Pod Insights StarTalk Podcast Cosmic Queries – Your God Is Too Small About this episode What’s more terrifying: finding alien life or finding out we are alone in the universe? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice dive into fan questions about optics, religion, communicating with entanglement, and life on Earth after humans.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Chuck, that might have been the best cosmic queries ever.
0:02 Chuck Nice? Yep.
0:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Grab bag.
0:03 Chuck Nice? It was certainly entertaining. And if you want to know what happened, well, you're gonna have to listen. That's all there is to it. Not giving anything away.
0:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's cold.
0:11 Chuck Nice? No, that's how good it was. It's worth the listen.
0:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right, coming right up.
0:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.
0:31 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, you're a personal astrophysicist. Chuck, you're the grab bag man.
0:38 Chuck Nice? I'm the man with the bag. This is Yusef Kazwini, who says, "Greetings, StarTalkers. Yusef from Damascus, Syria here."
0:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Damascus?
0:48 Chuck Nice? That's right.
0:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Whoa.
0:49 Chuck Nice? That's right. Ancient, ancient city Damascus. I found your podcast recently and I joined the club.
0:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh.
0:57 Chuck Nice? Welcome aboard, my friend. Here's my question. You often mention pro photons travel at the speed of light at all times.
1:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yep.
1:05 Chuck Nice? Working as an optics engineer and dealing with T I R F microscopes, I wonder how evanescent waves during total internal reflection, T I R, is thought of from a particle physics perspective. Are the photons moving at the speed of light but somehow without propagating? Or the photons don't exist at all? But then, what is interacting with the sample on my microscope? Thank you. I love your work. P S. Chuck, you surely deserve an honorary PhD by now, my brother.
1:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh.
1:46 Chuck Nice? Oh, look at that.
1:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? My brother.
1:48 Chuck Nice? My brother.
1:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Optics is a huge field.
1:53 Chuck Nice? Yes.
1:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That does very important work on a lot of frontiers.
1:59 Chuck Nice? Okay.
2:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Optics is what do you do with electromagnetic waves? Do you bend them? Do you reflect them? Do you trap them? Do you heat with? What do you do with them? An entire branch of physics and engineering addresses those questions. So I don't know.
2:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? How specific the example is that he's giving and how that would lend itself to my explanation. Okay. Okay, so what I will otherwise say is, the speed of light is not just a good idea. It's not just a good idea, it's the law. It's the law, thank you.
2:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's a dated reference to 55 miles an hour speed limit. Okay, gotcha. When we went out and said, "We're not gonna go fast anymore." Right. So, that doesn't mean light always travels at that speed. Exactly. It means it will never travel faster than that speed. Right, cuz you can slow it down. So, let's see how you do that. Okay, it turns out, you sort of can slow it down. Right, I got you. So, the medium itself can slow the travel. Yes. The medium. Okay, but the way it slows it down is fascinating. Interesting. Okay. Okay. Okay, so I'm gonna beam the light. Just going on about my business.
3:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? About my business. Look at me, traveling at the speed of light, nothing can be faster. Nothing can be faster. Then you hit the air, or you hit a piece of glass, or a piece of water. This is for visible light going through what we would say are transparent objects, okay? If you're transparent, it means the light stays coherent as it goes through. Okay. So that the waveform maintains its structure. If it does not maintain its structure, light can still get through, but you, we would not call it transparent. Right, yes. You know the word we have for that? Translucent? Translucent. Yes. And translucent means light in, in, in Latin. Latin, yeah.
4:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Loose, loose is light, loose. So, the light comes up to the boundary. Mm-hmm. Some light will get reflected.
4:18 Chuck Nice? Yes.
4:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And optics, people know and understand that. Okay? That happened no matter, you can't.
4:23 Chuck Nice? Right.
4:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? About that. You can try to minimize it by having what are called these coatings that will delete any attempt for the light to reflect back.
4:33 Chuck Nice? Right.
4:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right? Yeah. And you know, it's, it's fun, the way they do that. So they, you have a coating that's half the wavelength of the light that you're using.
4:40 Chuck Nice? Interesting.
4:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay? So then the light goes through and by the time it wants to reflect back, the light that's coming in is out of phase with it.
4:49 Chuck Nice? Oh, so it creates a disruption.
4:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And it flattens, it flattens the light.
4:52 Chuck Nice? Look at that. I never knew that.
4:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Isn't that brilliant?
4:54 Chuck Nice? That's. God, people are smart.
5:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, so a coated lens prevents the, the reflections off of surfaces.
5:04 Chuck Nice? Interesting.
5:05 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay? And cameras, especially zoom lenses and other big industrial cameras.
5:09 Chuck Nice? Right.
5:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? They have many, many lenses in them.
5:11 Chuck Nice? Yes, they do.
5:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You can't have light reflecting off of shiny surfaces at every time there's a surface.
5:17 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
5:18 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay?
5:18 Chuck Nice? You just end up with a blob at the end.
5:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Just a blob at the end and all the light will be scattered everywhere. You got nothing. Okay.
5:22 Chuck Nice? Right, right.
5:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And when I say it reflects, because light will reflect off of practically any surface, whether or not it's a mirror.
5:29 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
5:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's what I'm saying.
5:30 Chuck Nice? As a matter of fact, in, in, in photography, they have something called a bounce board and it's just a stark, stark white. I forget the color of white.
5:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So it diffuses the light that it comes back to you.
5:41 Chuck Nice? Right. And that's all it does.
5:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Otherwise a flash can be very harsh.
5:43 Chuck Nice? Exactly. So you bounce it off of there and you get the, you get the light without the harshness.
5:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Without the harshness. So now you took care of that. Now the light enters the medium between molecules.
5:54 Chuck Nice? Okay.
5:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Light is moving at the speed of light.
5:58 Chuck Nice? Gotcha.
5:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But it hits a molecule, I gotta deal with the molecule. I gotta go in and come out.
6:03 Chuck Nice? Damn it.
6:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
6:05 Chuck Nice? Uh, excuse me.
6:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Excuse me.
