Life of a Science Guy, with Bill Nye

Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with his friend and beloved science communicator Bill Nye to explore how he became the “Science Guy.” With comic co-host Chuck Nice, science communicator Emily Calandrelli, and biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, PhD. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/life-of-a-science-guy-with-bill-nye/ Thanks to this week’s Patrons for supporting us: Kohl Chrislock, Bradley Desrochers, Katelyn Hague, The Fellowship of Doge, Stu Glassner aka Neurocleric, Tabitha Bradley Photo Credit: Brandon Royal.

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

• 0:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  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.

• 0:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to the Hall of the Universe. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, and tonight is a special night on StarTalk because we're featuring an interview with one of America's most recognized science educators, Bill Nye, my good friend.

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So let's do this.

• 0:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 0:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tonight, my comedic coach, Chuck Nice.

• 0:52Chuck Nice?

  Hey, hey, Neil.

• 0:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tweeting at ChuckNiceComet.

• 0:57Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, sir. Yes.

• 0:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Also joining us is engineer and science educator, Emily Calandrelli. Emily,

• 1:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  welcome, and you're executive producer and Emmy-nominated host of the educational TV series, "Exploration: Outer Space." You also serve as a correspondent on Bill Nye's Netflix show, "Bill Nye Saves the World." That's right. So Bill Nye is, as we all know, he's beloved and he's a frequent contributor to StarTalk.

• 1:25Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 1:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But tonight, he's the main attraction. He's my main interview. And he came by and he sat down in my office, and I wanted to get the full story on how he created, how he forged his unique path to become America's most beloved science educator.

• 1:43Chuck Nice?

  Or maybe he's America's most equally beloved science educator. I'm just gonna say.

• 1:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He knows who's paying him.

• 1:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's check out the first clip. Bill.

• 1:59Bill Nye?

  Neil.

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Dude.

• 2:00Bill Nye?

  Dude.

• 2:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to the show.

• 2:03Bill Nye?

  It's great to be on the show.

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We have the show called StarTalk.

• 2:05Bill Nye?

  Really?

• 2:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have you heard of it?

• 2:06Bill Nye?

  Tell us about it.

• 2:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so you, you weren't always the science guy.

• 2:13Bill Nye?

  No, that's, that's true.

• 2:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you went to college at Cornell?

• 2:16Bill Nye?

  Yes, I went to Cornell.

• 2:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From, from DC?

• 2:19Bill Nye?

  From Washington.

• 2:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Born and raised.

• 2:20Bill Nye?

  Born and raised.

• 2:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you went to Cornell, majored in?

• 2:23Bill Nye?

  A mechanical engineer.

• 2:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're an ME.

• 2:25Bill Nye?

  I'm an ME, BSME, because I always liked bicycles and airplanes.

• 2:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What were your years there?

• 2:32Bill Nye?

  Uh, seventy-three to seventy-seven.

• 2:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This coincides with the man himself, Carl Sagan.

• 2:40Bill Nye?

  With Carl Sagan, yes, yes.

• 2:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He was a professor at Cornell?

• 2:42Bill Nye?

  Professor at Cornell. So what happened was, I completed my engineering requirements. I took three years of calculus. I was good. I took heat transfer, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, design of mechanical components, and control systems. Then, with that completed, I decided to take astronomy. Now, as you may know, my father was a prisoner of war for forty-four months, longer than anybody else from the US, and during this internment, apparently...

• 3:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A German prisoner of war or Japanese?

• 3:16Bill Nye?

  Japanese. And if you get a chance to be a prisoner of war, don't do it.

• 3:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 3:22Bill Nye?

  It sounds like a real drag.

• 3:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 3:25Bill Nye?

  But he became fascinated with the night sky during this time. He could easily tell you all eighty-eight traditional constellations, and he could just look up in the northern hemisphere and do what, four dozen? Something about that? Is that about right?

• 3:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the northern hemisphere?

• 3:38Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 3:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. Well, northern hemisphere, you see also some of the southern hemisphere.

• 3:42Bill Nye?

  I see, yeah. Anyway, so I decided to take astronomy from this famous guy, Carl Sagan. And my claim, Neil, is I was in class when he asked us what rock and roll song should be put on the records to go out of the solar system aboard the two Voyager spacecraft. And my claim is-

• 4:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is the famous Voyager record-

• 4:03Bill Nye?

  Golden-

• 4:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sounds of Earth.

• 4:05Bill Nye?

  Sounds of Earth. And so, my claim is, we were there, he wanted to put on a rollover Beethoven, a sort of a inclusive rock and roll, classical music embrace somehow. But we said, "No, no, rock and roll, Chuck Berry, it's Johnny B. Goode." And that's what we told him in class. And so, that was an exciting time, Neil. It was exciting.

• 4:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And in fact, Johnny B. Goode was sent on the record.

• 4:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nice. So Emily, you tweet as "The Space Gal."

• 4:37Speaker 03

  The Space Gal.

• 4:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very cool. Very cool. And so, when did your interest in space begin?

• 4:42Speaker 03

  So, I wasn't really a space nerd until I got to college. And I remember exactly when it happened, because I was walking down the hallways of West Virginia University, where I went for undergrad, and I was choosing what engineering major I wanted. I knew I wanted engineering, but I didn't know what kind. And I saw a poster of a student floating in weightlessness. And it said something corny like, "At West Virginia University, you can do your homework weightless." And I was like, "What kind of nerdy metaphor is that?" And it turns out that if you studied aerospace engineering, you can fly in something called the Vomit Comet, which, as you know, I'm sure, that plane that flies like a roller coaster in the sky and allows you to float weightless inside of it. And so, I wanted to fly in the Vomit Comet, and that's why I did aerospace engineering.

