Celebrating Innovation, with Bill Nye - StarTalk All-Stars

In honor of 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, the exploration of Mars and more. NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

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

• 0:00Bill Nye?

  This is StarTalk.

• 0:08Bill Nye?

  Welcome to StarTalk All-Stars. I'm your All-Star host of the evening, Bill Nye. And in this episode of All-Stars, 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. Isaac Newton, I'm here, by the way, with Chuck Nice.

• 0:37Chuck Nice?

  Thank you. Hi.

• 0:38Bill Nye?

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

• 0:46Chuck Nice?

  In Britain.

• 0:47Bill Nye?

  But it was the 4th of January in Italy.

• 0:49Chuck Nice?

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

• 0:55Bill Nye?

  You know. It's a little complicated.

• 0:58Chuck 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.

• 1:05Bill Nye?

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

• 1:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:14Bill Nye?

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

• 1:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:21Bill 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.

• 1:30Chuck Nice?

  I remember that well.

• 1:32Bill Nye?

  It was a while ago.

• 1:33Chuck Nice?

  It was a little while ago, but I remember it. That's just like it was, you know.

• 1:36Bill Nye?

  1572.

• 1:37Chuck Nice?

  Right. Just like it was that.

• 1:39Bill 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 owe you a rent for a week and a half." "No, no," says right here. "Pope said it's today." Think of the conflict.

• 1:55Chuck Nice?

  That's some serious conflict.

• 1:56Bill 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.

• 2:08Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, you're in big trouble.

• 2:09Bill Nye?

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

• 2:11Chuck Nice?

  They got a lot of rotten corn out there.

• 2:12Bill Nye?

  Yes, or you planted too late.

• 2:15Chuck Nice?

  It's even worse.

• 2:16Bill Nye?

  Yeah, it is. So, the Pope was so powerful, how powerful was he? He threw out 10 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. But they reali- they, their scheme is that if you are not divisible by the number four

• 3:01Bill Nye?

  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.

• 3:23Bill Nye?

  And, uh- And what would be the solution then, in three thousand eighty? I think they'll have an extra day. Well, 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. Oh, it'd be very cool, but getting, I know you have kids, but getting either of us, even your children, to the year three thousand eighty- 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. I 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.

• 4:09Bill Nye?

  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, eh, they just had their own Brexus. Right. Brexit, rather. So that, this was the pre-Brexit Brexit. Well, they've never gotten along. This was their astrological Brexit. It's seven astronomical, please. 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?

• 4:49Chuck Nice?

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

• 4:51Bill Nye?

  That's right.

• 4:52Chuck Nice?

  What happened? I waited all day.

• 4:54Bill Nye?

  This check isn't good for two weeks. What do you mean? No, no, it's the day.

• 4:59Chuck Nice?

  What are you talking about?

• 5:00Bill Nye?

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

• 5:08Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:09Bill Nye?

  I mean, so, I like to call it Newtonmus. Isaac Newton's birthday is Newtonmus. And it's very happy. We don't have, there's no dispute about deities and their offspring. And what continent it started on. His or her ancestry. No, it's just Newtonmus.

• 5:29Chuck Nice?

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

• 5:34Bill Nye?

  There's a lot of child's borns. Now, but we have, this is cosmic queries.

• 5:38Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it is.

• 5:39Bill Nye?

  So, we're here in the cosmos.

• 5:41Chuck Nice?

  We're here in the cosmos.

• 5:42Bill Nye?

  And we're gonna take queries.

• 5:43Chuck Nice?

  We have the queries.

• 5:44Bill Nye?

  And you are the query-ist.

• 5:46Chuck Nice?

  I am the query-ist of the queer.

• 5:47Bill Nye?

  That didn't go the way I wanted.

• 5:48Chuck Nice?

  The queer-est of the queer.

• 5:49Bill Nye?

  You are the guy who asks the questions.