6:07 Chuck Nice? I'm, I'm so sorry.
6:09 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Now I'm speed of light again until I hit the next molecule.
6:11 Chuck Nice? Right. And it's, oh God, here we go.
6:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? There we go again, right.
6:14 Chuck Nice? It's like walking down New York City street behind tourists.
6:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right. Yes.
6:18 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
6:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Tourists are just in the way.
6:20 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
6:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? In ways that New Yorkers are not.
6:22 Chuck Nice? That's right.
6:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And I figured, I, I analyzed that.
6:24 Chuck Nice? Go ahead.
6:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I figured out why.
6:25 Chuck Nice? Why?
6:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? May I say?
6:26 Chuck Nice? Please go ahead.
6:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'll try to relate it to light going through a medium.
6:29 Chuck Nice? Okay.
6:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay. Here's why. New Yorkers. Anticipate each other's trajectories because we've done this with each other before.
6:39 Chuck Nice? It's a dance that we know.
6:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's a dance we know. Whereas a tourist, they might step left unannounced. Who, nobody told you to step left?
6:50 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
6:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Cause I'm about to pass you on the left.
6:52 Chuck Nice? Yeah, who does that?
6:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Who does that?
6:53 Chuck Nice? Who does?
6:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But a tourist who's just ambling, looking, ambling.
6:58 Chuck Nice? Alright.
6:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And so you can't predict what their next move is, but for other New Yorkers, you can.
7:03 Chuck Nice? It's true.
7:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Not only that, there are people who are, I've walked perpendicular to people, they're on the sidewalk and I'm crossing the street. You time it so that you know exactly.
7:15 Chuck Nice? No, it's, it's a dance.
7:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's a dance.
7:17 Chuck Nice? You gotta live here to know the dance.
7:18 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Whereas the tourists will stop.
7:19 Chuck Nice? Right.
7:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, now they just messed up my timing.
7:22 Chuck Nice? Exactly.
7:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, they'll look, they'll say, excuse me, pardon me.
7:24 Chuck Nice? Right.
7:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And you get people, I'm trying to get in the subway, okay? And a train just lets out. There are people, tourists will wait for everyone to clear from the stair.
7:35 Chuck Nice? No, you dummy. You make your path and they know you're coming down. They will move aside as they come down and you're going up. Right. Exactly.
7:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Just because it's a massive, you don't mean that.
7:47 Chuck Nice? You just made me miss my train.
7:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You know that, right?
7:49 Chuck Nice? That's what you did, waiting in line to get on the damn stairs. The hell is wrong with you? I'm late for work. Gosh, and by the way, stand back from the doggone platform. Not that I'm worried about you or concerned about your safety. I'm late for work. You fall on the damn tracks, guess what? Now I'm late.
8:09 Chuck Nice? Okay, anyway.
8:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? How to give New Yorkers a bad name?
8:14 Chuck Nice? Anyway, so the light in the medium is bumping into the molecules.
8:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The molecules of the medium.
8:21 Chuck Nice? In between, it's going back at the speed, it's traveling at the speed of light.
8:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Correct, so the combination of getting through the molecule plus the speed of light between molecules, on average, slows down the propagation of light through the medium.
8:35 Chuck Nice? Look at that.
8:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This is called the index of refraction.
8:38 Chuck Nice? Woo!
8:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's, and it's a beautiful mathematical construct.
8:42 Chuck Nice? I love it.
8:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The index of refraction. Yeah.
8:45 Chuck Nice? Ooh.
8:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, so.
8:47 Chuck Nice? Oh, I love it.
8:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And, and I'll tell you how it works.
8:49 Chuck Nice? Go ahead.
8:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The index of refraction, you can use that in a formula to tell you how much the light will bend coming in or out of that medium. That's how you make a lens at all, okay? But. The index of refraction, if you take the speed of light and divide by the index of refraction.
9:09 Chuck Nice? Go ahead.
9:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's the speed of light in that medium.
9:12 Chuck Nice? It does something. That is really cool.
9:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, so let's do the math. The index of refraction of diamond is 2.4. What is 1 divided by 2.4? 1 is like the speed of light. Divide by 2.4. What's the number?
9:25 Chuck Nice? Point 4.
9:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Exactly.
9:27 Chuck Nice? Point 4 something.
9:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? About 0.4.
9:29 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
9:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, light in diamond is going 40% as fast as it goes in a vacuum.
9:36 Chuck Nice? That's awesome.
9:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Isn't it?
9:39 Chuck Nice? Ah, I love it so much.
9:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, yeah. And so diamond is, is one of the hardest natural substances known. It's hard for light to get through as well.
9:48 Chuck Nice? Yes, it is, yeah.
9:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And even though it's transparent.
9:49 Chuck Nice? Right.
9:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And before we get get all, get all emotional about light trying to get through the medium. Visible light can't get through most mediums. Like through a brick wall. Like it ain't gonna do it all.
10:02 Chuck Nice? Yeah, it's just like, damn it. That's light trying to get through a brick wall. Damn it.
10:09 Neil deGrasse Tyson? If light, if, if light were giving a voice.
10:11 Chuck Nice? Right.
10:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Let's try the brick. Nope, nope. Let's try the, you know, the steel.
10:17 Chuck Nice? No, nope. Damn it.
10:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But other wavelengths of light are transparent in these other substances, as you know. So your cell phone works in here because the walls are transparent to microwaves.
10:32 Chuck Nice? Right.
10:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Microwaves come right on through.
10:33 Chuck Nice? No problem.
10:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No problem.
10:34 Chuck Nice? They don't travel well through plaster, though.
10:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What are you talking about?
10:39 Chuck Nice? Because my house, the walls are plaster. My house was built in 1898.
10:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I think there might be something else in your walls.
10:45 Chuck Nice? Oh, you know what? You're right. It's a metal lathe.
10:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Metal grid.
10:48 Chuck Nice? Metal lathe. Plus, so here's what it is. It's plaster, then it's wood, then it's lathe, then it's metal.
10:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I bet there's a metal mesh.
10:59 Chuck Nice? It's a mesh.
11:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? To hold up the plaster.
11:01 Chuck Nice? To hold up the plaster.
11:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's, so you're in a Faraday cave, my son.
11:03 Chuck Nice? Oh, my God.
11:05 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Faraday cage.
11:05 Chuck Nice? That's what it is.
11:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's right. If you're surrounded by a metallic anything.
11:09 Chuck Nice? Metallic, yeah.
11:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay. Then the electrons in the metal will conspire to prevent electromagnetic energy from entering.
11:18 Chuck Nice? That's why I can only hear the voices when I go outside.
11:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So that's why. Don't blame the plaster. Damn, plaster had nothing to do with this. That's wow, look at that. Okay. Yeah, back then they would put up the mesh. Yeah, you put the mesh. And they put the plaster up. Hold the plaster up because all the little, um, the grid of the metal. Yeah. So if you have multiple internal reflections, that's the light just going back and go. By the way, by the way, check this out. Check this out. Ready? What? Okay, so if I have two media. Okay. Two media with different indices of refraction. Uh huh. Okay, so I have light coming up from one, it crosses the border and it bends. Anytime you go between two media, the path of light bends, it will bend. Okay. Right. That's why sunset happened five minutes ago.
12:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right. Because the light bend going from that vacuum of space to our atmosphere. And it gave us an extra five minutes of sunlight because it refracted around the, your horizon. Nice. Okay, so it will bend. Okay. Now watch this, it comes up and it bends. Right, yes. Suppose I take the angle of the light and make it steeper like this.
12:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Then that will keep this come further and further down. There is an angle at which the light never enters the next medium. Oh. Because this bend now takes it backwards into the medium itself. And it's called total internal reflection. Oh, wow. That's something I avoid at all costs. So I can't sleep at night.
12:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So that's that angle. It's, it's still in the other medium. Right. Bam, now it's total internal reflection. That's pretty cool, man. Very cool. That's, I love that. It's, and, and you can know exactly what that angle is. Right. What the, what the, how to do that. And so if you have an optical system where the light is just bouncing back and forth, it is within the parameters of, or you can have just a reflective surface as well. Right. Just a mirror would do that. Right, but anyhow.
13:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What you do inside your medium is your business. And what that then does to a beam of light. But yeah.
13:32 Chuck Nice? Interesting.
13:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? There it is. That's all I can, that's the all I can do to illuminate. See what I did there? To illuminate that question. There may be other places to go in the physics of optics. That I would not have known to touch.
13:47 Chuck Nice? Very cool, man. What a great question and thanks, Youssef. And welcome to the club.
14:06 Speaker 02 Hello, I'm Vinky Brook Allen and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Nailed Grass Tyson.
14:25 Chuck Nice? All right, this is Vic G. He says, hey there, Lord nice, Dr. Tyson, Vic G here from California with a question for each of you. Are there any cosmic mysteries that you are most looking forward to knowing their resolutions, but sadly may not be resolved in our lifetimes? Bonus points if you can name mysteries that we are so close to resolving, but is probably just beyond our reach.
14:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, you go first.
14:54 Chuck Nice? Well, see, mine is the easiest because I just want to know what exactly is causing the acceleration, the expansion of the universe.
15:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Like everybody else wants to know.
15:07 Chuck Nice? Because that's everybody else wants to know. But the reason is because I believe that it's a pressure from outside of our universe that bleeds through. That's what I think it is and I just.
15:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You think there's a puppet master?
15:23 Chuck Nice? No, well, I don't, I'm not going to call it a puppet master. I think there's a bleeding. That's what I'll call it.
15:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? An injured puppet.
15:30 Chuck Nice? An injured puppet master.
15:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Leakage, leakage of pressure.
15:35 Chuck Nice? Because what that, if we were to find that out. Now we have to explore the leak. And that means we're looking at a whole nother universe. And to me, that's fascinating.
15:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's interesting.
15:49 Chuck Nice? Yeah, yeah.
15:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You have to then explore.
15:52 Chuck Nice? You gotta explore the leak now.
15:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, I can't, I can't top that. That's good. No, I would say, I don't think we're gonna know for sure. If there's life in the universe in my lifetime.
16:09 Chuck Nice? Whoa.
16:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Intelligent life in the universe.
16:11 Chuck Nice? You, you, you win the bonus points because that is something we are very, very close to. But it's very possible we may not find in our lifetime.
16:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, I don't think in my lifetime, we will know that. What we will know in our lifetime is if there's any life at all.
16:27 Chuck Nice? Outside.
16:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, in our own solar system.
16:29 Chuck Nice? In our own solar system.
16:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, cuz we're looking at Europa.
16:31 Chuck Nice? Right.
16:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We did a whole episode. We went to JPL.
16:36 Chuck Nice? Right.
16:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Chip Propulsion Lab.
16:37 Chuck Nice? That's right.
16:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? NASA in Pasadena.
16:39 Chuck Nice? That's right.
16:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Talked to the Europa Clipper people.
16:41 Chuck Nice? That's right.
16:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Talking about what are they gonna do, how are they gonna measure it, what's beneath the ice? So we will know whether or not.
16:49 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
16:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? There has ever been or is currently life in our solar system other than on Earth.
16:56 Chuck Nice? Yes.
16:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I think that will happen. But it would be sad if there is no life other than life on Earth. You know, you know what has been said?
17:04 Chuck Nice? Hmm.
17:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? How profound it would be. If we discovered intelligent life in the universe. But how more profound it would be. If we discovered that we're alone.
17:20 Chuck Nice? Listen, the second one is far scarier.
17:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's a little scarier, isn't it?
17:25 Chuck Nice? Cuz that means.
17:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You kinda want neighbors, don't you?
17:27 Chuck Nice? All of this was a mistake.
17:31 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, it would feed many religious thinking that the whole universe is just for us.
17:38 Chuck Nice? That.
17:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Some, some branches of Christianity and perhaps other religions as well, require that life on earth be the sole object of God's creation.