• 5:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you fly in the Vomit Comet?

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Three times.

• 5:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you vomit in the Vomit Comet?

• 5:32Speaker 03

  One time.

• 5:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, oh. Because if you vomit in zero G, the vomit doesn't go to the ground, it just floats and gets in everyone else's hair. Right. And that is just nasty.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not good.

• 5:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. So after Bill Nye's degree, he landed a job at Boeing, up in Seattle. Yeah. And he worked on the design and production of America's most famous jet. The Jumbo Jet. Nice. The Boeing 747. I asked him about that, let's check it out. You graduate from Cornell.

• 6:06Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 6:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get hired by Boeing.

• 6:08Bill Nye?

  Yeah, recruited.

• 6:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  HQ is in Seattle.

• 6:12Bill Nye?

  At that time, Seattle, yep.

• 6:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They got their own runway.

• 6:14Bill Nye?

  That's the cool thing about airplane building. If you decide to go in the business, your factory has to be at the end of a runway. And so you might not, like, when you buy a car, you're very happy that your new car only has a mile on it, or a mile and a half, or even six miles if they're giving somebody a test drive. Your airplane doesn't come on the back of a truck. They fly to wherever you are. And in some cases, we take all the seats out or don't put the seats in till it gets there because they're a little too heavy to fly nonstop on these extraordinary journeys back then. So...

• 6:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In other words, if you're going to deliver a 747 to Thailand.

• 6:55Bill Nye?

  Thailand, you could, how about Cape Town?

• 6:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cape Town, sure. Crossing the equator.

• 7:00Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 7:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you've got to send it there light.

• 7:02Bill Nye?

  Yeah, yeah. And they thought of that.

• 7:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 7:05Bill Nye?

  That's engineering, which is all physics now. Applied physics. It's using physics to make things. That's our biz.

• 7:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what did you do for Boeing?

• 7:14Bill Nye?

  I worked mostly on the horizontal stabilizer, a little bit on nosewheel steering and...

• 7:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the 747?

• 7:21Bill Nye?

  747. But I did work a little bit on 737, a little bit on 27, and...

• 7:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Excuse me, 27?

• 7:28Bill Nye?

  727, yeah.

• 7:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  27.

• 7:30Bill Nye?

  Well, that's how you say it. What are you going to do? No, so 27, 37, 47, and just 57 is a great airplane, but it is, as we say in the business, a derivative bit.

• 7:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what's your favorite 7?

• 7:44Bill Nye?

  Well, I have great affection for 747. 747 had a whole bunch of innovations. Did you know that 747 has no direct connection between the yoke, the steering and rudder pedals, and the control surfaces? The first fly-by-hydraulic airplane. It is an astonishing thing that I find thoroughly charming. If a 737 loses all its hydraulic power...

• 8:12Bill Nye?

  A human can operate it with his bare hands. So what you do is use the energy of the moving air to operate control surfaces and steer the plane. You lose maneuvering performance, but you can do it.

• 8:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But the 747 can't do that.

• 8:28Bill Nye?

  747 relies on windmilling engines, which have a lot of drag, aerodynamic drag, but it works.

• 8:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:36Bill Nye?

  It's quite a thing. You go on a flight test, turn off all the engines. Is it gonna land? I guess we'll see.

• 8:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so what was missing at the end of that bit, that segment, was the question is, well, will it land? The plane will always land.

• 8:57Chuck Nice?

  The plane will land.

• 8:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just mad whether it lands softly.

• 9:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gravity takes care of the landing part every time.

• 9:04Chuck Nice?

  The landing will happen no matter what.

• 9:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Will happen.

• 9:06Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 9:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. So Emily, do you know about this hydraulic system that he was talking about in the 747?

• 9:13Speaker 03

  So I'm not a plane person. I'm more of a space person in the aerospace.

• 9:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was just a disc. Didn't that sound like a disc?

• 9:19Chuck Nice?

  I know. It's just like you earthlings.

• 9:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You earth... you just need air.

• 9:23Chuck Nice?

  With your air. You know what I mean? Your need for lift and drag. I'm a space person.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  Space is a bit cooler.

• 9:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. But so flying without engine power is just a glider, I guess, at that point.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's just a glider. And so I did a little... This, that was kind of over my head. And so I would be a bad science communicator if I couldn't quickly learn about things like that. So I did a little research. And what he's talking about is that large airplanes, like the 747, use hydraulic systems to help the pilot control different things on the airplane. Like things like landing gear and flaps and stuff like that. When the engines cut out, those hydraulic systems don't work.

• 10:08Speaker 03

  And it becomes a glider and it kind of loses altitude fairly quickly. But on the 737, an older airplane, the pilot can maneuver it himself, but, or herself, but it's really difficult. You need a lot of strength to be able to do it and it's definitely not an ideal situation and in a very, very, very not ideal situation. With the 747, they have these windmilling engines where it's like a windmill. And if you see a 747 on a runway and it's totally turned off, but there's a strong breeze, you'll see those-

• 10:40Chuck Nice?

  You see them inside the turbines, they start moving.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 10:43Chuck Nice?

  And I know that because they have a little teeny like hypnotic little thing on there.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 10:48Chuck Nice?