• 5:52Chuck Nice?

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

• 5:56Bill Nye?

  He's happily married, three children.

• 5:58Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, well, you know.

• 6:00Bill Nye?

  How long have you been married?

• 6:01Chuck Nice?

  Half of that is right.

• 6:02Bill Nye?

  How long have you been married?

• 6:04Chuck Nice?

  I'll let everybody else be the decision. I've been married for 18 years. It'll be 19 soon.

• 6:08Bill Nye?

  Congratulations.

• 6:10Chuck Nice?

  I think.

• 6:11Bill Nye?

  So, then the old joke-

• 6:12Chuck Nice?

  Congratulations to me.

• 6:13Bill Nye?

  Your wife, a little stressed.

• 6:15Chuck Nice?

  Condolences, maybe.

• 6:16Bill Nye?

  Yeah, so, the old joke, which I'm still charmed by, 19 years. Been married 19 years. Some of them happy.

• 6:24Chuck Nice?

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

• 6:28Bill Nye?

  Negotiation. All right, so, lead on.

• 6:30Chuck 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.

• 6:39Bill Nye?

  Those electric media, the kids.

• 6:41Chuck Nice?

  The kids.

• 6:42Bill Nye?

  With their-

• 6:43Chuck Nice?

  With their internets and phone machines.

• 6:45Bill Nye?

  Their webs.

• 6:46Chuck Nice?

  That's right. Right, so.

• 6:47Bill Nye?

  Lead on. Nice shirt, by the way.

• 6:49Chuck 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.

• 6:57Bill Nye?

  Patreon.

• 6:58Chuck Nice?

  Patreon.

• 6:59Bill Nye?

  One of the social outlets.

• 7:00Chuck 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.

• 7:09Bill Nye?

  Worth, worth every penny.

• 7:11Chuck 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.

• 7:19Bill Nye?

  Access.

• 7:20Chuck Nice?

  Exclusive.

• 7:20Bill Nye?

  Everything.

• 7:21Chuck Nice?

  Everything. That's you're absolutely right.

• 7:23Bill Nye?

  Hence the term.

• 7:24Chuck 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.

• 7:35Bill Nye?

  Safransky.

• 7:36Chuck 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?

• 7:52Bill 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.

• 8:02Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 8:02Bill Nye?

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

• 8:08Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 8:08Bill Nye?

  The train.

• 8:10Chuck Nice?

  Has no driver.

• 8:10Bill Nye?

  Has no driver.

• 8:12Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my God.

• 8:12Bill 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?

• 8:20Chuck Nice?

  I did not know that.

• 8:21Bill 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.

• 8:29Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 8:29Bill Nye?

  I, uh, set my coffee maker to come on by itself.

• 8:35Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:35Bill Nye?

  And that's all good.

• 8:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 8:37Bill Nye?

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

• 8:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:43Bill 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.

• 8:49Chuck Nice?

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

• 8:52Bill Nye?

  And I might get up later.

• 8:53Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:54Bill Nye?

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

• 8:59Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:59Bill Nye?

  Press on.

• 9:00Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:00Bill Nye?

  And so it keeps track.

• 9:01Chuck Nice?

  Coffee? Do we do coffee when we get up?

• 9:03Bill Nye?

  Oh, we do. Okay.

• 9:04Chuck Nice?

  We do. All right. Okay.

• 9:05Bill 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.

• 9:13Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:14Bill Nye?

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

• 9:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 9:23Bill 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.

• 9:29Chuck 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?

• 9:47Bill Nye?

  For example?

• 9:47Chuck Nice?

  AI driving a car?

• 9:50Bill Nye?

  I'm all for it.

• 9:51Chuck Nice?

  Really? Now-

• 9:52Bill Nye?

  Who is worse at driving cars than-

• 9:54Chuck Nice?

  Than human beings?

• 9:56Bill 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.

• 10:02Chuck Nice?

