Cosmic Queries – Innovating, with Bill Nye

In honor of Sir Isaac Newton’s birthday, Bill Nye and Chuck Nice answer Cosmic Queries about inventions, innovations and scientific discovery, from sewers, to artificial intelligence, to the future of energy, to the exploration of Mars, and more. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/cosmic-queries-innovating-with-bill-nye/ Thanks to this week’s Patrons for supporting us: Brett Larue, Aimee Kukowski, Scarlet Wolf, Lionel Gollan, Michael Kosakavich, Michelle Danic. Photo Credit: Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, by Charles Jervas.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Chuck Nice?

  From the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and beaming out across all of space and time, this is StarTalk, where science and pop culture collide.

• 0:23Bill Nye?

  Welcome, welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm Bill Nye, guest hosting. This is a special edition Chuck.

• 0:29Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 0:30Bill Nye?

  We're honoring Sir Isaac Newton, whose birthday quickly approaches. He was born on December 25th, 1642, as reckoned in Britain. So we took your questions about inventions, inventors, inventrices, and scientific discoveries.

• 0:49Bill Nye?

  Isaac Newton, I'm here, by the way, with Chuck Nice.

• 0:52Chuck Nice?

  Thank you. Hi.

• 0:53Bill Nye?

  The charming and enchanting. Now Chuck, you know, it was Christmas Day, as reckoned in Britain.

• 1:00Chuck Nice?

  In Britain.

• 1:01Bill Nye?

  But it was the 4th of January in Italy.

• 1:03Chuck Nice?

  Yes, and you know, that's because it's like, you know, it's a time zone thing, right? You know?

• 1:10Bill Nye?

  It's a little complicated.

• 1:12Chuck Nice?

  Like right now, it may be, what time is it here currently? 1:30 and so, you know, it's not that central time.

• 1:19Bill Nye?

  Right, so what happened is, the, say what you will, about the Vatican, the Catholic Church, they had some outstanding astronomers.

• 1:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:28Bill Nye?

  And they realized that if you add a leap day every four years, indefinitely, you're adding too much time.

• 1:34Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:35Bill Nye?

  And you may recall that so out of hand did it get, that Pope Gregory XIII declared the 5th of October to be followed by the 15th of October.

• 1:45Chuck Nice?

  I remember that well.

• 1:46Bill Nye?

  That was a while ago.

• 1:47Chuck Nice?

  That was a little while ago, but I remember it just like it was, you know?

• 1:50Bill Nye?

  1572.

• 1:52Chuck Nice?

  Right, just like it was that.

• 1:53Bill Nye?

  So the thing is, just imagine how this went down. So you're a tenant, and the landlord says, "You owe me rent today." "No, I don't. I don't owe you a rent for a week and a half." No, no, it says right here, Pope said it's today. Think of the conflict.

• 2:09Chuck Nice?

  That's some serious conflict.

• 2:10Bill Nye?

  Yeah, but if you are, on the other hand, if you're a farmer, an agriculturalist, and you start doing everything a week and a half late, because you're just looking at the calendar, then things are messed up.

• 2:22Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, you're in big trouble.

• 2:23Bill Nye?

  If you don't harvest when it's harvest time.

• 2:25Chuck Nice?

  They got a lot of rotten corn out there.

• 2:26Bill Nye?

  Yes, or you planted too late. It's even worse. Yeah, it is. So, uh, uh, the Pope was so powerful. How powerful was he? He threw out ten days. And then they had this brilliant thing that they just thought, deep thoughts about. Uh, we were talking about this before the show, and if those of you who aren't hip to this hipness, it's amazing. Uh, the year, uh, 2016, this year was a leap year. Yes. As was 2012. Okay. Twenty-eight, twenty-oh-four. Right. Two thousand, a leap year. But nineteen hundred, not a leap year. Not a leap year. Eighteen hundred, not a leap year. Not a leap year. Seventeen hundred, not a leap year. They agreed. On the century, not a leap year. On the, which is wacky.

• 3:10Bill Nye?

  But they reali-, they, their scheme is that if you are not divisible by the number four hundred evenly, you're a century, then you don't get to be a leap year. Yeah, okay. So the- Crazy. So, uh, cause they were adding a little too much time, about eleven, eleven minutes too much time every four years. That's a lot of time. Well, it starts to add up. Yeah. So the next adjustment, my understanding is will be around three thousand eighty. Someone's gonna have to take a meeting. And, uh- And what would be the solution then, in three thousand eighty? I think they'll have an extra day. We'll have a New Year's Day, day. A New Year's Day, day. Not part of January, not part of December, just a day, day. Oh, that's actually, that, that's kinda cool.

• 3:51Bill Nye?

  It would be very cool, but getting, I know you have kids, but getting either of us, even your children, to the year three thousand eighty is a challenge. You know, the way things are going now, I think getting any of us to the year three thousand eighty may be a challenge. Maybe to get us even to twenty-twenty will be- Might be a challenge to get to twenty- Yeah, yeah. You know what you're saying? Yeah, exactly. So, uh, Chuck, as is traditional, so anyway, say what you will. Pope Gregory the Thirteenth had this, had this really good astronomers. Mm-hmm. A very good astronomical staff. And he made a decision, he stuck with it, and we're all with it, but in Britain, because of their, they just had their own Brexus. Right. Brexit, rather. So that, this was the pre-Brexit Brexit.

• 4:36Bill Nye?

  Well, they've never gotten along. This was their astrological Brexit. It's seven astronomical- Astronomical, I'm sorry. Seventeen nautical miles from Britain to the mainland, but they still think of themselves as this other thing, even now. So it wasn't till seventeen fifty-six. That the British guys and gals agreed to go along with the Gregorian calendar. Just think a hundred years of not having the same calendar. How are you gonna do business? What's, I mean, like, who's gonna write checks?

• 5:03Chuck Nice?

  I'll meet you next Tuesday. What happened to you?

• 5:05Bill Nye?

  That's right.

• 5:06Chuck Nice?

  What happened? I waited all day.

• 5:08Bill Nye?

  This check isn't good for two weeks.

• 5:12Bill Nye?

  What do you mean? No, no, it's the day.

• 5:13Chuck Nice?

  What are you talking about?

• 5:14Bill Nye?

  What I always tell everybody, I believe that Isaac Newton's mother believed that Isaac Newton was being born on Christmas Day.

• 5:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:23Bill Nye?

  I mean, so, I like to call it Newtonmus. Isaac Newton's birthday is Newtonmus. And it's very happy.

• 5:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:31Bill Nye?

  We don't have, there's no dispute about deities and their offspring.

• 5:37Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 5:37Bill Nye?

  And what continent it started on.

• 5:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:40Bill Nye?

  His or her ancestry. No, it's just Newtonmus.

• 5:44Chuck Nice?

  For unto us this day, or not, a child is born.

• 5:48Bill Nye?

  There's a lot of child's borns.

• 5:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:50Bill Nye?

  Now, but we have, this is cosmic queries.

• 5:53Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it is.

• 5:54Bill Nye?

  So, we're here in the cosmos.

• 5:55Chuck Nice?

  We're here in the cosmos.

• 5:56Bill Nye?

  And we're gonna take queries.

• 5:58Chuck Nice?

  The queries.

• 5:59Bill Nye?

  And you are the query-est.

• 6:00Chuck Nice?

  I am the query-est of the queer.

• 6:01Bill Nye?

  That didn't go the way I wanted.

• 6:02Chuck Nice?

  The queer-est of the queer.

• 6:03Bill Nye?

  You are the guy who asks the questions.

• 6:06Chuck Nice?