  And I look at them all the time and then I want to kill somebody.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 10:53Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  It's an unintended side effect, but on windmilling engines like that, they can help provide more air pressure for those systems. And so it's just a more innovative design to help in that very unideal situation.

• 11:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Unideal.

• 11:09Chuck Nice?

  Unideal.

• 11:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Unideal. That's the euphemism here.

• 11:11Chuck Nice?

  I like that.

• 11:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you're about to crash? That's unideal.

• 11:14Chuck Nice?

  Ladies and gentlemen, Flight 666. We're in an unideal situation right now.

• 11:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I like the C cushion can double as a toilet.

• 11:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So when Bill was at Boeing, he invented a hydraulic resonance suppressor that is still used today in the 747. But he also holds several patents for other inventions. I don't know how many, but we have a few of them, right? So we've got a few. So one of them is a-

• 11:47Chuck Nice?

  These are legit, these are real.

• 11:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Totally real, legit thing. So this is a throwing technique training device. And it helps optimally position the athlete's throwing hand and elbow before throwing a ball. You ever see some people that they really know how to throw?

• 12:03Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This will help them know how to throw.

• 12:04Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 12:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go. Next one, he's got an improved ballet slipper that puts less stress on your toes. So this one, it supports the ballet dancer's foot while dancing on point.

• 12:16Chuck Nice?

  That's cool.

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  See that? So it's got structure. And I know it's real because those are real patent numbers up there. Yes, they are. This one is an educational lens. And it's a magnifying glass created by filling a specially shaped plastic pouch with water. That is really cool. Yeah, give it up for Bill Nye Pat. With his real patents. Real patents. Well, before we get the full story on his, like, the science guy, I had to get the story on his bow tie. Yes. So what's going on with that? So let's check it out. Are you wearing bow ties this whole time?

• 12:49Bill Nye?

  So, I was flirting with bow ties. You know, I'm of European descent. So are a lot of people in Seattle. So are a lot of people doing stand-up comedy or trying to do stand-up comedy. So one seeks to distinguish oneself. And this was at a time when I started working. Everybody wore a tie to work. It was still in that era. You look at black and white pictures of people working on airplanes or aerospace in the 1950s. Everybody's got a white shirt and a tie.

• 13:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  White shirt and tie.

• 13:25Bill Nye?

  Yeah. So I would wear a tie to work and then work on a drawing board. I would tuck it in my shirt. So just derived from that, I experimented with bow ties. And then I found that they have great practical use.

• 13:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I just never thought about the fact that you'll never get spaghetti sauce on a bow tie.

• 13:44Bill Nye?

  That's right. They do not flip into the flask.

• 13:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they don't go into shredders.

• 13:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Emily, so Bill got his bow tie and it's like his lab coat and a little pencil neck coming through his shirt.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that made him a recognizable, lovable character. And from our crack team of research on your, your activities, you created your own science communication character.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  I did.

• 14:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You did?

• 14:14Speaker 03

  I did.

• 14:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who is Ada Lase?

• 14:17Speaker 03

  Ada Lase, yes. So Ada Lase is a third grader who loves science and technology and builds her own robots and gadgets to solve mysteries and problems.

• 14:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you invented her?

• 14:27Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's really cool. That's beautiful.

• 14:33Chuck Nice?

  A lace on the case.

• 14:34Speaker 03

  A lace on the case.

• 14:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I like this little telescope here.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. She's a huge space fan, obviously.

• 14:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How could you not be?

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's hard to picture Bill Nye without his signature bow tie.

• 14:45Chuck Nice?

  Without a doubt.

• 14:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if you become, if you start living your character, you become one in the same.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 14:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I'm always intrigued by people that have these signature things.

• 14:56Chuck Nice?

  There's a lot of people in science who actually have like signature swag or, you know, like, for instance, you know, you have your ties. You have your best.

• 15:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:08Chuck Nice?

  You know what I mean? There's Carl Sagan.

• 15:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh huh.

• 15:10Chuck Nice?

  Signature.

• 15:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The turtleneck.

• 15:12Chuck Nice?

  Turtleneck.

• 15:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Turtleneck.

• 15:13Chuck Nice?

  Right?

• 15:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, up next, we find out how Bill Nye actually became Bill Nye the Science Guy when StarTalk returns.

• 16:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk from the American Museum of Natural History. We're featuring my interview with science communicator extraordinaire Bill Nye. And I asked how his interest in comedy and his background in engineering coalesced into the identity of the Science Guy. Let's check it out.

• 16:39Bill Nye?

  It's a wonderful thing to get people to laugh at your comedy jokes. And so, I started doing stand-up, or trying to do stand-up.

• 16:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like in stand-up clubs and stuff?

• 16:49Bill Nye?

  Yeah, yeah. So I would work on a drawing board, and then I would go home and take a nap, and then go to comedy clubs.

• 16:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you were engineer by day, comedian by night?

• 16:58Bill Nye?

  Yes. That was what I was trying to do. It's a problem, the thing that always troubles-

• 17:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is engineering still in your head at some point?

• 17:05Bill Nye?

  Yeah, I miss it.

• 17:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  While you're doing that?

• 17:07Bill Nye?

  Yeah, I, yeah, I-

• 17:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So was the stick engineering-informed?

• 17:11Bill Nye?