  Right, everybody can drive, right?

• 10:04Bill 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.

• 10:09Chuck Nice?

  Did you see what he just did there? Did you see that?

• 10:11Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 10:11Chuck Nice?

  Okay, come on.

• 10:12Bill 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 texting 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?

• 10:38Chuck Nice?

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

• 10:47Bill Nye?

  That's right.

• 10:48Chuck Nice?

  So it's not like-

• 10:48Bill Nye?

  Like termites.

• 10:49Chuck Nice?

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

• 10:53Bill Nye?

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

• 10:59Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:00Bill Nye?

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

• 11:10Chuck Nice?

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

• 11:17Bill Nye?

  In the borg, yeah. So this should be doable. And people, we have mobile phones which hand our calls from cell to cell. As we mobilize.

• 11:25Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:26Bill Nye?

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

• 11:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:31Bill Nye?

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

• 11:35Chuck 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.

• 11:40Bill 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.

• 11:49Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 11:49Bill Nye?

  Once in a while, there's a subway passenger who just wants to push his way to the front of the line.

• 11:54Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 11:55Bill Nye?

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

• 11:59Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:59Bill 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.

• 12:10Chuck Nice?

  You know what, that makes sense.

• 12:11Bill Nye?

  Just like there's recreational horseback riding.

• 12:13Chuck 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 on the road."

• 12:32Bill Nye?

  Box him in.

• 12:33Chuck Nice?

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

• 12:34Bill Nye?

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

• 12:37Chuck Nice?

  That is, that's awesome.

• 12:39Bill Nye?

  But I just, it seems very reasonable, you ask about this one thing.

• 12:43Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's great.

• 12:43Bill Nye?

  It takes so much brain energy and concentration to operate a motor vehicle.

• 12:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:48Bill 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.

• 12:57Chuck Nice?

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

• 12:59Bill Nye?

  Entity.

• 13:00Chuck Nice?

  What a great answer, Bill, and.

• 13:01Bill Nye?

  Well, thank you. And furthermore, while you're out there, this is StarTalk, and I very encour- I very much encourage you, of course, to watch StarTalk, enjoy StarTalk, turn it up loud, StarTalk. Gee whiz, StarTalk.

• 13:11Chuck Nice?

  Watch them both.

• 13:12Bill 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.

• 13:20Chuck Nice?

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

• 13:26Bill 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 had excellent writing staff, amazing crew. So as the saying goes, it's got a chance.

• 13:42Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic, man.

• 13:43Bill Nye?

  Bill Nye Saves the World's got a chance.

• 13:45Chuck Nice?

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

• 13:48Bill Nye?

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

• 13:50Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, man.

• 13:50Bill Nye?

  I'm on it.

• 13:51Chuck Nice?

  Fantastic. Alright, 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.

• 14:12Bill 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're able to replace individual genes. So a guy like you has some kooky heart condition. You gotta take some kooky heart pills.

• 14:32Chuck Nice?

  Yes, I do.

• 14:32Bill Nye?

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

• 14:35Chuck Nice?

  This is true.

• 14:36Bill Nye?

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

• 14:43Chuck Nice?

  We can turn that off?

• 14:44Bill Nye?

  We could perhaps turn that off.

• 14:46Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 14:47Bill Nye?

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

• 14:52Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:53Bill Nye?

  Could you have super Chucks that could do super basketball things?

• 14:57Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:01Bill Nye?

  Yeah, so he was, it skipped you.

• 15:03Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:06Bill Nye?

  I believe it. Is, 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 an extra whole bunch of very skilled left-handed relief pitchers? Would they like just show up?

• 15:21Chuck Nice?

  Right, right.

• 15:22Bill 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.

• 15:29Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:34Bill Nye?

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

• 15:36Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:41Bill Nye?

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

• 15:47Chuck Nice?

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

• 15:49Bill Nye?

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

• 16:11Chuck Nice?