17:55 Chuck Nice? Okay, I'm just gonna say it, and please don't judge me here. I'm being logical and I'm thinking like God. All right. That's the dumbest crap I ever heard, and here's why it's stupid. I don't need to do all this, okay? I don't need to do.
18:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You're God, you're God speaking.
18:16 Chuck Nice? I'm God right now. I don't need to do all this to show you that you're the only thing necessary and good and my central and crowning creation. As a matter of fact, all I really need is the sun and the earth, because that's our, that's the energy system that makes all of this happen.
18:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Nothing else matters.
18:43 Chuck Nice? Nothing else matters. So, if the sun, like a hydrogen atom, had just the earth going around it, then I would say, there is a God, and he made this just for us. But when you look at the vastness of the universe and the trillions of galaxies, all of which containing stars, billions and billions of stars in each galaxy, to a place where we can't even fathom the number of celestial bodies that are out there, then what you're saying to me is, I'm stupid and I like to waste my time.
19:29 Chuck Nice? I like to waste my time. That's what I'm doing.
19:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So God is an inefficient manufacturer of-
19:34 Chuck Nice? And that's it.
19:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Of worlds.
19:35 Chuck Nice? Right. It doesn't make any sense. So either there's a lot more of us out there, not meaning us, but life all over the place.
19:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This was Giordano Bruno's argument.
19:44 Chuck Nice? Who was that?
19:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You don't know Giordano Bruno? I never remember.
19:46 Chuck Nice? We never talked about Bruno.
19:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Bruno?
19:48 Chuck Nice? Who's Bruno?
19:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He's a monk.
19:50 Chuck Nice? I'm sorry. That just sounds funny, but go ahead.
19:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? A 16th century monk.
19:53 Chuck Nice? No, really?
19:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? In Italy.
19:54 Chuck Nice? Yeah?
19:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah. He had just, he had just read Copernicus' book, De Revolutionibus, which is, puts the sun back in the, I say back because the Greeks knew this, but it got lost in the dark ages. But the sun back in the middle of the known universe.
20:10 Chuck Nice? Okay.
20:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He, religious man.
20:13 Chuck Nice? Okay.
20:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? God fearing man said, hmm, if the sun is in the middle and not earth, that means earth is a planet. Going around the sun like Jupiter and Mercury and Mars and Venus. If the sun has planets and we're life on a planet, maybe these stars in the night sky are just like our sun. And if they are, maybe they have planets. And if they have planets, maybe they have
20:41 Chuck Nice? Uh, life.
20:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Life.
20:42 Chuck Nice? Right.
20:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Heretical.
20:44 Chuck Nice? Oh, they killed him.
20:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because that meant earth was not the object of God's creation.
20:51 Chuck Nice? There you go.
20:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So they put him on trial, sentenced him to death.
20:56 Chuck Nice? Oh my God.
20:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Burned him upside down.
20:59 Chuck Nice? Oh Lord.
20:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Naked in the Campo di Fioro, uh, the piazza in Rome.
21:06 Chuck Nice? Right.
21:07 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And, I think that's in Rome, not Florence. And they drove a steak into his mouth.
21:14 Chuck Nice? To shut his ass up.
21:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So that even in the
21:18 Chuck Nice? Afterlife.
21:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He would not preach such a parodies.
21:24 Chuck Nice? We don't-
21:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
21:25 Chuck Nice? We do not deserve to be a species running this.
21:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay. You know what his, one of his last words were?
21:29 Chuck Nice? Uh, let me guess.
21:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, before that.
21:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He says, he had a few good last words. My favorite among them was, "Your God is too small."
21:53 Chuck Nice? Yes. Way to go out.
21:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Way to go out.
21:57 Chuck Nice? Way to go out, man. "Your God is too small."
22:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Too small. "You've got just earth and the sun."
22:04 Chuck Nice? Yes.
22:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, so anyhow.
22:05 Chuck Nice? Oh, my God. Okay, first of all, I'm gonna read up on this guy. Bruno is his name, huh?
22:09 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Giordano Bruno.
22:10 Chuck Nice? Giordano Bruno. So, check this out. Um, you know, some people know my background, but, one of my last words before I left my other life, my religious life, was over this whole idea of homosexuality. I never understood it. I still don't understand it, like, why people have a problem with it. And why would God have a problem with it? I couldn't get around it. As I'm studying to become, you know, a minister.
22:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But it's because it's in Leviticus.
22:40 Chuck Nice? Yeah, but Leviticus is full of shit. Anyway. I mean, honestly, you know how many people have read Leviticus? Me being one? Okay, so anyway. So, I, one of my last-
22:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You know what someone told me? A Jewish person told me, "Leviticus are just suggestions."
22:57 Chuck Nice? Kind of.
22:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because if they were important enough, they would have been a commandment.
22:59 Chuck Nice? They would have been commandments, right. No, seriously. The Levitical law, and by the way, it's a Levitical law for the priests? Okay, anyway. Anyway, um, I said, "A God that needs me to fight this battle for Him is not a God I want to serve."
23:18 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Ooh.
23:19 Chuck Nice? If God needs me to fight this battle-
23:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Homosexuality.
23:23 Chuck Nice? Yeah, right. If that's the battle that I gotta fight.
23:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Interesting.
23:26 Chuck Nice? I gotta be worried about two dudes doing it. Like, that's what my God is all about.
23:31 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Two consenting dudes.
23:32 Chuck Nice? Two consenting dudes doing it. Like, that's what I gotta worry about? I, I can't serve that. I gotta be out. Anyway, so I love this Bruno dude, and I'm gonna-
23:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, check him out.
23:40 Chuck Nice? I'm gonna check him out.
23:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right.
23:41 Chuck Nice? Awesome.
23:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, by the way, there's a, there's a memorial to him in the square.
23:46 Chuck Nice? I'm sorry.
23:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Looking very-
23:47 Chuck Nice? A little late.
23:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He's there, he's, he's got his monk robe on and he's very solemn. There.
23:58 Chuck Nice? Dear Darno Bruno.
23:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
24:00 Chuck Nice? Oh, I can't wait.
24:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I think it was 1601, something like that, yeah.