  Yes, that's what I say. Hilarious jokes about electrocuting yourself while trying to fix a blender. Wow, is that funny? And chewing marshmallows frozen in liquid nitrogen so that steam comes out of your nose. It's hilarious, come on, it's a payoff. And I realized that what I wanted to do, you know, I came of age at a time, for me, as a mechanical engineer, was really troubling. We had the Chevy Vega and the Ford Pinto. And these were just badly-designed cars. The administration decided not to embrace the metric system, something you and I haven't fully agreed on, is my belief.

• 17:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is America, Jack.

• 17:51Bill Nye?

  Yeah, I felt the United States was falling behind industrially.

• 17:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is America.

• 17:58Bill Nye?

  So I got very concerned about the future. I'm not kidding you, very concerned. And I realized, working at the Science Center in Seattle, that young people are the key to the future. I mean, this is obvious, but they're the key to our industrial future. They're the key to our economic competitiveness.

• 18:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The key to the future of civilization?

• 18:16Bill Nye?

  Civilization. And so I wanted to get kids excited about science in the same way I had been excited about science by my teachers and a television guy named Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard.

• 18:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I remember Mr. Wizard. So all this came together, into a unique arc of life.

• 18:33Bill Nye?

  That's my claim. That's my story.

• 18:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Bill Nye became a pop culture phenomenon. Anybody growing up in the 1990s, that is, in school in the 1990s, knew about his show in science class. And it originally aired on PBS from 1993 to 1998. 100 half-hour episodes. So why do you think the show was so successful?

• 18:59Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna be honest that when you look at Bill Nye's show, one thing sticks out. And anywhere he goes, people go, "Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill." It's the theme song. Yeah. The theme song is awesome. Check this out. Here's the Bill Nye clip.

• 19:17Chuck Nice?

  Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill. Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Come on!

• 19:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, I always thought it was creepy that a severed head would be rotating. I just thought, like, if you guillotine someone and put it on a rotisserie.

• 19:30Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 19:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very Roman. That's what that looked like to me.

• 19:35Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 19:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A scene from, you know, Game of Thrones, where the heads are on spikes.

• 19:40Chuck Nice?

  I like it even more now.

• 19:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was just creepy. It was a little creepy to me, but, but...

• 19:43Chuck Nice?

  However, I will say this, that I liked it so much. I took the liberty of making one for each of you, okay? So we have Emily. Here's yours. Here you go. Emily, Emily, Emily, Emily, Calandrelli, the science something.

• 19:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, that was the lamest song ever.

• 20:01Chuck Nice?

  That's not good. I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. How'd you get it that good?

• 20:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You couldn't find anything to rhyme with Calandrelli?

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  No, I couldn't. So, you know, but I still think it works. And I got one for you, bro.

• 20:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got one? Me too?

• 20:15Chuck Nice?

  I got one for you. Check it out. Here we go. There you go. Neil, Neil, Neil, Neil, Neil. Neil Tyson, the astrophysics guy type of Tyson.

• 20:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm not about you, but that was pretty spooky, actually.

• 20:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Emily, so research has shown that kids who watch the Bill Nye Science Guy show are more likely to think about science as playing a role in their lives and in society, they're most likely to like science. And so, did you watch his show growing up?

• 20:52Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, everybody. Everybody did. I remember, you know, the wheeling in of the big, hunky TV and then seeing Bill Nye in our classroom.

• 21:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the classroom?

• 21:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So was there a particular episode that you?

• 21:03Speaker 03

  The one that stands out that I remember the most is the planets and moon episode.

• 21:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Space.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  The space episode. But I remember it because he was on his bike and he did it to show the actual scale of the distance of the planets, which I had never seen of before. You know, you like see those models in your classroom and you think that everything is so close to each other and so neat and perfect.

• 21:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it fits on two pages of a book.

• 21:27Speaker 03

  And it fits on two pages of a book. But he showed that that is nowhere near the scale of the universe or the solar system.

• 21:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So demonstrating things are what works there. So that helped you think scientifically about the world?

• 21:42Speaker 03

  Well, see, I think thinking scientifically is a very specific way of thinking. And for me, I don't know, honestly, I don't think I started thinking scientifically until grad school. Because for me, thinking scientifically means like having very specific rules for how you think, having a filter, having standards of thought. But in undergrad, I suffered from like being a perfect student all the time, which meant...

• 22:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Suffered?

• 22:08Speaker 03

  I suffered.

• 22:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From being a perfect student?

• 22:09Speaker 03

  Oh, I would definitely say it was suffering because you just always have to get perfect grades. And what you do in school is you memorize a bunch of stuff and then you regurgitate it. That's not scientifically thinking.

• 22:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At all.

• 22:21Speaker 03

  At all.

• 22:22Chuck Nice?

  So true.

• 22:22Speaker 03

  At all. But that was the best way to optimize my schooling.

• 22:26Chuck Nice?

  That's how you get good grades.

• 22:27Speaker 03

  That's how you get good grades. It's not how you learn, but it's not how you become a scientifically minded student.

• 22:33Chuck Nice?

  Well, you can learn accidentally.

• 22:34Speaker 03

  You could.

• 22:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So were you valedictorian?

• 22:37Speaker 03

  Uh, in high school, no. I was never a smart kid. That was never like one of my... I'm a slow learner. So it takes me a long time to learn things than the average Joe, I think.

• 22:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting, because the school system requires that you learn it on a timetable for when the test comes. If it takes you twice as long, but you still learn it, or maybe you learn it better. You don't get as high grades as someone else who learned it in the time slot allocated.

• 23:02Chuck Nice?

  You're absolutely right. And by the way, you feel so much better when you actually learn something. You feel...