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

• 16:19Bill Nye?

  I get it, I get it.

• 16:22Chuck Nice?

  It's a cultural thing.

• 16:22Bill Nye?

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

• 16:26Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 16:27Bill Nye?

  Chanel's dad.

• 16:32Chuck Nice?

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

• 16:52Bill Nye?

  Maybe, but you need a lot of electricity.

• 16:54Chuck Nice?

  Oh, okay.

• 16:55Bill Nye?

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

• 17:01Chuck Nice?

  It's spinning.

• 17:02Bill 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%. Doesn't guarantee that you'd get cancer.

• 17:18Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:19Bill Nye?

  97 times more likely than everybody else.

• 17:22Chuck Nice?

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

• 17:23Bill Nye?

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

• 17:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:29Bill Nye?

  And so people speculate that the risk isn't that high. It's an interesting thing that people love to talk about. And the 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. It's Cosmic Wories with Chuck Nice and Bill Nye. Talk to you in a moment.

• 17:51Bill Nye?

  Welcome back, welcome back. Bill Nye here with Chuck Nice on StarTalk. And this week is StarTalk All-Stars. And I'm the guest host. Mistakes are made. I'm the guest host, all-star host with Chuck Nice. And the Cosmic Queries are where we take your inquiries

• 18:10Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 18:11Bill Nye?

  from anywhere in the cosmos.

• 18:12Chuck Nice?

  That's right, anywhere in the cosmos.

• 18:14Bill 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.

• 18:25Chuck Nice?

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

• 18:28Bill Nye?

  It is. It's troubling, but empowering.

• 18:33Chuck 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."

• 19:12Bill Nye?

  Wow, very sweet.

• 19:13Chuck Nice?

  It was very, and heartfelt, right?

• 19:15Bill Nye?

  Hard, yes.

• 19:16Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean, this...

• 19:17Bill Nye?

  I'm palpitating. So what is outside of science?

• 19:21Chuck Nice?

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

• 19:24Bill Nye?

  What is outside of science?

• 19:26Chuck 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?

• 19:37Bill Nye?

  Well, I mean, nuclear weapons.

• 19:39Chuck Nice?

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

• 19:46Bill Nye?

  You're trying to understand the inside of atoms.

• 19:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 19:48Bill Nye?

  Let's call it nuclear power.

• 19:50Chuck Nice?

  Nuclear power.

• 19:50Bill Nye?

  A little better.

• 19:51Chuck Nice?

  Thank you, yes.

• 19:52Bill Nye?

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

• 19:57Chuck Nice?

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

• 20:06Bill Nye?

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

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  Not gonna change the subject.

• 20:11Bill Nye?

  The nuclear industry just hasn't been that great at...

• 20:16Bill Nye?

  Safety.

• 20:17Chuck Nice?

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

• 20:20Bill Nye?

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

• 20:26Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:26Bill Nye?

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

• 20:30Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 20:31Bill Nye?

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

• 20:38Chuck Nice?

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

• 20:40Bill Nye?

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

• 20:43Chuck 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.

• 21:00Bill Nye?

  Well, that's, uh,

• 21:01Chuck Nice?

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

• 21:05Bill Nye?

  Willow bark became aspirin.

• 21:07Chuck Nice?

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

• 21:10Bill Nye?

  Yeah, but, but is that,

• 21:11Chuck Nice?

  I forgot about that.

• 21:12Bill Nye?

  Were the willow bark investigators and investigatrices, were they not doing science?

• 21:18Chuck Nice?

  Uh, you know, I,

• 21:19Bill Nye?

  Some level?

• 21:19Chuck Nice?

  I would, I would assume they were.

• 21:21Bill Nye?

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

• 21:24Chuck Nice?

  That was a long time ago, too.

• 21:25Bill Nye?

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

• 21:32Chuck Nice?

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

• 21:37Bill Nye?