  I am the queer-est of the queer with the queries. And what we do is-

• 6:10Bill Nye?

  He's happily married, three children.

• 6:12Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, well, you know.

• 6:14Bill Nye?

  How long have you been married?

• 6:15Chuck Nice?

  Half of that is right.

• 6:17Bill Nye?

  How long have you been married?

• 6:18Chuck Nice?

  I'll let everybody else be the decision. I've been married for eighteen years. It'll be nineteen soon.

• 6:23Bill Nye?

  Congratulations.

• 6:24Chuck Nice?

  I think.

• 6:24Bill Nye?

  So, then the old joke-

• 6:25Chuck Nice?

  To me, congratulations to me.

• 6:27Bill Nye?

  Your wife a little stressed.

• 6:29Chuck Nice?

  Condolences, maybe.

• 6:30Bill Nye?

  Yeah, so, the old joke, which I'm still charmed by. Nineteen years.

• 6:35Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:35Bill Nye?

  Been married nineteen years.

• 6:36Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 6:37Bill Nye?

  Some of them happy.

• 6:38Chuck Nice?

  Some of the, well, you know what? That's all marriage. I think that is the definition.

• 6:42Bill Nye?

  Negotiation. All right, so, lead on.

• 6:44Chuck Nice?

  So, here we go. We have queries, as they have been gleaned from all over the internet, no matter what it is. Twitter, Facebook, and our various incarnations.

• 6:53Bill Nye?

  Those electric media, the kids.

• 6:55Chuck Nice?

  The kids.

• 6:56Bill Nye?

  With their-

• 6:57Chuck Nice?

  With their internets and phone machines.

• 7:00Bill Nye?

  Their webs.

• 7:00Chuck Nice?

  That's right. Right, so.

• 7:01Bill Nye?

  Lead on. Nice shirt, by the way.

• 7:03Chuck Nice?

  Well, thanks. Uh, the first thing that we always do when we have a cosmic query is read a query from one of our Patreon patrons and yes.

• 7:12Bill Nye?

  Patreon.

• 7:12Chuck Nice?

  Patreon.

• 7:13Bill Nye?

  One of the social outlets.

• 7:15Chuck Nice?

  That is a social outlet where you can support us directly. And by doing so, we give you priority during our cosmic queries. Yes, we can be bought.

• 7:24Bill Nye?

  Worth, worth every penny.

• 7:25Chuck Nice?

  That's right. And, uh, and if you want to support us directly as well, make sure you, uh, check out StarTalkAllAccess.com where you can get, uh.

• 7:33Bill Nye?

  Access.

• 7:34Chuck Nice?

  Exclusive.

• 7:35Bill Nye?

  Everything.

• 7:35Chuck Nice?

  Everything. That's, you're absolutely right.

• 7:37Bill Nye?

  Hence the term.

• 7:38Chuck Nice?

  Hence the term access. God, that is why you are Bill Nye the Science Guy. All right. Let's move on to our first one, which means let's start. Uh, Nick Safransky.

• 7:50Bill Nye?

  Safransky.

• 7:50Chuck Nice?

  Safransky says this, "Dear Doctor Nye, what is your opinion on the advancement of AI technologies? Is it hopeful or worrying? And why? Nick from Idaho." Where do you come down on the whole augmented intelligence?

• 8:07Bill Nye?

  I'm all for it. You got, everybody, what do you do? Let's say, I don't know, uh, what you do out there, but if you travel at all, you might go to an airport.

• 8:16Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 8:16Bill Nye?

  And you go, you go from, uh, check in to the terminal on a train.

• 8:22Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 8:22Bill Nye?

  The train.

• 8:24Chuck Nice?

  Has no driver.

• 8:25Bill Nye?

  Has no driver.

• 8:26Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my God.

• 8:26Bill Nye?

  And it determines how much torque to give to the electric motors, depending on how many people are on board, how much they weigh, how much their luggage weighs, right?

• 8:34Chuck Nice?

  I did not know that.

• 8:35Bill Nye?

  Sure. And then it slows down appropriately soon enoughly so that, uh, no matter how many people or how few people are on board, it works. I, uh, set my coffee maker to come on by itself.

• 8:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:49Bill Nye?

  And that's all good.

• 8:51Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 8:51Bill Nye?

  But the future is the coffee, then I have, then, thirdly, I have a thermostat.

• 8:56Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:57Bill Nye?

  That keeps track of how I set it. I set it this way Monday through Friday. I set it that way on Saturdays and Sundays.

• 9:03Chuck Nice?

  Right, because you may or may not be home as much.

• 9:06Bill Nye?

  And I might get up later.

• 9:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 9:08Bill Nye?

  On Sundays, I have a little routine where I get up later. I listen to a certain radio broadcast.

• 9:13Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:13Bill Nye?

  Press on.

• 9:14Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:14Bill Nye?

  And so it keeps track of all.

• 9:16Chuck Nice?

  Coffee. Do we do coffee when we get up?

• 9:17Bill Nye?

  Yeah, we do.

• 9:17Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:18Bill Nye?

  We do.

• 9:18Chuck Nice?

  All right. Okay.

• 9:19Bill Nye?

  And so, uh, what it does is it keeps track of all that and it anticipates what I'm gonna do the next weekend and the weekend after that.

• 9:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:28Bill Nye?

  So the, what artificial intelligence is, it's making decisions in the, for you in the future, based on what has happened in the past.

• 9:36Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:37Bill Nye?

  And I think we're all gonna be more and more willing to let go of setting the thermostat kind of things every day.

• 9:44Chuck Nice?

  Okay, so now with that in mind, and kind of as an addendum to Nick's question, how do you feel about augmented intelligence with respect to decision-making when it comes to perhaps endeavors that involve human life? For instance.

• 10:01Bill Nye?

  For example.

• 10:01Chuck Nice?

  AI driving a car.

• 10:04Bill Nye?

  I'm all for it.

• 10:05Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 10:05Bill Nye?

  Now, who's, who is worse at driving cars than people?

• 10:08Chuck Nice?

  Than human beings.

• 10:10Bill Nye?

  I mean, you guys, like all of you, like all of you listening, I'm an above-average driver. Yes, I know, we all are.

• 10:17Chuck Nice?

  Right, everybody can drive, right.

• 10:18Bill Nye?

  Give me a break. But, give me a break, B R A K E. The thing is, humans are not that good at it.

• 10:24Chuck Nice?

  Did you see what he just did there?

• 10:24Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 10:25Chuck Nice?

  Did you see that?

• 10:25Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 10:25Chuck Nice?

  Okay, come on.

• 10:26Bill Nye?

  So, humans are just not that good at it. I think we'll be very happy to let go of it, which we're already doing multitaskically. This is to say, people are texting like crazy while they're driving. Wouldn't it be better if they were just dri, if they were just texting and so, and the machine were doing the driving, and the machine were keeping track of the other vehicles, and agreeing on who goes first through the intersection and who gets to cut in front of whom?

• 10:52Chuck Nice?

  You know, and, you know, it's funny, but I, I just read an article that said the, the pinnacle of that will be when every single car has it, because all the cars will actually communicate with one another.

• 11:01Bill Nye?

  That's right.

• 11:02Chuck Nice?

  So it's not like.

• 11:02Bill Nye?

  Like termites.

• 11:03Chuck Nice?

  Right, like termites. Yeah, absolutely. That's, I never even thought of that. That's a great example.

• 11:08Bill Nye?

  Termites apparently have rudimentary algorithms built into their termite-ical brains.

• 11:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:14Bill Nye?

  And they function, they're able to go back and. Through their passages, their galleries, build the big mounds, do their termite things, destroy your house and everything. All without top-down management.