• 23:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rather than lament not having learned it at the time you were supposed to.

• 23:10Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 23:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, Bill's known as the science guy, but his background is in engineering. So I wondered if we really should have called him the science guy if his background is in engineering. Just a thought. So I just thought, can I ask, am I allowed to have that thought, Chuck? Let's check it out.

• 23:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I guess there's no way to have called you Bill Nye the Engineering Guy, that doesn't have a ring to it.

• 23:38Bill Nye?

  I call myself that often, yeah. But engineering is based on science, everybody.

• 23:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know, but there's no...

• 23:44Bill Nye?

  No, but Neil, you see, we all suffer our own insecurities.

• 23:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What I'm saying is, it seems like scientists are a dime a dozen in the media.

• 23:53Bill Nye?

  Oh, now?

• 23:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But no one can name an engineer. We can name you, but you're Bill Nye the Science Guy.

• 24:00Bill Nye?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Should we have somebody, you know, Betty Lou the Engineering Woman or something?

• 24:06Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 24:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that when a bridge falls down, when the levee breaks, when a plane falls out of the sky, when they can't find a sunken ship, they call the engineer person? Doesn't the world need that?

• 24:19Bill Nye?

  Yeah, and I've been called on plane wrecks and train wrecks. And I pointed out to people how we all rely on engineering. Everything in this room, perhaps these chairs especially, these electronic cameras, all of these things were engineered. We use science to make shapes and things and solve the problems associated with those things. You don't just show up and design a car with a certain amount of kilowatts or horsepower. You gotta think it through.

• 24:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you know how many times I'm asked, um, uh, who would win in a cage match between you and me?

• 24:57Bill Nye?

  Oh, you'd kick my ass.

• 24:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I get asked a stupid number of times and I say, so rather than say I can kick your ass, I just say, if we were on Gilligan's Island, you'd want Bill Nye as the professor.

• 25:10Bill Nye?

  Oh, thank you.

• 25:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He would save Gilligan. I would romantically point out the night sky stars, but that's not saving anybody.

• 25:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, up next, we'll discuss the science of dating and romance. Yeah. With Bill Nye the Science Guy. All right. When StarTalk returns.

• 25:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk from the American Museum of Natural History. We're featuring my interview with science educator extraordinaire, Bill Nye. Yes, and I asked Bill if his love for science permeates his love life. Let's check it out. Do you bring any science or engineering analysis to your dating?

• 26:08Bill Nye?

  Sure. The most romantic story I know, Neil, absolutely the most romantic story I know, is of course associated with the making of the atomic bomb. So this is where they recruited young scientists and mathematicians to go to Los Alamos, New Mexico to work on the Manhattan Project to try to finish this thing off, get this war over with. And they approached Arthur Compton. And he was a young guy at the University of Chicago. "We want you to come to Los Alamos, let's go right away." He said, "Uh, yes, I'll come, but I gotta have security clearance for my wife, Betty."

• 26:48Bill Nye?

  No, no, no, come on, Mr. Compton. Maybe it's Dr. Compton at that point. You've got to get down here. We got this matter of national security. Let's go. And besides, Arthur, why do you want security clearance for your wife? And he said, I just like to be able to talk things over with my wife. That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

• 27:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you want a scientifically literate girlfriend?

• 27:16Bill Nye?

  I want a girlfriend I can talk things over with.

• 27:20Chuck Nice?

  Oh. Oh. Oh, my God. Nothing says love like nuclear holocaust.

• 27:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, for this segment on love and science, we have to bring in another guest. A friend of StarTalk, not her first rodeo on this program, Helen Fisher. Helen, welcome. And every time you're on the show, there's some other book. Why Him, Why Her? How to Find and Keep Lasting Love.

• 27:50Speaker 04

  Right, exactly.

• 27:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like you're some kind of expert?

• 27:53Speaker 04

  Hope so.

• 27:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in fact, you are the chief scientific advisor to the internet dating site Match.com.

• 28:00Speaker 04

  I am.

• 28:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Helen, is this... He said he wants a girlfriend he can talk science to.

• 28:06Speaker 04

  Right.

• 28:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So how important is your mate as a sounding board in this kind of situation?

• 28:11Speaker 04

  Not everybody wants what I call a mind mate. He wants a mind mate. Some people want a soulmate. Some people want a helpmate. Some people want a playmate. I prefer a playmate. Probably most of you guys would too. He wants a mind mate. He's a very high testosterone guy. And he wants somebody to talk things over. He's talking straight out of his biology.

• 28:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so why does being a mind... Looking for a mind mate mean it's testosterone-driven?

• 28:35Chuck Nice?

  I think sex.

• 28:38Speaker 04

  Sex too.

• 28:39Chuck Nice?

  Sex, like testosterone. Isn't that like what makes men like super...

• 28:43Speaker 04

  And women, and women too.

• 28:44Chuck Nice?

  And women too.

• 28:45Speaker 04

  Sure, absolutely. I mean, testosterone is linked with a whole pile of biological traits. People who are very high testosterone tend to be analytical, logical, direct, decisive, tough-minded, good at what we call rule-based systems. Everything from math to engineering to computers, to music, et cetera. And that's what he is.

• 29:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting. Well, this brings us to the part of StarTalk we call cosmic queries.

• 29:11Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 29:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And because what do we do? We took our audience, our fan base questions about the science of dating and romance. And we've got one of the world's experts right here at the table, Helen Fisher. So Chuck, did you bring questions with you?