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

• 21:38Chuck Nice?

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

• 21:48Bill Nye?

  You have still have some gassing of flab.

• 21:50Chuck Nice?

  I'm still casting a flab. And I gotta tell you, when I heard your explanation, that's why I was like, holy crap, that makes, I'm sorry.

• 21:57Bill Nye?

  And he did it again, people. Comedy is natural for him.

• 22:00Chuck Nice?

  See that?

• 22:01Bill Nye?

  He doesn't even, it just, it just,

• 22:02Chuck Nice?

  It just boom.

• 22:03Bill Nye?

  Just happens.

• 22:04Chuck Nice?

  Happens like that.

• 22:04Bill Nye?

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

• 22:09Chuck Nice?

  But yeah.

• 22:10Bill Nye?

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

• 22:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:16Bill Nye?

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

• 22:24Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, timekeeping is science.

• 22:26Bill Nye?

  Coffee making, is that chefing or sciencing?

• 22:29Chuck Nice?

  Hmm, ah, see, there you go.

• 22:31Bill Nye?

  Either way, it's delicious.

• 22:32Chuck Nice?

  So true. Now I want a cup of coffee.

• 22:35Bill Nye?

  There's no, there's, 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.

• 22:47Chuck Nice?

  It's a simple thing, right?

• 22:49Bill Nye?

  It's very common.

• 22:49Chuck Nice?

  Very common.

• 22:50Bill Nye?

  Lead on.

• 22:51Chuck Nice?

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

• 22:57Bill Nye?

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

• 22:59Chuck Nice?

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

• 23:02Bill Nye?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 23:03Chuck Nice?

  That's really what we're saying. 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?

• 23:15Bill Nye?

  Which could be a human mission.

• 23:18Chuck Nice?

  It doesn't have to be guys.

• 23:20Bill Nye?

  I mean, if I'm going out into space for 400 days, you're a great looking guy Chuck, but I wouldn't mind having some ladies.

• 23:27Chuck Nice?

  YMCA, okay.

• 23:32Bill Nye?

  You can, uh, there's no need to feel down. Uh, pick yourself off the ground.

• 23:38Chuck Nice?

  That's right. You can get yourself clean, baby.

• 23:41Bill Nye?

  Have a good meal.

• 23:42Chuck Nice?

  You can have a good meal.

• 23:43Bill Nye?

  You can do whatever.

• 23:45Chuck Nice?

  You feel.

• 23:46Bill Nye?

  At the YMCA.

• 23:46Chuck Nice?

  There you have it.

• 23:47Bill Nye?

  So with that in mind, I don't know why this person chose three key inventions.

• 23:54Chuck Nice?

  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?

• 24:04Bill Nye?

  So at the Planetary Society, as you may know.

• 24:07Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 24:07Bill Nye?

  Uh, we did an analysis last spring. We don't really need any new technologies, uh, new inventions. We just need to, uh, improve. Or literally expand 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 get in orbit, you get, then you fly some more rockets up to get enough fuel. Mm hmm. And you fly to Mars in a big inflatable habitat. Mm hmm. 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.

• 24:50Bill Nye?

  Now, if you're of a certain age, Chuck, as I am, you remember the Apollo program and astronauts orbited the moon first. Yes. Apollo eight, 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

• 25:32Bill Nye?

  National Armored Space Administration NASA budget. If you've got international partners, if you got motivated, McDonnell Douglas, well, I mean Lockheed Martin thinks they could do it in 2028, 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. Mm hmm. You need great big rockets. Right. And you need to decide to do it. And the big, the biggest problems are political. Yeah. I mean, you know, they're.

• 26:07Chuck Nice?

  I think the argument will come back. Uh, how are you gonna send somebody to Mars when you don't have NASA, period?

• 26:16Bill Nye?

  You're talking about when all the federal budgets-

• 26:17Chuck Nice?

