to go gator diving when I saw it on the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades.”
She added: “I usually move snakes in the direction they were going, but there were a ton of cars coming.”
She also asked her 252,000 Instagram followers if they could name the snake species.
Many correctly identified it as a non-venomous Nerodia floridana, commonly known as the Florida green watersnake.
Earlier this year, Rosie said she cried when she first heard news reports referring to her as the world’s hottest scientist, but then “learned to lean into it”.
Moore, who comes from Delray Beach in Florida, likes to post daring images of her wrestling alligators and diving with sharks.
The intrepid geoscientist said her profile “really blew up” when she appeared in a viral Instagram video of an alligator being pulled out of a python’s stomach.
Rosie explained: “The first year this was going on, I didn’t really share any of these ‘world’s hottest scientist’ articles.
“I didn’t want people to have that perception of me, especially as I had a lot of serious researchers following me.
“I thought it’d ruin my career.
“When the first ‘world’s hottest’ headline came out, I cried.
“But it completely changed my career and the course of everything.”
After several young girls wrote to her to tell her that they admired her work, she said she “learned to lean into” the tag.
She explained that it helps to “make science hot” and therefore “appeal to young girls”.
One follower commented: “As a father of a 7-year-old beautiful and intelligent girl, I shared your page with her and she is in love with you.”
Tawny wrote: “I find you fascinating and inspirational, the fact you’re gorgeous is just a bonus for your platform. Brava Queen!”
Alicia commented: “You are the world’s sexiest scientist, what you do is amazing.”