• 11:24Chuck Nice?

  That's right. They, everybody carries out their task as, as directed by their place in that, in that little colony.

• 11:31Bill Nye?

  Borg, yeah. So this should be doable and people, we have mobile phones which hand our calls from cell to cell. As we mobilize.

• 11:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:40Bill Nye?

  So what the heck, we can get cars to do the same thing. Safety systems have to be built in, yes.

• 11:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:45Bill Nye?

  Start going highway speeds, things could go horribly wrong very quickly.

• 11:49Chuck Nice?

  Then you're always gonna have one person who's just like, not gonna tell me how to drive. I'm gonna override this system.

• 11:54Bill Nye?

  Well, I think that'll go away. In the same way, uh, in the same way, here in the big city of New York, New York, the town's so nice, they named it twice. Once in a while, there's a subway passenger who just wants to push his way to the front of the line.

• 12:08Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 12:09Bill Nye?

  But what happens is, all the people around him just sort of don't let him.

• 12:13Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 12:14Bill Nye?

  And so I think what'll happen is automatic, uh, driving systems will take into account the crazy person. And then there'll be requirement, there'll be recreational driving.

• 12:24Chuck Nice?

  You know what? That makes sense.

• 12:25Bill Nye?

  Just like there's recreational horseback riding.

• 12:27Chuck Nice?

  Right, yeah, yeah, which we, that was the chief means of transportation and now it's a recrea- but you're right, recreational driving, it makes sense. If all the cars are in communication, the one a-hole that says, "Not gonna tell me how to drive," and, uh, disables his AI driving, all the other cars will go, "Hey, we got an a-hole out here, got an a-hole in the road."

• 12:46Bill Nye?

  Box him in.

• 12:47Chuck Nice?

  Box him in, "Let's do this, guys."

• 12:49Bill Nye?

  And they probably do it instantly, automatically, and driving.

• 12:52Chuck Nice?

  That is, that's awesome.

• 12:53Bill Nye?

  But I just, it seems very reasonable. You asked about this one thing.

• 12:57Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's great.

• 12:57Bill Nye?

  There's so much brain energy and concentration to operate a motor vehicle.

• 13:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 13:02Bill Nye?

  We can let, we can design systems that will do it for us, that we have created. They're not, they don't come from the. Automated, automated driving sky.

• 13:11Chuck Nice?

  So cool. Man, that is, that's a.

• 13:13Bill Nye?

  Entity.

• 13:14Chuck Nice?

  What a great answer, Bill.

• 13:15Bill Nye?

  Thank you. Furthermore, while you're out there, this is StarTalk and I very, I very much encourage you, of course, to watch Star Trek, enjoy Star Trek, turn it up loud, StarTalk. Gee whiz, StarTalk.

• 13:25Chuck Nice?

  Watch them both.

• 13:26Bill Nye?

  Turn it up loud. But on the new Bill Nye Saves the World show, we have a show about artificial intelligence, which I think will change your life.

• 13:34Chuck Nice?

  Please, before we go any further, since we have done with our first question, please tell us about Bill Nye Saves the World.

• 13:39Bill Nye?

  Well, it's on, gonna be on Netflix in the spring. That's the only number they'll give us for a date, is the spring. And there's 13 of them and they're all pretty great. I mean, I put my heart and soul into them. We have an excellent writing staff, amazing crew. So as the saying goes, it's got a chance.

• 13:56Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic, man.

• 13:57Bill Nye?

  Bill Nye Saves the World's got a chance.

• 13:59Chuck Nice?

  I have to tell you, there's already, already a buzz about it. People are asking about it all the time.

• 14:03Bill Nye?

  It should be, but I'm glad they're buzzing.

• 14:04Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, man.

• 14:05Bill Nye?

  All got it.

• 14:06Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic. All right, let's go to our next question. This is Chris Ryu, who says, "Hey, Bill, what would you say is the most significant invention slash discovery? Please limit it to this decade thus far." And Chris is coming to us from the Atom Club.

• 14:26Bill Nye?

  Well, I think we could call it CRISPR. I think will be the most significant invention or discovery or technique. And I gotta think hard about the CRISPR's an acronym. I know the P is palindromic, but it's where we were able to replace individual genes. So a guy like you has some kooky heart condition, you gotta take some kooky heart pills.

• 14:46Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I do.

• 14:47Bill Nye?

  What we would do, your offspring may have inherited this gene, right?

• 14:49Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 14:50Bill Nye?

  Those who have sprung from you off. So we could then in the future, when those, when your grandkids go to be conceived.

• 14:57Chuck Nice?

  We can turn that off?

• 14:59Bill Nye?

  We could perhaps turn that off.

• 15:00Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 15:01Bill Nye?

  And then the question is, can you make super, uh, super people?

• 15:06Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:07Bill Nye?

  Could you have super chucks? That could do super basketball things.

• 15:11Chuck Nice?

  That's a scary thought. Actually, the Super Chuck that was good at basketball was my dad.

• 15:15Bill Nye?

  Yeah, so he was.

• 15:17Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it skipped me. And by the way, did it ever skip me?

• 15:21Bill Nye?

  I believe it. Is the, are those genes in there? Super Chuck genes, are they in there and could you activate them and then? Would we suddenly have a surfeit of, uh, an extra whole bunch of very skilled left-handed relief pitchers? Would they like just show up?

• 15:36Chuck Nice?

  Right, they're great.

• 15:36Bill Nye?

  Parents want left-handed relief pitcher kids so they don't, so they'll make millions of dollars or euros and they won't have to work anymore.

• 15:43Chuck Nice?

  Maybe that's what happened to the Manning family, uh, you know. So Archie, the father.

• 15:48Bill Nye?

  Oh, yes. I didn't remember the last name. I had to think.

• 15:51Chuck Nice?

  Yes. So, uh, may, maybe, maybe you got a little gene manipulation going on there.

• 15:55Bill Nye?

  So anyway, this, uh, the acronym is CRISPR and if I were more prepared, I would be able to rattle it off, but.

• 16:01Chuck Nice?

  No, now, now you guys have a, uh, an.

• 16:03Bill Nye?

  But it's a genetic modification that we all imagine. So then you could have the so, the term, which is imperfect, but has caught on as designer babies, where you'd have kids that you have given certain attributes and especially you've enabled them or, um, uh, disabled whatever genetic defect or perceived defect they would have. That would be amazing.

• 16:25Chuck Nice?

  Actually, I know some people with designer babies because I know quite a few girls with the name, uh, with a child named Chanel, so.

• 16:33Bill Nye?

  I get it. I get it. Yeah, okay.

• 16:36Chuck Nice?

  It's a cultural thing.

• 16:37Bill Nye?

  We got a minute and a half. This is gonna be brilliant.

• 16:41Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 16:41Bill Nye?

  Chanel's dad.

• 16:45Chuck Nice?

  Um, I have to tell you, okay, in a minute, you can do this. Uh, Carl Dean Twill says this, "For deep space travel protection en route to Mars, can a miniature magnetosphere be created to protect the occupants in the spacecraft?" So our world is protected, protected by, uh, ma- magnetic sphere, right? So can, can we do the same with a spaceship?

• 17:06Bill Nye?

  Uh, maybe, but you need a lot of electricity.

• 17:08Chuck Nice?

  Oh, okay.

• 17:09Bill Nye?

  We make, the Earth's magnetic field is huge 'cause it has a huge amount of iron.

• 17:14Chuck Nice?

  Huge.

• 17:14Bill Nye?

  That's spinning.

• 17:15Chuck Nice?

  It's spinning.