  When all the federal budgets are slashed to zero.

• 26:20Bill 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.

• 26:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:41Bill 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.

• 27:04Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 27:05Bill Nye?

  So it's, uh-

• 27:06Chuck Nice?

  There are some people who-

• 27:06Bill Nye?

  One job economics.

• 27:08Chuck Nice?

  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.

• 27:35Bill Nye?

  We'll see.

• 27:38Bill Nye?

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

• 27:39Chuck Nice?

  That was the best answer to that.

• 27:41Bill Nye?

  You may be right.

• 27:41Chuck Nice?

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

• 27:46Bill Nye?

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

• 27:51Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:52Bill Nye?

  You're not gonna make money going to Mars. You could sell tickets, but you're off by a factor of 10 million, something like that.

• 28:00Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 28:00Bill Nye?

  In other words, the cost of it compared to what people would pay.

• 28:03Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:03Bill Nye?

  So we'll see.

• 28:05Chuck Nice?

  Clearly, clearly governments are the only, are the only entities that-

• 28:09Bill Nye?

  Traditionally-

• 28:10Chuck Nice?

  Have any reason to do stuff like this.

• 28:13Bill 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.

• 28:28Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:28Bill Nye?

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

• 28:32Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 28:33Bill Nye?

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

• 28:37Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 28:38Bill Nye?

  The RMA.

• 28:38Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 28:39Bill Nye?

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

• 28:46Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 28:47Bill 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."

• 28:54Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 28:55Bill Nye?

  It's not how it is. So, this gets back to something that my parents mentioned countless times as I was growing up.

• 29:03Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 29:03Bill Nye?

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

• 29:09Chuck Nice?

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

• 29:19Bill Nye?

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

• 29:26Chuck Nice?

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

• 29:32Bill Nye?

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

• 29:35Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it is. In recent history.

• 29:37Bill Nye?

  Lead on.

• 29:38Chuck 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."

• 29:58Bill Nye?

  Uh, maybe genetically modified crops.

• 30:01Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 30:02Bill Nye?

  But don't we feed the military with food?

• 30:04Chuck Nice?

  Well, we do.

• 30:05Bill Nye?

  So, maybe that's not such a good one.

• 30:07Chuck Nice?

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

• 30:11Bill Nye?

  Lumped in.

• 30:12Chuck Nice?

  Hmm. Unlike the, like my mashed potatoes.

• 30:15Bill Nye?

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

• 30:20Chuck 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.

• 30:29Bill Nye?

  Here's an example from my own experience. I don't know if this'll really do it for you, uh, Bert. But I lived in the Pacific Northwest for a long time. We're very proud that it's the hypothermia capital of the world. (laughing) 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. Moist air conducts heat, or water conducts heat 25 times more strongly than air. That's why wicking technology is so important. We had this state-of-the-art technology at first was Filson, which had this tin cloth, they call it, this waxed cotton cloth, and moisture will pass through it. I have a Filson hat from the 1800s. Nice. Same technology.

• 31:14Bill Nye?

  Okay. Now we have Gore-Tex and the derivative products. Alright, so when I went to do the Science Guy show in a Navy airplane. Nice. It was cool. We did the Navy training. I swam around the pool with boots on. I wore a flight suit. You know, it was just so cool. Yeah. But then, 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. Okay. Get in a rubber raft and hope somebody finds you. Right. It was all this very heavy wool. But now, the Navy has Gore-Tex. Right. So which came first, Bert? (laughing)

• 31:57Bill Nye?

  I say the moisture wicking technology came first. That's what I say. Well, there you have it. Wow, that's pretty cool, man. 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. Wow. If it isn't one thing, it's something else. Something else. The world's a dangerous place. That's what we're learning here, people. The world's pretty great. It's much safer than it used to be. That is for sure. When you live in the developed world, anyway. If you live in a war zone... It's a bit of a drag.