• 29:29Chuck Nice?

  Indeed, I did.

• 29:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, I haven't seen them, but we got, we got right expertise here.

• 29:33Chuck Nice?

  Yes, we do.

• 29:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's do this.

• 29:34Chuck Nice?

  And so our first question is from Leila Beam from Facebook. Is there a scientific basis for love at first sight?

• 29:44Speaker 04

  Yes, I put people in brain scanners and study the brain circuitry of romantic love. And it's a basic brain circuitry and it can be triggered instantly.

• 29:52Chuck Nice?

  Yes, and I know that for a fact because I wanted to marry my wife the moment I saw her.

• 29:57Speaker 04

  Fifty-four percent of men have experienced it and forty-seven percent of women have experienced it. It's, it's, it's not magic.

• 30:04Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 30:04Speaker 04

  You know, I mean, when you think of a squirrel in the beginning of the mating season.

• 30:06Chuck Nice?

  Thank you for that. Thanks for taking my whole marriage. Took my whole marriage, boiled it down to me being a squirrel. A nut chasing rodent. Just gotcha, thanks.

• 30:21Speaker 04

  Well, the bottom line is that all animals feel an instant attraction. And a squirrel in the beginning of the mating season, she's got to find another squirrel who's got nice perky ears and a nice fluffy tail and a nice good gait. And she can't spend three years talking about his college plans. She's got to get on with the program here. So this brain circuitry can be triggered instantly in all kinds of mammals and certainly in people too.

• 30:41Chuck Nice?

  Well, and what a lot of people don't know, just to say, is that if you stick around long enough, it happens over and over again.

• 30:48Speaker 04

  That's a beautiful thing that you said because, you know, we have put people into the brain scanner who are in their 50s and 60s who came into the lab saying that they were still madly in love, not just loving, but in love with their long-term marital partner. And in fact, it can happen over and over and over, just like you said.

• 31:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to realize what you sound like. People come to my life and we stick them in the brain scanner. This just sounds so romantic.

• 31:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When in doubt, stick him in the brain scan.

• 31:19Speaker 04

  Pop him in.

• 31:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, what's that?

• 31:21Chuck Nice?

  All right, here's our next question from, um, Citorial Synapses. From Instagram.

• 31:29Chuck Nice?

  Can love solely be attributed to the chemicals in the brain? Or is there something still magical and wondrous about it? Are we just chemical love lab? Or are we tapping into the beauty and the passions of the universe itself?

• 31:46Speaker 04

  It's great delivery. Sure, why not? There's always magic to love.

• 31:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I would say no to the universe part of that.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  I would too.

• 31:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Helen, what you're saying is you will allow there to be some dimension that you're not measuring that might still sort of wrap this package in a bow?

• 32:05Speaker 04

  I've never met two people who were alike. I'm an identical twin and even she and I are not exactly alike.

• 32:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How do I know we have the right Ellen Fisher?

• 32:13Speaker 04

  You can guess.

• 32:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, next question.

• 32:16Chuck Nice?

  Well, um, we have one last question and I believe this one is from the man that we are discussing himself. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bill Nye!

• 32:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Bill Nye!

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Bill, you got a question for us?

• 32:37Bill Nye?

  Yeah, so the question would be, uh, you answered several of my preliminary questions. But Helen, in this case of chemistry, is there something to human pheromones? Or are they overwhelmed? And I'm a follow-up. Are they related to this mythic, um, multi, uh, what is it?

• 33:02Speaker 04

  Major Histo-compatibility Complex. So those are two separate questions? I've already forgotten the first one about pheromones.

• 33:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I didn't understand either question.

• 33:12Speaker 04

  Okay, well, I'll...

• 33:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Could you repeat? Thank you.

• 33:14Speaker 04

  So, there's two things. I'm not a person who does believe that humans have basic fear hormones. If you were to talk to a couple scientists, they might support that, but most of us do not. We are basically an animal that, we are a sight animal. You know, we don't say love at first smell, we say love at first sight. You know, for millions of years, you'd fall out of your trees if you didn't have a good vision. And those huge parts of the brain are built to look at somebody. So we look at somebody and size them up, rather than smell them to size them up. And it may play a tiny little role, but it's nothing that's gonna be really important in mate choice. Unless somebody smells perfectly horrible, and that's a different issue. And then, MHC compatibility.

• 33:56Speaker 04

  They have found that if, it's a certain part of the immune system, and if you and your partner share a lot of the genes in that part of the immune system, the female's gonna be likely to be more adulterous on the side. So, there are chemical things that are playing a role in pair bonding and romantic love and adultery. And the MHC compatibility is one of them. But there's many other things, you know. I mean, you know, we fall in love with somebody for a great many reasons, and chemistry is one, certainly. That's what we've been talking about. That's probably about 50% of the show. But we also fall in love with somebody from the same socioeconomic background, same

• 34:39Speaker 04

  level of intelligence, good looks, sense of humor is essential. And the more you get to know somebody, the more you like them. So, it's not just good looks.

• 34:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, Bill, we gotta run. Thanks for dropping in. Yeah? Uh, let's change the world, you guys. Science! Science, change the world!

• 35:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And Helen, thanks for dropping in on this love segment.

• 35:05Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's awesome.

• 35:06Speaker 04

  You guys are wonderful!

• 35:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah! Next, we have Helen Fisher, everyone. Why him, why her? She's still at it.

• 35:16Speaker 05

  I'm still at it.