24:04 Chuck Nice? That's amazing. Wow, what a great, great story. I love it. Okay, this is Keith Coensberg. Coen- Coensberg. Coenigsberg. Yes.
24:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? With a K.
24:15 Chuck Nice? With a K.
24:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, yeah.
24:15 Chuck Nice? Um, Keith says, hello, team, start talk. This is Keith here, writing from New York, New York, big city of dreams. Uh, here's a question I've been wrestling.
24:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? First one we've gotten from New York, New York.
24:26 Chuck Nice? That's so true. We don't get a lot of New York, New York people.
24:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We're right here in my office in the Hayden Plantarium. And, and we, we're getting from Syria, from...
24:34 Chuck Nice? Yeah, Pakistan, from all kinds of Chile.
24:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's cool.
24:37 Chuck Nice? He says this, LIGO has used light waves to detect the shrinking and expanding of space caused by passing gravitational waves. But wouldn't the waves be in and out of the material of space? If space expands, don't your light waves stretch along with it? Uh, and any other measuring rod, as Einstein would say, and cancel out the change? So.
25:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes.
25:07 Chuck Nice? Yes. Okay, explain to me.
25:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What the hell?
25:12 Chuck Nice? What the hell he's really asking? Cause I'm confused.
25:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What he's saying is we, we have a laser that bounces back and forth.
25:18 Chuck Nice? Right.
25:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay? We measure the trip of that laser with very high precision.
25:23 Chuck Nice? Very high precision.
25:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What he's asking is, if a gravitational wave washes over the measuring device, how's the measuring device gonna know if everything about it moves with it?
25:36 Chuck Nice? I got you. I got you.
25:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
25:40 Chuck Nice? Mm-hmm.
25:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So if I'm measuring your height, how, how tall are you?
25:43 Chuck Nice? I'm 5'10".
25:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You lying low?
25:46 Chuck Nice? No, I'm 5'10".
25:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, I'll give you 5, like, I'll give you 5'9". That's it. Okay. So you're 5'9" and I have a 5'9" uh, tape measure.
25:57 Chuck Nice? Mm-hmm.
25:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And you look at us as 5'9", right? Okay. Then we stretch both you and the tape measure.
26:05 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You're still 5'9".
26:06 Chuck Nice? True.
26:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Unless you have some other way to measure what just happened.
26:10 Chuck Nice? Uh, they're called Ron DeSantis heels.
26:15 Chuck Nice? Anyway, sorry, go ahead.
26:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay. That's like a news item from like eight years ago.
26:20 Chuck Nice? Uh, last year, but okay.
26:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Feels like it.
26:23 Chuck Nice? Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
26:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, you're absolutely right. If I stretch you and the tape measure, you're still 5'9".
26:28 Chuck Nice? Right. But we're talking about something washing over the measurement system.
26:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But it, but if, so now watch. It's because of that fact. That LIGO, Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, has two lasers.
26:43 Chuck Nice? Ah.
26:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? At right angles to each other.
26:47 Chuck Nice? Oh.
26:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, if one of them stretched, moving that way, it's not stretching the other one. And it's those two path lengths that we compare with each other.
26:59 Chuck Nice? Gotcha.
27:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's how we know.
27:01 Chuck Nice? That's how we know.
27:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? If a gravitational wave washed over us. We've got smart people designing this.
27:06 Chuck Nice? That, first of all, is a brilliant question. And secondly, those people, they deserve the money.
27:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What money?
27:13 Chuck Nice? Whatever money we gave them to make LIGO.
27:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, oh, the, the, the funding.
27:17 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
27:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, yeah.
27:17 Chuck Nice? Whatever the funding was, they deserved it.
27:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? National Science Foundation, yeah.
27:20 Chuck Nice? They deserved that, cuz that, first of all, what a simple, simple little answer to what could be, um, you know, altered results.
27:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right, right, right.
27:31 Chuck Nice? Interesting. I love it.
27:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, 1915.
27:34 Chuck Nice? Right.
27:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Albert Einstein puts forth the general theory of relativity.
27:37 Chuck Nice? Okay.
27:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? A year later, he uses the general theory of relativity to predict the existence of gravitational waves.
27:45 Chuck Nice? Right.
27:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But he doesn't think we'll ever detect them.
27:48 Chuck Nice? Of course.
27:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Cuz the energy level's so low and how's.
27:50 Chuck Nice? How would you detect?
27:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This is 1916, for goodness sake. Okay? That same year, he publishes a paper on the stimulated emission of radiation.
27:59 Chuck Nice? Hmm.
28:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Which is the foundation for the laser.
28:03 Chuck Nice? Right.
28:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? 100 years later, in 2016.
28:09 Chuck Nice? Mm-hmm.
28:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Or was it 2015? 99 or 100 years later?
28:13 Chuck Nice? Okay.
28:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We discover gravitational waves using lasers.
28:18 Chuck Nice? Damn. Bro, Einstein was gangster.
28:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Gangster.
28:23 Chuck Nice? He was gangster.
28:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Gangster.
28:25 Chuck Nice? Okay.
28:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Gangster.
28:26 Chuck Nice? That's like a chicken laying an egg so you can discover a egg.
28:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
28:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You made it way less profound than it started out. Normally, you would digest it into something more profound.
28:42 Chuck Nice? I know, and poetic.
28:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But that was worse than all counts.
28:45 Chuck Nice? It probably is, yeah.
28:48 Chuck Nice? That's Einstein. He was gangster.
28:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Gangster.
28:50 Chuck Nice? Oh, yeah, that's dope. Okay, that's really... God, if you... See, this is... You don't love science. Don't get angry with people. This does not make you love science! I swear!
29:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm gonna go kick your ass.