• 32:30Chuck Nice?

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

• 32:37Bill Nye?

  Which show, the show? This is the show.

• 32:39Chuck Nice?

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

• 32:42Bill Nye?

  Bill Nye Saves the World?

• 32:43Chuck Nice?

  Those 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?

• 32:49Bill Nye?

  Uh, well, you're never gonna say your favorite thing, cause then you're gonna think I didn't enjoy the other things.

• 32:55Chuck Nice?

  Well, no, no.

• 32:55Bill Nye?

  Flying around in the, 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.

• 33:06Chuck Nice?

  That's really cool.

• 33:07Bill Nye?

  It's the Blue Angels.

• 33:08Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that, yeah.

• 33:09Bill 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.

• 33:25Chuck Nice?

  It's insane.

• 33:26Bill Nye?

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

• 33:28Chuck Nice?

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

• 33:33Bill Nye?

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

• 33:41Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:42Bill Nye?

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

• 33:47Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 33:48Bill Nye?

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

• 33:54Bill Nye?

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

• 34:07Chuck Nice?

  Well, thank you, Bill.

• 34:08Bill 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 and do our, but you could be on Proxima Centauri someplace.

• 34:25Chuck Nice?

  Yes, you could.

• 34:25Bill Nye?

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

• 34:28Chuck Nice?

  There you go. There you go.

• 34:30Bill Nye?

  Entity person.

• 34:31Chuck Nice?

  Proxima be cool.

• 34:32Bill Nye?

  Uh, sure it is.

• 34:35Bill Nye?

  So, give us one Chuck.

• 34:36Chuck Nice?

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

• 34:46Bill Nye?

  He already knows.

• 34:47Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:00Bill Nye?

  Well Chuck, give it to us.

• 35:02Chuck Nice?

  And it is sewers, as, uh, as Bill says.

• 35:07Bill Nye?

  That's my opinion, which is correct.

• 35:09Chuck Nice?

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

• 35:15Bill 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. Follow 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.

• 35:41Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:42Bill Nye?

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

• 35:45Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 35:46Bill Nye?

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

• 35:48Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 35:49Bill 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.

• 35:57Chuck Nice?

  Let's go back and put in some sewers.

• 35:58Bill Nye?

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

• 36:00Chuck Nice?

  As, as we know, if you've ever been to India, you'll find out exactly how important what Bill just said really is.

• 36:08Bill Nye?

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

• 36:10Chuck 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.

• 36:19Bill Nye?

  Yeah, in plumbing, you take for granted till the.

• 36:21Chuck Nice?

  Until it doesn't work.

• 36:22Bill Nye?

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

• 36:25Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 36:25Bill 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.

• 36:40Chuck 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.

• 36:51Bill Nye?

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

• 36:55Chuck 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?

• 37:10Bill Nye?

  This is a so-called softball question. Thank you, Mike. Yes, yes. So here's what we want to do.

• 37:15Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 37:16Bill Nye?

  We want to provide renewable electricity to everyone in the world. Reliable renewable electricity.

• 37:20Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 37:21Bill 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.

• 37:27Chuck Nice?

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

• 37:32Bill Nye?

  Cause then every.

• 37:33Chuck Nice?

  That seems like a luxury.

• 37:34Bill Nye?

  No, it will democratize, uh, everything.

• 37:38Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 37:39Bill Nye?

  So what we want to 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.

• 37:51Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 37:52Bill Nye?

  Half of those people are gonna be girls and women.

• 37:54Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 37:55Bill Nye?

  So if we want to, uh, provide equality 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.

• 38:05Chuck Nice?

  So true.

• 38:07Bill Nye?

  All right, so that's what we want to 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 renewably if we just decided to do it. And this is not StarTalk, this is a different website, check out thesolutionsproject.org.

• 38:35Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:35Bill Nye?

  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, in my beloved state of Iowa.

• 39:07Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 39:08Bill Nye?