• 17:16Bill Nye?

  So I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but maybe cheaper and easier would be to have a layer of water around the ship. Furthermore, it's been speculated that the risk isn't really that high. It increases your chance of getting cancer 3%.

• 17:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:30Bill Nye?

  Doesn't guarantee that you'd get cancer.

• 17:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:33Bill Nye?

  97 times more likely than everybody else.

• 17:36Chuck Nice?

  I'd live with those odds to go to space.

• 17:37Bill Nye?

  Yeah, especially the astronaut people. They're pretty motivated, let's run four or five marathons a week kind of people.

• 17:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:43Bill Nye?

  And so people speculate that the risk isn't that high. It's an interesting thing that people love to talk about. And people on both sides, we could never go to Mars because of radiation. We have to go to Mars because radiation is not a problem. And we'll be back after this on StarTalk as Cosmic Queries with Chuck Nice and Bill Nye. Talk to you in a moment.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  This is StarTalk.

• 18:23Bill Nye?

  Welcome back, welcome back. Bill Nye here with Chuck Nice on StarTalk. And I'm the guest host. Mistakes are made. I'm the guest host with Chuck Nice. And the Cosmic Queries are where we take your inquiries.

• 18:38Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 18:38Bill Nye?

  From anywhere in the cosmos.

• 18:40Chuck Nice?

  That's right, anywhere in the cosmos.

• 18:41Bill Nye?

  You can be anywhere in the cosmos. If you can get on the Earth's internet and send it in enough English characters or Roman characters arranged in the English language, we will do our best for you.

• 18:53Chuck Nice?

  That's right, because in the end, it's all zeros and ones anyway.

• 18:56Bill Nye?

  It is. It's troubling, but empowering.

• 19:00Chuck Nice?

  Hey, here's Shane Hansen from Facebook who says this. Hey, Bill, my question is, what invention from outside of science has made a large impact within science? Has an invention built to serve a different purpose other than science been used to advance science in new avenues of thought or discussion? Shane Hansen from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. P.S. Bill Nye the Science Guy is what made science fun for me growing up. I still get excited whenever I see an episode. Thank you so much.

• 19:39Bill Nye?

  Wow, very sweet.

• 19:41Chuck Nice?

  It was very and heartfelt, right?

• 19:43Bill Nye?

  Hard, yes.

• 19:44Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean this.

• 19:45Bill Nye?

  I'm palpitating.

• 19:48Bill Nye?

  So what is outside of science?

• 19:49Chuck Nice?

  I think there's a pill for that. I think I take it from my heart.

• 19:52Bill Nye?

  What is outside of science?

• 19:54Chuck Nice?

  So I guess what he was, what he's saying is, has there been kind of something that wasn't a scientific endeavor? That led to a great scientific discovery?

• 20:05Bill Nye?

  Well, I mean, nuclear weapons.

• 20:07Chuck Nice?

  Wow. God, that's not the answer I wanted. Even though you're right, that makes sense.

• 20:14Bill Nye?

  Trying to understand the inside of atoms.

• 20:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:16Bill Nye?

  Led to, let's call it nuclear power.

• 20:17Chuck Nice?

  Nuclear power.

• 20:18Bill Nye?

  A little better.

• 20:19Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, yes.

• 20:20Bill Nye?

  Some of the energy right here, I think it's 19% of the energy in New York has made nuclear R li.

• 20:25Chuck Nice?

  Yes, as a matter of fact, that we've just found out that the power plant, which is not very far from where we are, is not protect, uh, is not adequately protected.

• 20:34Bill Nye?

  I'm shocked. No, everybody, I'm not changing the subject.

• 20:38Chuck Nice?

  Not gonna change the subject.

• 20:39Bill Nye?

  Nuclear industry just hasn't been that great at safety.

• 20:45Chuck Nice?

  Yes. What is that about? I mean, seriously?

• 20:47Bill Nye?

  Well, they got in a hurry and plus it just seemed like such a great idea. Dig the stuff up.

• 20:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:54Bill Nye?

  Fish in it, make electricity, put it back in the ground. What could go wrong?

• 20:58Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 20:59Bill Nye?

  Stuff goes wrong. Anyway, that aside, what invention came from outside of, I mean, depends what you try, want to exclude.

• 21:06Chuck Nice?

  What do you call, what do you call an invention?

• 21:08Bill Nye?

  Yeah, and what do you want to exclude? But to me, the greatest, go ahead.

• 21:11Chuck Nice?

  Has there been like some, I don't know, uh, crazy cooking discovery? That led to something in the medical world, you know what I mean? Like, we found that by cooking the bark of a certain tree, uh, cures this particular ailment.

• 21:28Bill Nye?

  Well, that's, uh.

• 21:29Chuck Nice?

  Then we were able to distill that essence and take and make a pill out of it, something like that.

• 21:33Bill Nye?

  Willow bark became aspirin.

• 21:35Chuck Nice?

  Get out. You're absolutely, they're right.

• 21:37Bill Nye?

  Yeah, but, but is that?

• 21:39Chuck Nice?

  I forgot about.

• 21:39Bill Nye?

  Were the Willow bark investigators and investigatrices, were they not? Doing science?

• 21:46Chuck Nice?

  You know, I would, I would assume they were.

• 21:49Bill Nye?

  Have lab coats and business cards that said "science" person on it?

• 21:52Chuck Nice?

  That was a long time ago, too.

• 21:53Bill Nye?

  Well, and it worked. And the other, when people say, "What's the greatest invention?", I almost always reply, "sewers."

• 22:00Chuck Nice?

  You, I, you know, we've had this conversation, but, uh, and we'll get into that, cause I have a-

• 22:04Bill Nye?

  Let's not get in, all the way into that.

• 22:06Chuck Nice?

  We won't get all the way, cause I have somebody, I don't wanna steal it from them, but the last time we, we had a conversation, you told me sewers and, and it, I was, I was, I was flabbergasted.

• 22:16Bill Nye?

  You still have some gassing of flab.

• 22:18Chuck Nice?

  I'm still gassing of flab. And I gotta tell you, when I heard your explanation, that's why I was like, "Holy crap, that makes-" I'm sorry.

• 22:25Bill Nye?

  And he did it again, people. Comedy is natural for him. He doesn't even, it just, it just-

• 22:30Chuck Nice?

  It just boom.

• 22:31Bill Nye?

  Just happens.

• 22:31Chuck Nice?

  It happens like that.

• 22:32Bill Nye?

  Enough with the verbs. Yeah, so, uh, anyway.

• 22:37Chuck Nice?

  But yeah.

• 22:38Bill Nye?

  What's from outside of science? Is willow bark from outside of science? Is fire making from outside of science?

• 22:44Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:44Bill Nye?

  Uh, I don't know. Second law of thermodynamics, I'd say is inside of science. Timekeeping? We talked about earlier.

• 22:52Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, timekeeping is science.

• 22:54Bill Nye?

  Coffee making? Is that chefing or sciencing?

• 22:57Chuck Nice?

  Hmm, ah, see, there you go.

• 22:59Bill Nye?

  Either way, it's delicious.

• 22:59Chuck Nice?

  So true. Now I want a cup of coffee.

• 23:03Bill Nye?

  There's no, there's, you, I really recommend, if you guys out there are gonna start a radio show or podcast, I really recommend you have a coffee pot. This is not extraordinary, this is not an extraordinary idea.

• 23:15Chuck Nice?

  It's a simple thing, right?

• 23:16Bill Nye?

  It's very common.

• 23:17Chuck Nice?

  Very common.

• 23:18Bill Nye?

  Lead on.