• 35:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Up next, Bill Nye gets all fired up for science in the continuation of my interview with him when StarTalk returns.

• 35:43Chuck Nice?

  Hey, we'd like to give a Patreon shout out to the following Patreon patrons: The Fellowship of the Doge, Stu Glassner, aka NeuroCleric, and Tabitha Bradley. Thank you, guys, for your very normal names. Well, at least you, Tabitha. And if you want to support us on Patreon, go to patreon.com and support us.

• 36:04Speaker 06

  The future of space and the secrets of our planet revealed.

• 36:13Speaker 06

  This is StarTalk.

• 36:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk from the American Museum of Natural History, right here in New York City. We're featuring my interview with America's science guy. Who could that be? None other than Bill Nye. So let's check it out. In your sort of later life, post-science guy, you've written a couple of books?

• 36:57Bill Nye?

  Three books.

• 36:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Three books?

• 36:59Bill Nye?

  Three books. One of them's about evolution. Now, here's an example, Neil. I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but I have an, I claim, I have enough science literacy to have written a book about the fundamentals of evolution. And, uh, and I did.

• 37:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not only the science literacy, it's street cred as an educator.

• 37:19Bill Nye?

  Thank you. Yes, I do, I do consider myself an educator.

• 37:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plenty of science literacy where you, people don't know how to communicate, and then that's, that could be worse.

• 37:27Bill Nye?

  I've worked very hard on becoming a competent educator. And Neil, I will say this to the audience, one of the most moving things I've ever received and I've kept is a note you wrote me. Long about 1998, saying, "Bill, you are an educator." And you meant it with, I believe, you meant it with respect. And I treasure that. But it is an extraordinary time, where this anti-science movement has gained so much strength and momentum. And we have people who sincerely question whether or not the Earth is a sphere, or an obelisk theroid, or whatever the heck it is. Are you kidding me? Are you really real? And they seem to be quite serious about this. And I know you fight this fight.

• 38:12Bill Nye?

  Our real understanding of our real place in the cosmos is so exciting. You just want to go up to people on the street and go, "Hey, man, the Earth is a ball. Isn't that the most exciting and extraordinary thing you can imagine?" Wait, wait. Mars is a smaller ball. It cooled off faster. It got an ocean before the Earth did. It got an atmosphere before the Earth did. Perhaps life started on Mars before it started on the Earth. And you and I, through an extraordinary solar systemic collision, are descendants of Martians. That is an hypothesis that I would like to investigate in my lifetime. Just thinking about it fills me with reverence.

• 38:57Bill Nye?

  And then I was at Cornell when Hans Bethe would do the freshman lecture, something by all accounts, he insisted on doing.

• 39:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Brilliant physicist.

• 39:06Bill Nye?

  And he's the guy that discovered, or quantified, or wrote down the CNO cycle, the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle in stars that produces all the elements of which you and I are made. No matter who our ancestors were, you and I are made of the same stardust. That is extraordinary and fills me with reverence every day as a human, as a scientist, a science educator, and frankly, as an engineer. It is amazing. We would not have light emitting diode lamps for this television interview without rare earths, which came from some exploding supernova.

• 39:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rare earth elements.

• 39:47Bill Nye?

  Rare earth elements. Like, heavens, pun intended. That is amazing.

• 39:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Emily, why isn't everybody this fired up about science?

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Well, it's hard to be as fired up as Bill, but I do think that Bill has been studying this for such a long time that he understands it so well and understands how seemingly miraculous science is. I think that it can be really intimidating for people that don't understand science. It can be sort of a hit to your confidence. And so if we as science communicators can make science nicer and more welcoming, I think we're gonna get more people just as excited as.

• 40:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So is it just nicer? Or is it what he was doing? He connected exploding stars to studio lights.

• 40:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, relatable.

• 40:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So relatable.

• 40:37Speaker 03

  Definitely.

• 40:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's a sort of a down-to-earth-itude about it. And so I have to ask Bill, if he's that influential on the world,

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What went wrong?

• 40:49Bill Nye?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 40:51Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 40:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 40:52Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 40:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What, what?

• 40:54Bill Nye?

  What the hell happened?

• 40:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's find out.

• 40:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have influenced an entire generation of people in this land.

• 41:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why is the country so messed up?

• 41:05Bill Nye?

  Well, we're not done. That's what I tell people. I am, I'm serious. I am hopeful.

• 41:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Would it be much worse if you never existed?

• 41:12Bill Nye?

  Oh, yes, Neil. Without me, the world would have flown off the rails much sooner. What sort of egomaniacal thing is that? I've tried my best to get young people excited about science. So as they come of age, become captains of industry, they will make different decisions about the earth's climate, about the role of industry in improving the quality of lives of people, and the role of science. We have people running around not getting vaccinated.

• 41:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you have, you have targeted kids?

• 41:48Bill Nye?

  On purpose.

• 41:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. But you also step out of that zone in your later life, and you've targeted some adults?

• 41:56Bill Nye?

  Yes, sir.

• 41:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like?

• 42:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Creationists.

• 42:01Bill Nye?

  Creationists.

• 42:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Head on.

• 42:03Bill Nye?

  Yeah, yeah, and the creationist thing, understand, is motivated by the children. That guy and his organization in Kentucky are contaminating the minds of young people so that they are scientifically illiterate, so that they do not trust their own perception of nature. They do not have the critical thinking skills to evaluate evidence, and so that as they become voters and taxpayers, the people they elect make good decisions for the betterment of society.