29:07 Chuck Nice? You should... You know what? You should go... You should get a... Like, a dumbass poker. Bang, right up. That's what it is. A big poker that's... Brands... Anyway, God help me. So good. That is so good. Okay, Scott Jarboe says this. "Hello, Dynamic Duo. My name is Scott Jarboe from Seattle, Washington, and you mentioned, I believe, recently, that we cannot gather data from sending a probe into a black hole, as we would have no way to transmit any data collected because it could not escape the gravity of the black hole." Okay, so my question is: "Understanding we can't at this time,
29:47 Chuck Nice? if we quantum entangled the instrumentation of the probe with a twin probe that was kept external, could we not record that data that way? And in fact, in general, would that not be a feasible mechanism for interstellar communication in faster-than-light speed? The state of each should instantaneously mirror." Is that correct?
30:12 Chuck Nice? Quantum entangle-
30:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm not a black hole entangled expert.
30:16 Chuck Nice? Okay.
30:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, it feels plausible that you should be able to entangle particles even though you lose one of them into the black hole.
30:25 Chuck Nice? Right.
30:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It feels like you should be able to do that.
30:29 Chuck Nice? They should know what the other particle is doing, even though it's inside of a black hole.
30:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It should.
30:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But, and so, someone interacts with the particle that just went into the black hole, which then triggers the measurement of your, the one outside the black hole.
30:48 Chuck Nice? Entangled particle outside of the black hole.
30:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And that way you knew something happened in the black hole.
30:51 Chuck Nice? Right.
30:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I don't see why that wouldn't be possible. I don't know what to say.
30:57 Chuck Nice? Oh, you know, I don't know what to say. You don't know what to say.
31:02 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I don't see why not.
31:05 Chuck Nice? Okay.
31:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, no, but they wanted to talk about faster than light communication. The problem is, you're not, your, your thing has the information already built into it.
31:15 Chuck Nice? Right.
31:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You can't, after the fact, change that information.
31:18 Chuck Nice? Now that we know.
31:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, normally, communication happens where, oh, turn left instead of right.
31:25 Chuck Nice? Right.
31:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right, and if it's already built in, I can't do that.
31:29 Chuck Nice? Right.
31:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And so, there's still some jury that's out on how we will fully exploit quantum entanglement as a communication mechanism going forward. And from what I have read, it's less favorable than you want to believe it is.
31:46 Chuck Nice? Okay.
31:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? For these reasons.
31:47 Chuck Nice? All right.
31:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
31:48 Chuck Nice? Right, all right. This is James Peterson. Hello to my personal astrophysicist and personal science comedian. My name is James Peterson from Lacey, Washington. Here are my scenarios and related questions. Two manned spacecraft are approaching each other at a constant rate within a huge cosmic void. Neither one is accelerating or decelerating. They are, no, there are no other visible or detectable objects within this cosmic void. Just the blackness of the vacuum of space. Neither of them knows if they are moving or stationary. They only know that they are approaching each other at roughly 20% the speed of light. What would be the reference point for each of them to determine their individual velocities,
32:32 Chuck Nice? assuming that they could compare rates of time on their clocks as they pass? Could the relative speed of their clocks be used to determine their individual velocities? And individual velocities relative to what? Everything is relative, you know?
32:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Do all these people have jobs?
32:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? To have the time to come up with questions like this?
32:57 Chuck Nice? I know. It's just like, this guy, weren't you satisfied with?
33:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Two trains leave the station at the same time. One in Chicago, one in DC. He didn't stop there. He didn't stop there.
33:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, what he's not getting right in the question, a simple point, is each of them does not know if they're moving. As far as they're concerned, they're stationary. Right. So he's saying, well, they approach each other. I don't know that. As far as I'm concerned, I am still in a void and I see this other craft coming towards me. Right. There it is. That's the only thing that matters. That's it. That's it. And so I will measure how fast he's moving. Right. There'll be time dilation relative to me as a function of how fast it's going. There's, it's not more complicated than that. That's it. We don't have to do a double calculation. Nothing. Or anything. And we will each measure exactly the same thing about each other.
33:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right. Because it's relative to the observer. It's relative to them. And so each one of us will see the other ship coming. We will measure that. And we will think we are not moving at all. And we're gonna still stay stationary as far as we're concerned. Correct. And when the, when the ship goes by, it's like, whoa, did you see that? Right. And that's gonna be the end of it. That's the beginning and end of it. Right. And there were jokes back in 1905, when Einstein came out with this for the first time, special relativity. They tried to egg him on, saying, hey Einstein, when does Grand Central Station arrive at the next train?
34:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's actually kinda funny.
34:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Damn. Boy, haters no matter. I know, I know. There's haters no matter what. I know. Even Einstein had haters. Look at that.
35:00 Chuck Nice? Alright, so this is Vexonar who says greetings Dr. Tyson.
35:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What's his who?
35:04 Chuck Nice? Vexonar.
35:05 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Vexonar, okay.
35:05 Chuck Nice? Vexonar, who says greetings Dr. Tyson and Lord Nice. What are you putting in your time capsule for the next generation to open?
35:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, so, so, so.
35:15 Chuck Nice? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So.
35:18 Chuck Nice? Go ahead.
35:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I just gotta say this, okay?
35:22 Chuck Nice? Mm-hmm.
35:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Uh, and there's a book written on this, I forgot the name of it, forgive me, and I don't remember the author. But, there's nothing less interesting to a subsequent generation than an earlier generation's time capsule.
35:36 Chuck Nice? Wow.
35:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And the evidence of this is, nobody remembers where any time capsules are buried. There's ceremony, there's, there's, and, and there's a mayor speaks, and then, and then, as things move on, and culture advances and technology advances, no one cares what your sorry ass from forty years ago thought was modern.
36:01 Chuck Nice? Right.
36:02 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And, I, I, look at this, a phonograph!
36:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I was in Flushing Meadow, near the Unisphere.
36:13 Chuck Nice? Okay.
36:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Tell everybody what the Unisphere is.
36:15 Chuck Nice? It's the thing outside of the Old World's Fair Stadium, it's a big giant globe, right?
36:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's the one that, it's what anyone thinks of when they think of the Flushing Park.
36:24 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
36:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, it's Earth, US Steel created this for the World Fair. And there's these three rings around it.
36:31 Chuck Nice? Right.
36:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Evocative of John Glenn's three orbits around the Earth.