• 23:18Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go. Um, well Shane, good question. Uh, uh, we didn't really get to an answer, but, uh, yeah.

• 23:25Bill Nye?

  Well, it's a tough one. I don't know what's outside of science.

• 23:27Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, what's outside of science? Everything is science when you think about it, so.

• 23:30Bill Nye?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 23:31Chuck Nice?

  That's really what we're saying.

• 23:32Bill Nye?

  What we're saying.

• 23:32Chuck Nice?

  Everything is science, okay? All right, here we go. Grant Roach says this, "Hi, Mr. Nye. What three key inventions do we need for a manned mission to Mars?"

• 23:43Bill Nye?

  Which could be a human mission.

• 23:45Chuck Nice?

  It doesn't have to be guys. It doesn't have to be guys.

• 23:48Bill Nye?

  I mean, if I'm going out into space for 400 days.

• 23:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:51Bill Nye?

  You're a great looking guy, Chuck, but I wouldn't mind having some ladies.

• 23:54Chuck Nice?

  YMCA. Okay.

• 23:59Bill Nye?

  You can, uh, there's no need to feel down. Uh, pick yourself off the ground. That's right. You can get yourself clean, baby. Have a good meal. You can have a good meal. You can do whatever. You feel. At the Y M C. There you have it. So with that in mind, I don't know why this person chose three key inventions. You know, this is what they, I just read them, Bill. But he says, what three key inventions do we need to, to, to, to send some Mars, some, some astronauts to Mars? So at the Planetary Society, as you may know. Yes. Uh, we did an analysis last spring. We don't really need any new technologies, uh, new inventions. We just need to, uh, improve

• 24:45Bill Nye?

  or literally expand, uh, the technologies we already have. Okay. And the expansion hilarious reference I was making was to the inflatable habitat. Ah ha. So you have existing rockets, you go in orbit, you get, then you fly some more rockets up to get enough fuel. And you fly to Mars in a big inflatable habitat. And you orbit Mars. And all this could be done with existing technologies if it was just decided to be done. So the analysis we did at the Planetary Society was 2033. All right. Now, if you're of a certain age, Chuck, as I am, you remember the Apollo program and astronauts orbited the moon first. Yes.

• 25:28Bill Nye?

  Apollo eight, uh, 1968 orbited the moon and that was the precursor. That's where we figured out trajectories, made sure the retro rockets retroed and rocked and took the famous picture of the Earth rise on the eve of Isaac Newton's birthday, 1968 astronaut Bill Anders. And they call that what? A moon orbit insertion? What is that? That's lunar orbit. Lunar orbit insertion, right? Yes. Okay, cool. Space people dig that. Yeah. So we could do the same thing at Mars in 2033 without increasing the United States National Armored Space Administration NASA budget. If you've got international partners, if you got motivated, uh, McDonnell Douglas, well, I mean, Lockheed Martin thinks they could do it in 2028,

• 26:12Bill Nye?

  which would be two Martian orbits sooner. And we're all for it. Let's go. But the things you need is people, a place for people to live for this journey. Need great big rockets. Right. And, um, Um, you need to decide to do it and the big, the biggest problems are political.

• 26:31Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean, you know, there, I think the argument will come back.

• 26:39Chuck Nice?

  How are you gonna send somebody to Mars when you don't have NASA, period?

• 26:43Bill Nye?

  You're talking about when all the federal budgets-

• 26:45Chuck Nice?

  When all the federal budgets are slashed to zero.

• 26:48Bill Nye?

  So what you are, I know many of you are, uh, half of everybody you meet voted the other way from how you did, from the way you did, but it's very reasonable with that with the president-elect. When taxes are cut, the federal government will have less money.

• 27:08Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:09Bill Nye?

  And programs will be cut and one of the things that's gonna be cut first will be earth science and then how far is it from earth science to deep space exploration and then how far is it from, and then in general, there'll be short-term gains where infrastructure gets invested in, but then there'll be inflation and that, the inflation then will put further pressure on the space program.

• 27:32Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 27:33Bill Nye?

  So it's, uh-

• 27:33Chuck Nice?

  There are some people who-

• 27:34Bill Nye?

  SpongeBob Economics.

• 27:35Chuck Nice?

  Some, some people feel like that is actually necessary because the idea behind smaller government is starve the government and by starving the government, you cause a proliferation of private sector activity and so where NASA will not be able to do what they're supposed to do, you'll have private sector entities that will step into that vacuum and find a way to make money sending a spacecraft to Mars.

• 28:03Bill Nye?

  We'll see.

• 28:06Bill Nye?

  I mean, but I mean, you may be right.

• 28:07Chuck Nice?

  That was the best answer to that.

• 28:08Bill Nye?

  You may be right.

• 28:09Chuck Nice?

  No, no, we're not right. Cause is there any real profit in sending something to Mars?

• 28:14Bill Nye?

  Now you're talking. See, there is no, almost certainly, there is no business case for going to Mars.

• 28:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:19Bill Nye?

  You're not gonna make money going to Mars. You could sell tickets. But you're off by a factor of uh 10 million. Something like that. It was the cost of it compared to what people would pay.

• 28:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:31Bill Nye?

  So we'll see.

• 28:32Chuck Nice?

  Clearly, clearly governments are the only, are the only entities that have any reason to do stuff like this.

• 28:40Bill Nye?

  Well, the Lunar X Prize is a way to do it. Uh, but you're going back to a place people have already been. And I remind us, in the example of Columbus, or Magellan, or Francis Drake, or Henry Hudson.

• 28:55Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:56Bill Nye?

  These people, or these explorers, went around on the government dime.

• 29:00Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 29:00Bill Nye?

  Or before they had Euro, the government peso, the government pound.

• 29:05Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 29:06Bill Nye?

  Drachma. They did their thing. Lewis and Clark were government employees. And after they did the mapping, then you build a Continental Railroad.

• 29:14Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 29:15Bill Nye?

  Transcontinental Railroad. They don't just go, let's start building a railroad and start cutting through the forest without knowing where the rivers are gonna be.

• 29:22Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 29:22Bill Nye?

  It's not how it is.

• 29:23Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 29:25Bill Nye?

  This gets back to something that my parents mentioned countless times as I was growing up.

• 29:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 29:31Bill Nye?

  Common sense is not that common. You can't count on it. So we'll see what happens out there.

• 29:37Chuck Nice?

  That's, there you go. There you go. All right. So um, let's move on to our next question.

• 29:46Bill Nye?

  I'm supposed to have a cough button. But I just got to thinking about the future of the economic world and I got choked up.

• 29:53Chuck Nice?

  Yep, here we go. All right, so, in recent history, wait, who sent me this?

• 29:59Bill Nye?

  That's not somebody's name. In recent history, that's an unusual name.

• 30:03Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it is. In recent history.

• 30:05Bill Nye?

  Lead on.

• 30:06Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm. Uh, this is Bert Wardwell. Hmm, I like your name, Bert. Bert Wardwell. Uh, from Facebook says this, "In recent history, the last 100 years or so, what has been the most important invention or breakthrough that has not had a direct military national security application? Thank you."

• 30:26Bill Nye?

  Uh, maybe genetically modified crops.

• 30:29Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 30:30Bill Nye?

  But don't we feed the military with food?

• 30:32Chuck Nice?

  Well, we do.

• 30:33Bill Nye?

  So.

• 30:34Chuck Nice?

  But we feed everybody else with food, too, so they're just lumped into that group, the military.

• 30:39Bill Nye?

  Lumped in.

• 30:40Chuck Nice?

  Hmm, unlike the, like my mashed potatoes.

• 30:43Bill Nye?