• 42:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Emily, you're in the biz. How do you engage science deniers?

• 42:40Speaker 03

  Oh, very carefully.

• 42:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not an answer I'm going to accept.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I think that you have to first ask your question, is your goal in that conversation with a denier to be right about the science, or is it to change that person's mind?

• 42:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Important distinction.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Very important, because if you just want to be right about the science, you can be snarky and condescending and super witty, and you can rally a bunch of people to shame that person, but you will be right in isolation, because that's a one-sided conversation. That person is not listening to you.

• 43:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As my father used to say, "It's not good enough to be right, you have to be effective."

• 43:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, up next, Bill Nye reveals his plan to change the world when StarTalk returns.

• 43:30Speaker 06

  This is StarTalk.

• 43:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk. We are celebrating the life and legacy of my really good friend, Bill Nye. And I asked Bill what he thinks is the key to science education. Let's check it out.

• 43:49Bill Nye?

  It has to be entertaining first. It has to be entertainment first. The information and science and passion, beauty and joy come with, but it's gotta be entertaining.

• 43:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Passion, beauty and joy?

• 44:00Bill Nye?

  P B and J.

• 44:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 44:01Bill Nye?

  Without the P B and J, nobody's gonna be into it. Without it being entertaining, nobody's gonna be into it. And what is it you loved about your favorite teacher, professor? Was his or her passion?

• 44:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah.

• 44:11Bill Nye?

  And you are passionate.

• 44:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, it had nothing to do with what grade I got or anything. It's that infectious passion.

• 44:17Bill Nye?

  Yeah. And my proposition is if we had a scientifically literate society, we would be addressing climate change, the three things we want for everybody in the world. Clean water, renewably produced, reliable electricity, and access to the internet or whatever the internet can. Electronic information for everyone in the world. If we could achieve that, we could change the world and we could save it for us humans. The world's gonna be here no matter what we do.

• 44:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Earth, totally.

• 44:46Bill Nye?

  Yeah. I want to save it for us. And that's an extraordinary goal, but make no small plans. And Neil, I'm honored to be on your show from time to time to promote science literacy, to have fun, and dare I say it, change the world.

• 45:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The man.

• 45:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Emily, how can science literacy change the world?

• 45:11Speaker 03

  I think science literacy is gonna be the next wave of literacy. Because if you think about it, in 1820, only 12% of the entire world could read and write. And today, that's switched a bit. Now about 15 to 17% of the world is illiterate. And so that alone, it's an indicator of how advanced a nation is, how advanced a society is.

• 45:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's just regular literacy, not science literacy.

• 45:37Speaker 03

  Just regular literacy. And I think science literacy is going to be the next wave, the next requirement for how advanced a society is.

• 45:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, he says science has gotta be entertaining first. Can't it just be intriguing or?

• 45:51Speaker 03

  Yes, it depends who your audience is.

• 45:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  It doesn't need to be that entertaining for people that already love science.

• 45:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, exactly.

• 45:57Speaker 03

  Right?

• 45:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 45:58Speaker 03

  But for people on the outskirts, yeah. I think you have to get them with the entertainment to welcome them into this circle.

• 46:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you might have known, Bill has been a contributor to this show. Yes. And on and off, because he's a busy guy, but he would send us dispatches from around the town. So our editors did a mashup just to pay tribute to his contributions over the years. Cool. So let's check it out.

• 46:23Bill Nye?

  Greetings. Hey Neil. Yo Neil. Science communication is what guys like Neil and I do. To get people like you excited about the world around us. Let's roll that tape. Science leads to innovation. Just look at that skyline. All of those shapes came out of somebody's head. In your brain someplace. We've turned bunny trails and cow paths into streets and super highways. We've been able to preserve the lives of millions of people around the world. That's simple enough. So how do we bring science to life? Soaring above the city gives you a new perspective on the world below. And our expanding universe. Take it all in. You have to breathe.

• 47:11Bill Nye?

  We're all animals. Humans are in a class by themselves. We share all kinds of information with everybody all the time. Our imaginations could soar.

• 47:23Bill Nye?

  I'm okay. And that's looking in. Looking up and out. Perhaps we can answer the oldest, deepest questions asked by all of humankind.

• 47:33Bill Nye?

  Is time travel possible? Where did we all come from? Are we alone in the universe? Is what you're watching real? Am I real? You look so real. Science will save us. Was it science? Or was it just plain trickery? It's not magic. It's mathematic. Furthermore, there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on a beach. We've flown vehicles like this up into the icy blackness just to see what's out there. So let's do that. Let's honor the great tradition of exploring new worlds. Let's embrace the process of science for a better tomorrow for all of us. Right on. We gotta get to work. See you down the track.

• 48:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I will assert that the infusion of Bill Nye's videos into the classroom, as early as elementary school, had the following effect. It enabled children to retain their curiosity through middle school. That is the great trash heap of all curiosity. And I said to myself, "My gosh, there's this rising demographic up through our civilization, but they're not old enough yet to become senators, or members of Congress, or captains of industry, or president."

• 49:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're not old enough yet. So, most of the complaining we're doing about science illiteracy in the world, from my read, is not from the younger generation. So, my generation may be unique in the posture of saying, "I can't wait until the next generation takes over so they can fix what my generation [bleeped] up about this world." And that is my tribute to Bill Nye. You've been watching StarTalk. I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 49:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want to thank Chuck Knight. Emily, thank you, first time on StarTalk. As always, I bid you to keep looking up.