36:35 Chuck Nice? I did not know that.
36:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm just saying, just saying, so, there I am, this is maybe fifteen years ago, I'm just sitting on a bench, I forgot why I was there, it's, I don't remember, forgive me, I don't remember why I was sitting on a bench in Flushing Meadow, because I don't live in Queens, I was just driving through Queens.
36:53 Chuck Nice? Okay.
36:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But I'm sitting there, and I look down. And under the, the, but, under the brush, I part of it. Here is a time capsule from 1965. It was like a, a time capsule buried in that spot. No one cares.
37:11 Chuck Nice? They just put a bench on it.
37:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No one cares. There's no, there's no memorial around it, no ceremony, nothing. We have a time capsule for the Rose Center here. And they asked me, what do I want to put in the time capsule? So I thought about it. I said, okay, I, I'll tell you what I put in it. I put a MetroCard in it.
37:27 Chuck Nice? Oh, and guess what? That's a good thing to put in it because they don't exist anymore. So you were ahead of your time.
37:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So I put in a MetroCard. I think I put in a, a, a, um, an iPod.
37:41 Chuck Nice? Okay.
37:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
37:42 Chuck Nice? And, and interesting.
37:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This was modern stuff.
37:46 Chuck Nice? Right.
37:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? At the time. We were all excited about it, but who cares?
37:51 Chuck Nice? Right. Because like both of those things are non-existent now.
37:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? They're non-existent and no one wants one.
37:56 Chuck Nice? Nobody wants one.
37:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No one cares about them. No one wants one. We moved on.
38:00 Chuck Nice? Right.
38:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So I, for me, time capsules, though they mean well.
38:04 Chuck Nice? Mm-hmm.
38:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I think are one of the greatest misplaced investment of our attempt to communicate with the future.
38:12 Chuck Nice? Okay. That's very cool.
38:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I don't want to be victim of that.
38:15 Chuck Nice? I don't, right.
38:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So no, I ain't putting.
38:17 Chuck Nice? I'm putting nothing in it. I'm putting, um, the transcript of every speech given by President Trump. Just the transcript. No, no audio and no, just the transcript.
38:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Just the words.
38:28 Chuck Nice? Just the words.
38:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
38:30 Chuck Nice? So that they could read it and go, what the? What the?
38:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Words are the most powerful person in the world.
38:38 Chuck Nice? Exactly. The most powerful man in the world said these words. Okay? That's it. Thomas says this, uh, Dr. Tyson Lord Nice, greetings from Hungary.
38:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Hungary.
38:49 Chuck Nice? Yeah, way to go. In an earlier episode, Dr. Tyson said, uh, that mathematically, the horizon of the universe has all the same properties as the event horizon of a black hole. That got me thinking, if our universe would be a black hole, knowing that gravity has no limits on range.
39:07 Chuck Nice? The continuous falling in of matter into our black hole universe explain accelerating expansion of our universe? And if that would be the case, is there any possible way to detect such matter? Since it would be at the edge of our known universe? Thank you for your work.
39:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That would be true. Good question. That would be true if
39:31 Chuck Nice? if
39:31 Neil deGrasse Tyson? we were not
39:33 Chuck Nice? expanding
39:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? exponential.
39:35 Chuck Nice? Right.
39:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, so the fabric of the universe is expanding and because of that, there's nothing falling in.
39:41 Chuck Nice? Right.
39:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's taking it with it out to the edges.
39:44 Chuck Nice? Yes.
39:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, but if we were not that way, we just had our horizon, an object moving could just kind of cross our horizon and show up. And it'll just show up. Okay, if it moves in that way. Or you wait enough time, I should say that differently. Wait enough time that horizon washes over the next set of galaxies that are sitting there waiting to be seen by you. Because right now the horizon is 14 billion light years away. Wait a billion years. Then it's 15 billion. That's a whole extra universe that's in your horizon.
40:19 Chuck Nice? Right.
40:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You know, the scariest day of them all will be?
40:23 Chuck Nice? Right.
40:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You wait another billion years. And there's no new galaxies to reveal themselves.
40:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And meant you reach the
40:31 Chuck Nice? Actual
40:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? edge of the universe.
40:35 Chuck Nice? Yes, not just the observable universe, but the
40:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The edge of the whole universe itself. That's a scary day right there.
40:42 Chuck Nice? That's, that's kind of a cool day though.
40:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's kind of cool.
40:45 Chuck Nice? Yeah.
40:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But it also means cosmology will evaporate. Because at that distance, we're seeing things that are that old getting born. But if there's nothing there, then the galaxies that a billion years ago were just born, they're now a billion years old.
41:02 Chuck Nice? Right.
41:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And another billion years, they're two billion years old. There's nobody new coming in that's just being born.
41:07 Chuck Nice? Mm hmm.
41:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Gone is cosmology.
41:09 Chuck Nice? Look at that.
41:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
41:10 Chuck Nice? Wow, that is a scary day.
41:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I have it on my calendar.
41:16 Chuck Nice? All right, this is Bill.
41:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This might be the last question, I think.
41:18 Chuck Nice? Okay, last question. Bill gets the last question. Bill says, hi, Dr. Tyson, Lord, nice. This is Bill. I made it easy for Chuck to say, shut up, Bill.
41:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This is how you pronounce Bill.
41:33 Chuck Nice? He says from Ba- uh, Benoch, uh, Benoch Scotland. And he says, I need some cheering up considering the state of the earth in a few hundred years. Maybe sooner if he whose name we shall not mention gets his way. From now, when humankind has finally turned Mother Earth against us. Which species that exists just now, would you imagine will pick up the cloak of dominance that we humans held for a few thousand years? Will they have, will they be land based, sky or sea based? Or even amphibious? What is it about the species that leads you to that conclusion? Or do you see a bright future for us?
42:18 Chuck Nice? And what that future would look like in the event we are still here in 25, 25? Ooh. A, a, a, a question that is, um, I'll say laced with hope, but yet very dark. Very dark and daunting.
42:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes, yes, it's both hopeful and darkful.
42:40 Chuck Nice? Yes.
42:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, uh, I have some important replies to that.
42:45 Chuck Nice? Go ahead.
42:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So first, there's a book written, forgive me, I don't remember the author. It's called After Man.
42:51 Chuck Nice? After Man?
42:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Something like that.
42:53 Chuck Nice? Okay.
42:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
42:54 Chuck Nice? And is that like?
42:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What it does is it renders humans extinct. And it looks at other animals to see what would become of them.
43:05 Chuck Nice? Oh, I thought it was a woman who left her husband for a lesbian relationship. After Man. I am so much happier, I can't tell you how much better it is with no man.
43:19 Chuck Nice? Which by the way, seems to be the consensus.
43:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Apparently.
43:22 Chuck Nice? Anyway.
43:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, so.
43:25 Chuck Nice? After Man.
43:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And so I looked it over. I didn't read every word, but there's, it's highly illustrated. It's intriguing.
43:31 Chuck Nice? It is.
43:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
43:32 Chuck Nice? To think about.
43:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, now.
43:34 Chuck Nice? Cause who would have bet on us?
43:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Consider, what's the largest?
43:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Animal there ever was. Um, from what I understand, it is the blue whale. And it is alive today. It's alive today. What kind of animal is it? It is a mammal. Mammal? Yes. Uh, do you know the size of the smallest mammal? Um, I don't, but I think it's pretty small. It's can fit inside of it like a teacup. Yeah. It's like this big. Yeah. I think it's a marsupial. Yeah, it's like a little shrew. Marsupials are mammals, I think. Marsupials are mammals. It's some little thing. Yeah. Okay, this big and the whale. So mammals have the capacity to not only occupy practically any size range. Uh huh. But practically any place on earth, they can figure out how to live there. And we are on every place on earth. Basically. Where even.
44:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We saw bacteria, but, but in terms of animals. We're a different kind of bacteria. We're more like a virus. No, I'm talking human beings. So unlike reptiles and other cold-blooded creatures, they can't exist. Right. In, in cold climates. Right. Right? Cause they would just freeze and die. But we maintain our body temperature, no matter where we are. All right. The reason why I'm saying this is this book said, if that's the case. What's limiting the size of rats? Um, I don't know. I'm gonna tell you, you ready? Go ahead. I could be wrong, but just, just put it out there. Cats?
44:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The size of, not New York rats. Yeah. The size of the hole they will run into so that you don't harm them. Really? Okay. Okay. Just think about that. Yeah. Go look in the subway, you see rats? Yeah. They'll crawl and there's a hole they go into. There always is. There always is. No matter what rat you're talking about. There always is. Right. There's a hole. Yeah. Okay. If humans aren't here, they don't need the hole. Oof. Which is why you get some, they're not rats, but they are a part of rodentia in certain parts of the world where they're as big as like. Like a copy bar. A small horse. Like a copy bar. The biggest rodent is, is right. Right.
45:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So rodents, which are one of the most successful.
45:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Branches in the tree of life. Yeah. For how many they are and how many species they are. Mm hmm. Okay. How many species are there in the branch called Homo? I don't know. One. One. It's Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens. We're the only ones left. Left. Correct. When you say how many species, I was. They were. Trying to think. We're the only ones left. Denisovians. That makes us. Homo erectus. Fragile. Right. On the tree of life. Yeah. Rodents. So many of them. So many of them. Okay, so this book foresees that basically rodents take over. And they become huge, like people sized. Oh. Like rats. Oh. That are people sized. That's scary. And they don't, there's nothing that. And nothing to stop them. Nothing to stop them. Ah. Nothing to stop them. You dirty rat.
46:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And it talks about, uh, uh, aquatic creatures. Right. What is it? The penguin gets really large or something? Right. The, so when you take away a predator, you don't, there's no longer a limit on the size of what it is. Okay. So, Earth after humans, uh, I picture a natural history museum. With a bunch of giant rats walking through. Walking through. Looking at us. I know. And it's, oh, mommy daddy, what's that? And there's like hu- human skeletons there and say. Oh, those were called dumbasses.
47:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? They used to run the earth at one point, sweetie. And then they. I was talking about the dinosaur. They ruled the earth. Yeah, yeah. So these dumbasses, what they liked to do was burn stuff. Dig it out of the ground and burn it, sweetie. And, and they would burn it and it would release something called carbon into the atmosphere. And then they all died and now we run the stuff. And they kill each other for any reason at all? And they also like to kill each other, you know? So, so that's the future of Earth. Because Earth and other life forms are gonna survive us. Right. For sure. Right. Exactly. All right, so, don't, no, this all is talked about, this green movement, save Earth? No. Earth's gonna be fine. Save your ass. That's what you need to do. Oh. Earth gonna be fine. Save your ass. Yo ass.
47:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That makes a lesser poster of a march. Exactly. Save your ass. Save your ass. Okay. All right. So, but in terms of hope. In terms of hope. Here's the hope. Mm hmm. A boy here is from Scotland. That's right. I gave a public talk a few nights ago. Someone asked me, what was my favorite song ever? Really? And you know what I told them? What? Amazing Grace. Okay. I think that's a song of a millennium. Amazing Grace. It's a beautiful song. It's a beautiful song. And you know how it's most beautiful-est? Okay, no? In bagpipes. Okay. I'm not a fan of bagpipes. You would be if you heard it and play Amazing Grace. You know? That's all I'm saying. Okay.
48:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm a- And bagpipes, that's a Scottish thing. It really is. So what I'm saying is, when life and the world gets us down, we should hear chorus of bagpipes
48:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? performing Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. The savior of- The savior of wretch like me. Cause we're all wretches and we need saving. It's true. From each other. So Scotland may, may be the savior of us all. Well, look at that. All right, we gotta go. We gotta go, right? Oh, man, man. That was fun. That was so much fun. All right. This has been yet another Cosmic Queries, what kind of edition? This is Cosmic Queries Grab Bag. Grab Bag with Chuck Nice, of course. Neil deGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. Always good to have you, Chuck. Always a pleasure. As always. Keep looking up.
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