  Uh, but I think it has a cynical quality to it, that query, doesn't it?

• 30:48Chuck Nice?

  Yes, because what he's saying is basically, unless we're making something to destroy one another, we really don't tend to have advancements.

• 30:57Bill Nye?

  Here's an example from my own experience, and I don't know if this will really do it for you, uh, Bert, but I, uh, lived in the Pacific Northwest for a long time. We're very proud that it's the hypothermia capital of the world.

• 31:11Bill Nye?

  The air is so moist, any time of year, there's so much moisture in the air, it just sucks the heat out of you. It's a moist air conducts heat, or water conducts heat 25 times stronger, more strongly than air.

• 31:23Chuck Nice?

  That's why wicking technology is so important.

• 31:25Bill Nye?

  We had this state of the art technology at first was, uh, Filson, which had this tin cloth, they call it, this waxed cotton cloth, and moisture will pass through it. I have a, I have a Filson hat from the 1800s.

• 31:41Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 31:41Bill Nye?

  Same technology.

• 31:42Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 31:42Bill Nye?

  Now we have Gore-Tex and the derivative products. All right, so when I went to do the Science Guy show in a Navy airplane.

• 31:51Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 31:52Bill Nye?

  It was cool. Uh, we did the Navy training. I swim around the pool with boots on. I wore a flight suit, you know, I was just so cool.

• 32:00Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 32:01Bill Nye?

  But then, uh, the Navy had this very primitive keep warm technology. When you have to parachute out of your fighter plane over the middle of the ocean.

• 32:09Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 32:10Bill Nye?

  Get in a rubber raft and hope somebody finds you.

• 32:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:13Bill Nye?

  It was all this very heavy wool.

• 32:16Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 32:17Bill Nye?

  Now, the Navy has Gore-Tex.

• 32:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:21Bill Nye?

  So which came first, Bert?

• 32:25Bill Nye?

  I say the moisture wicking technology came first. That's what I say.

• 32:29Chuck Nice?

  Well, there you have it. Wow, that's pretty cool, man.

• 32:32Bill Nye?

  I'm jamming there. I'm working hard because that same Teflon stuff is used to insulate wires in aircraft because when it burns, it doesn't make very much poisonous smoke.

• 32:43Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 32:44Bill Nye?

  If it isn't one thing, it's something else.

• 32:45Chuck Nice?

  Something else. The world's a dangerous place. That's what we're learning here, people.

• 32:49Bill Nye?

  The world's pretty great. It's much safer than it used to be.

• 32:52Chuck Nice?

  That is for sure.

• 32:52Bill Nye?

  When you live in the developed world, anyway. If you live in a war zone, it's a bit of a drag.

• 32:57Chuck Nice?

  Wow, yeah, this is true. Uh, you know what? Since you brought up, uh, the show, I just want to ask you...

• 33:04Bill Nye?

  Which show? The show? This is the show.

• 33:06Chuck Nice?

  Well, this is one show, but, you know, uh, the science guy...

• 33:10Bill Nye?

  Bill Nye Saves the World?

• 33:11Chuck Nice?

  Guys, well, Bill Nye Saves the World. And, uh, the fact that you get to do all this cool stuff, what's the coolest thing you got to do?

• 33:17Bill Nye?

  Uh, well, you're never gonna say your favorite thing because then you're gonna think I didn't enjoy the other things. But flying around in the, in the, uh, uh, Phantom, I mean, no, the Phantom, the, um, FA-18 Hornet, Fighter Attack Hornet airplane was pretty freaking cool.

• 33:34Chuck Nice?

  That's really cool.

• 33:35Bill Nye?

  It's the Blue Angels.

• 33:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that, yeah.

• 33:37Bill Nye?

  They fly upside down. They fly this way. And the Blue Angels recently had a difficulty, but in those days, uh, it was fantastic. You fly, really, you guys, less than a meter, less than three feet from the other plane at 400 knots. It's crazy.

• 33:53Chuck Nice?

  It's insane.

• 33:54Bill Nye?

  And, uh, as I always say, when they...

• 33:56Chuck Nice?

  Now, wait a minute. Are those guys actually just flying that way or is it like computers?

• 34:01Bill Nye?

  No, no, no. They take great pride. It's hard dudes. They're just, they don't even wear G-suits. They don't have suits that inflate to keep them awake.

• 34:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 34:10Bill Nye?

  They lift weights and stay so fit that they can hold the blood in their brains.

• 34:15Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 34:16Bill Nye?

  With that, Chuck Nice and I will be right back.

• 34:31Bill Nye?

  Hey, we'd like to give a Patreon shout out to the following Patreon patrons, Michael Kasekovich and Michelle Danek. Guys, thank you so much for supporting us on Patreon and helping us make our way across the cosmos. And if you would like your very own Patreon shout out, go to patreon.com/startalkradio and support us.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Bringing space and science down to earth. You're listening to StarTalk.

• 35:06Bill Nye?

  Welcome back. I'm Bill Nye, guest hosting on StarTalk Cosmic Queries. And I'm here, of course, with the remarkable and exciting Dr. Chuck Nice.

• 35:18Chuck Nice?

  Oh, thank you, Bill.

• 35:19Bill Nye?

  And here we take your inquiries from anywhere in the cosmos. You could be in orbit around Saturn. If you can get your query onto the electric internet machine, roughly in English, we will take your question into orbit. You could be on Proxima Centauri someplace.

• 35:36Chuck Nice?

  Yes, you could.

• 35:37Bill Nye?

  And we're around Proxima Centauri. And we're here for you, man.

• 35:39Chuck Nice?

  There you go. There you go.

• 35:41Bill Nye?

  Entity person.

• 35:42Chuck Nice?

  Proxima be cool.

• 35:43Bill Nye?

  Sure it is.

• 35:46Bill Nye?

  So, give us one, Chuck.

• 35:47Chuck Nice?

  Here we go. Here we go. This is Sheldon Novak. And Sheldon, we actually touched upon this earlier in the show. I already know the answer to it, but I'm going to give it to you.

• 35:57Bill Nye?

  Oh, he already knows.

• 35:58Chuck Nice?

  I already know the answer, because you and I have actually talked about this before. Sheldon says, "Bill, in your opinion, what has been the most important invention ever?"

• 36:11Bill Nye?

  Well, Chuck, give it to us.

• 36:13Chuck Nice?

  And it is sewers, as Bill says.

• 36:18Bill Nye?

  That's my opinion, which is correct.

• 36:20Chuck Nice?

  And please, I love this conversation, because I have to tell you, for the first time I ever heard you say that, I'm like...

• 36:26Bill Nye?

  Well, just you wouldn't have cities. And without cities, you wouldn't have this show. And by that, I mean, people have to collaborate to make these extraordinary advances in science and technology. Uh, once in a while, there's a lone inventor out in Utah or Idaho who invents television. Father T. Farnsworth in this example, but even he benefited from cities and factories, uh, near cities, where people went to work and worked together to do extraordinary things.

• 36:52Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:53Bill Nye?

  And so, if you're gonna have people in cities, you gotta have waste management.

• 36:56Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 36:57Bill Nye?

  And that's, uh, that's why I mentioned sewers.

• 36:59Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 37:00Bill Nye?

  And they're subtle, uh, they're seem straightforward, but you gotta plan for them. You can't just build a city and then think, "Let's go back and put it..."

• 37:08Chuck Nice?

  Let's go back and put us with sewers.

• 37:09Bill Nye?

  You gotta start with the sewer and work your way up.

• 37:11Chuck Nice?

  As, as we know, if you've ever been to India, you'll find out

• 37:15Bill Nye?

  Boy.

• 37:15Chuck Nice?

  exactly how important what Bill just said really is.

• 37:19Bill Nye?

  It's really hard for us from the developed world.

• 37:21Chuck Nice?

  Oh, man, it's tough, you know? So, no, I, I love that answer, you know? And, you know, sewage is something that you take for granted until you don't have it.

• 37:30Bill Nye?

  Yeah, and plumbing, you take for granted till the

• 37:32Chuck Nice?

  Until it doesn't work.

• 37:33Bill Nye?

  holidays and the, the sink stopped up and so on.

• 37:36Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 37:37Bill Nye?

  And so, this stuff is, uh, straightforward. And the ancient Romans had it, sewers and, and water management technology, but it's, you gotta, you gotta plan for it, you gotta take it into account. It's gotta be an important thing to you and your society.

• 37:51Chuck Nice?

  There you go. So, there you have it, Sheldon. It's sewers, baby. So, keep your mind out of them and remember to appreciate them. Okay, uh, Mike Jividen.

• 38:02Bill Nye?

  A poem by Dr. Chuck Nice. All right, Mike, Mike, he's got a question.

• 38:06Chuck Nice?

  Mike Jividen says, "Mr. Nye, on the topic of climate change, what problems do we face that could possibly be solved by new inventions or refining old technology?"

• 38:21Bill Nye?

  This is the so-called softball question. Thank you, Mike.

• 38:23Chuck Nice?

  Yes, yes.

• 38:24Bill Nye?

  So, here's what we wanna do.

• 38:25Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 38:25Bill Nye?

  We wanna provide renewable electricity to everyone in the world.

• 38:29Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:30Bill Nye?

  Reliable renewable electricity.

• 38:31Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 38:32Bill Nye?

  We want clean water for everyone in the world, and we want access to the internet or whatever the future of electronic information sharing.

• 38:38Chuck Nice?

  So, now, why does that, why is that important? Cause I understand the, the other two, but why access to the internet?

• 38:43Bill Nye?

  Cause then every

• 38:44Chuck Nice?

  That seems like a luxury.

• 38:45Bill Nye?

  No, it will democratize, uh, everything.

• 38:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 38:49Bill Nye?

  So, what we wanna do, we have, uh, when I was a kid There were three billion people in the world, now there's seven and a half billion people in the world. By 2050, there'll be nine or maybe even 10 billion people in the world. Wow, where are we? Half of those people are gonna be girls and women. Yes. So if we want to, uh, provide a quality of life for girls and women, we need to provide education. And the way to get education to everywhere in the world is through the internet. So true. Alright, so that's what we wanna do. So here's the thing of it. Here's the claim from me and the engineering community. We have the technology today. We have the wind and the sun and geothermal and a little bit of tidal energy to run the whole place

• 39:34Bill Nye?

  renewably if we just decided to do it. And, uh, this is not StarTalk, this is a different website. Check out thesolutionsproject.org. Mm-hmm. And there, civil engineers have done an analysis showing how this would be done in each state and over 130 countries around the world. The energy's there. We have to capture it and distribute it in a new way. And it's not that radically new, just better way. And that is, instead of having few concentrated power plants, we would have hundreds of thousands of distributed, or maybe millions of distributed energy sources. So for example, my beloved state of Iowa. Yes.

• 40:19Bill Nye?

  Where 99% of the world's popcorn is produced. Nice. That is worth, that right there, is worthy of respect. Yes, it is. Okay, uh, they get a quarter of their energy, electricity, from the wind. 25% of the electricity from the wind, and that's right now. That's right now. Competing against subsidized fossil fuels. Mm-hmm. It's right now. Texas gets 10% of its energy from the, electricity from the wind. So let's go, people! We can do this.

• 40:46Chuck Nice?

  We can do it.

• 40:47Bill Nye?

  So we want to advance existing technologies and if you want to get rich, and I hope you do.

• 40:52Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:52Bill Nye?

  Invent the better battery.

• 40:54Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 40:55Bill Nye?

  It doesn't have to be radically new, catastrophically different from existing batteries, just has to be better. Has to not overheat, has to store more energy, has to be lighter weight. And it'd be great if you can make it out of inexpensive materials, carbon, antimony, magnesium. These things, get out there, do that, and get rich.

• 41:16Chuck Nice?

  There you go. So now, uh, let's piggyback on that thought right there. Dal- Dalton Howard wants to know this. Uh, Bill, may I please have your take on the new diamond batteries?

• 41:27Bill Nye?

  Well, if they work, I'm in. That's the carbon.

• 41:29Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 41:29Bill Nye?

  I'm in. I mean, I don't know, does it work or not? Diamond in general, not that cheap.

• 41:35Chuck Nice?

  Hehehe.

• 41:35Bill Nye?

  But, uh, but if they're made artificially for certain applications. Imagine, you know how many hearing aid batteries there are out there? There's a zillion.

• 41:46Chuck Nice?

  What'd you say?

• 41:47Bill Nye?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, the remote control of your television and all this stuff. If they were tiny or more efficienter batteries made of carbon.

• 41:55Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:56Bill Nye?

  That would be a fabulous thing.

• 41:58Chuck Nice?

  Haven't we seen, uh, quite a bit of advancement in battery technology? I mean, when you look at, uh, when you look at Tesla, when you look at, uh, battery-operated cars.

• 42:07Bill Nye?

  It doesn't have to be radically new, extravagantly, totally different, just better.

• 42:11Chuck Nice?

  Just better.

• 42:12Bill Nye?

  Let's go. Just to your point.

• 42:14Chuck Nice?

  Right. There you go.

• 42:14Bill Nye?

  Advancing your point, agreeing with you, Chuck.

• 42:17Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 42:17Bill Nye?

  Saying Chuck, Chuck, Chuck.

• 42:19Chuck Nice?

  Ha, ha, ha. Awesome. Hey, let's, uh, let's hear from, uh, Alister Gray. Alister says, "Bill, parent, uh, patents are often used by governments and other bodies to show how innovative or how well they are doing as an economic metric."

• 42:34Bill Nye?

  Sure.

• 42:35Chuck Nice?

  "But due to nefarious groups, uh, you run the risk of your idea being copied or having litigious trolls suing you, uh, just for creating the patent in the first place. Are patents still relevant in today's world of inventors and innovators?"

• 42:48Bill Nye?

  Are you kidding me? What's his name?

• 42:50Chuck Nice?

  His name is Alister.

• 42:52Bill Nye?

  Alister, Alister, dude.

• 42:54Chuck Nice?

  Alister.

• 42:55Bill Nye?

  Dude, patents are vital. Whenever you cre- suppose you write a song.

• 42:59Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:59Bill Nye?

  And it becomes a bazillion seller, do you want it, you're giving it to the world?

• 43:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 43:04Bill Nye?

  How are you gonna make your living? No, patents, intellectual property, is very, very important. Patent trolls are a problem.

• 43:13Bill Nye?

  Uh, the difficulty of getting a patent uh is a problem in a way, but if you're out there and you have a great idea and you want to patent it, and I do not get any royalty from this organization, but start with LegalZoom.com.

• 43:26Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 43:27Bill Nye?

  There's routine paperwork.

• 43:28Chuck Nice?

  To help you uh file?

• 43:30Bill Nye?

  Fill it out, then you have two years to get it done for real.

• 43:32Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 43:33Bill Nye?

  Okay, so, but everybody, if you have that great an idea, another thing to have is a business plan.

• 43:40Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:41Bill Nye?

  Don't just patent it and expect the world to come to your door with cash.

• 43:44Chuck Nice?

  Knocking at your door, yeah.

• 43:45Bill Nye?

  You gotta figure it out, how you're gonna take advantage of it, how somebody else isn't gonna take advantage of you. It's business, it's what we do. We're humans, this is our thing here.

• 43:55Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 43:56Bill Nye?

  Kids today, hey duh, uh, uh, uh, I'm checking the clock.

• 44:00Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 44:01Bill Nye?

  And I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about sparks.

• 44:04Chuck Nice?

  Sparks.

• 44:06Bill Nye?

  Thunderstorms.

• 44:07Chuck Nice?

  Thunderstorms.

• 44:08Bill Nye?

  And tremendous amounts of energy and rising columns of air.

• 44:12Chuck Nice?

  A tempest, it seems like.

• 44:13Bill Nye?

  And static electricity discharging itself to the ground.

• 44:17Chuck Nice?

  Sounds a lot like a maelstrom with lightning.

• 44:20Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 44:21Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah.

• 44:22Bill Nye?

  Lightning round, Chuck.

• 44:23Chuck Nice?

  Lightning round.

• 44:25Bill Nye?

  Hit me the lightning round.

• 44:26Chuck Nice?

  Uh, here we go, Bill, let's start with our first lightning round question from Aaron Seth Graham, who says, uh, "Hey Bill, do you have an idea for NASA's recent space poop challenge?"

• 44:38Bill Nye?

  Uh, no.

• 44:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay, good, and we're moving on.

• 44:42Bill Nye?

  If somebody does, you wanna recover the water and isolate the bacteria, that's what you wanna do, get on it.

• 44:48Chuck Nice?

  There you go, and since uh, since he called the space poop challenge, I gotta use this uh, other lightning round.

• 44:53Bill Nye?

  This is Edwina, who's it?

• 44:54Chuck Nice?

  Edvina.

• 44:55Bill Nye?

  Edvina.

• 44:56Chuck Nice?

  Lightning round, um, uh, notification.

• 44:58Bill Nye?

  Ahhh. Thank you, Edvina.

• 45:02Chuck Nice?

  Here we go.

• 45:03Bill Nye?

  Very thoughtful, she's the rubber chicken.

• 45:06Chuck Nice?

  Rubber chicken people.

• 45:07Bill Nye?

  With electronics.

• 45:08Chuck Nice?

  Yes, exactly, it's amazing, alright, let's move on.

• 45:11Bill Nye?

  Um, so electronic or is pneumatic?

• 45:13Chuck Nice?

  No, it's um, it's just air passing through a diaphragm.

• 45:16Bill Nye?

  Pneumatic.

• 45:17Chuck Nice?

  Pneumatic, is that what that's called?

• 45:19Bill Nye?

  Pneumatic means having to do with breath.

• 45:21Chuck Nice?

  Just breath. Oh, right, cuz like when you have uh uh uh pneumonia.

• 45:26Bill Nye?

  Or you have pulmonary pumonations.

• 45:28Chuck Nice?

  Right, there you go.

• 45:29Bill Nye?

  Another noun for you. Alright.

• 45:31Chuck Nice?

  Um, James Peters wants to know this. Who are the top scientists credited for uh non-scientists? Credited for scientific discoveries. Are there any top scientific discoveries that did not come from a scientist?

• 45:45Bill Nye?

  Uh, there must be, but I don't know who they are.

• 45:47Chuck Nice?

  Right, there you go.

• 45:48Bill Nye?

  Uh, what who's the coffee maker? Melita.

• 45:51Chuck Nice?

  Boom.

• 45:51Bill Nye?

  She wasn't strictly a scientist.

• 45:53Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 45:54Bill Nye?

  It's pretty great.

• 45:54Chuck Nice?

  There's your answer, James. Here's another lightning round uh from uh, oh god, Cronava. Okay.

• 46:02Bill Nye?

  Cronava?

• 46:02Chuck Nice?

  Cronava. Okay, here we go.

• 46:04Bill Nye?

  B.

• 46:05Chuck Nice?

  Is there a common trait with inventors? Do you think the world would be better or worse if inventing were inherent human traits across the entire species, i.e. if everyone were asked to come up with a cure for cancer? Do you think we have a better chance of coming up with a cure?

• 46:23Bill Nye?

  No.

• 46:25Bill Nye?

  No, in that one example, everybody is an inventor. Everybody solves little problems all day, but solving cancer, I think you have to know a lot about medicine and stuff. That takes a few minutes in medical school and things.

• 46:37Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Alright, Julian G. Garcia says, I am curious, Bill. We seem to know where we are in our galaxy and where the center of our galaxy is, but do we know where the center of our universe is?

• 46:51Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 46:52Chuck Nice?

  Yes, there you go.

• 46:54Bill Nye?

  It's off that way.

• 46:55Chuck Nice?

  Over there.

• 46:56Bill Nye?

  It's no, it's in the plane of the uh of the Milky Way off a long way off. No, people love that. That's a great one. Where's Neil?

• 47:04Chuck Nice?

  We're actually.

• 47:04Bill Nye?

  Neil will give you an earful on that.

• 47:06Chuck Nice?

  There you go. Uh, yeah, we said, oh, we we we visit that one, Neil. Uh, Alan Palasco says this. Mr. Nye, in the in the last fifty years or so, technological advances have been crazy. Is this due to reverse engineering of, oh god, alien technology?

• 47:25Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 47:25Chuck Nice?

  You totally got me. He totally got me.

• 47:28Bill Nye?

  Alien technology. Humans have never had a single idea of their own. It all came from outer space.

• 47:34Chuck Nice?

  Alright Alan.

• 47:38Bill Nye?

  Humans are so stupid.

• 47:39Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 47:40Bill Nye?

  They can't think of anything and let alone make a right angle to make a pyramid. A human could never do that unless he found three, four and five things.

• 47:48Chuck Nice?

  Unless some alien landed and instructed him, right?

• 47:51Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 47:51Chuck Nice?

  Okay, uh, James Colts says this, "Hey Bill, what invention would you like to see in the future? Are there any scientific discoveries that keep you up at night?"

• 48:01Bill Nye?

  Yes. I want to find life on another world. Now, if that's an invention, but I would like to enable that, there are probably going to be some inventions involved in creating a robotic rover.

• 48:12Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:13Bill Nye?

  Can go to Mars, go up to the recurring slope linear, the stream, RSLs.

• 48:17Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 48:18Bill Nye?

  And sniff around, because everywhere there's moisture on Earth, we find something alive. Is there moisture, I mean, there is moisture on Mars, is there something alive there? Whoa.

• 48:28Chuck Nice?

  Alright, and...

• 48:29Bill Nye?

  Getting down near the end here Chuck.

• 48:30Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we are, we are.

• 48:31Bill Nye?

  Thirty seconds, let's hit it, let's hit it.

• 48:33Chuck Nice?

  In thirty seconds, let me put my own personal addendum on that last question. Do you think the discovery of extraterrestrial life will cause us to descend into chaos or bring us all together?

• 48:42Bill Nye?

  Bring us all together.

• 48:43Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 48:44Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 48:44Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 48:45Bill Nye?

  Like to discover any other discovery in medicine. When we realize that we are not alone in the cosmos, it will bring us together. We will realize that our world is that much more special and astonishing. And if we find, if we can show that there's absolutely nothing else alive anywhere.

• 49:01Chuck Nice?

  Uh-huh.

• 49:01Bill Nye?

  That would be even more profound. Carry on, this has been StarTalk. I'm Bill Nye, your host, and I'm here with citizen of the world Chuck Nice. Let's change the world. Keep looking up.

• 49:19Bill Nye?

  It's art. It's art, people.