  Where 99% of the world's popcorn is produced.

• 39:11Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 39:12Bill Nye?

  That is worth, that, right there.

• 39:14Chuck Nice?

  That's, yes.

• 39:15Bill Nye?

  It's worthy of respect.

• 39:16Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it is.

• 39:17Bill Nye?

  Okay. They get a quarter of their energy, electricity, from the wind. 25% of the electricity from the wind. And that's right now.

• 39:24Chuck Nice?

  That's right now.

• 39:25Bill Nye?

  Competing against subsidized fossil fuels.

• 39:27Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:28Bill Nye?

  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.

• 39:35Chuck Nice?

  We can do it.

• 39:36Bill Nye?

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

• 39:41Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:42Bill Nye?

  Invent the better battery.

• 39:43Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 39:44Bill Nye?

  And 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.

• 40:05Chuck Nice?

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

• 40:15Bill Nye?

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

• 40:18Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 40:19Bill Nye?

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

• 40:24Chuck Nice?

  Hee-hee-hee.

• 40:25Bill Nye?

  But, uh...

• 40:27Bill Nye?

  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.

• 40:35Chuck Nice?

  What'd you say?

• 40:36Bill Nye?

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

• 40:44Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:45Bill Nye?

  That would be a fabulous thing.

• 40:47Chuck Nice?

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

• 40:51Bill Nye?

  So Chuck.

• 40:52Chuck Nice?

  When you look at Tesla, when you look at battery-operated cars.

• 40:55Bill Nye?

  So here's my claim, it doesn't have to be radically new, extravagantly, totally different, just better.

• 41:00Chuck Nice?

  Just better.

• 41:01Bill Nye?

  Let's go. Just to your point.

• 41:02Chuck Nice?

  Right. There you go.

• 41:03Bill Nye?

  Advancing your point, agreeing with you Chuck.

• 41:06Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 41:06Bill Nye?

  Saying Chuck, Chuck, Chuck.

• 41:08Chuck Nice?

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

• 41:23Bill Nye?

  Sure.

• 41:24Chuck Nice?

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

• 41:37Bill Nye?

  Are you kidding me? What's his name?

• 41:39Chuck Nice?

  His name is Alastair.

• 41:41Bill Nye?

  Alastair, Alastair. Dude.

• 41:42Chuck Nice?

  Alastair.

• 41:44Bill Nye?

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

• 41:47Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:48Bill Nye?

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

• 41:52Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:53Bill Nye?

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

• 42:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 42:02Bill Nye?

  Uh, the difficulty of getting a patent 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.

• 42:15Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 42:16Bill Nye?

  There's routine paperwork.

• 42:18Chuck Nice?

  To help you file?

• 42:19Bill Nye?

  Then you have two years to get it done for real.

• 42:21Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 42:22Bill Nye?

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

• 42:28Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:29Bill Nye?

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

• 42:33Chuck Nice?

  Knocking at your door, yeah.

• 42:34Bill 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.

• 42:44Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 42:45Bill Nye?

  Kids today, hey, duh.

• 42:48Bill Nye?

  I'm checking the clock.

• 42:49Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 42:50Bill Nye?

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

• 42:54Chuck Nice?

  Sparks.

• 42:55Bill Nye?

  Thunderstorms.

• 42:55Chuck Nice?

  Thunderstorms.

• 42:56Bill Nye?

  And tremendous amounts of energy and rising columns of air.

• 43:01Chuck Nice?

  Tempest, it seems like.

• 43:02Bill Nye?

  And static electricity discharging itself to the ground.

• 43:06Chuck Nice?

  Sounds a lot like a maelstrom with lightning.

• 43:09Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 43:10Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:11Bill Nye?

  Lightning round, Chuck.

• 43:12Chuck Nice?

  Lightning round.

• 43:14Bill Nye?

  Hit me the lightning round.

• 43:16Chuck Nice?

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

• 43:28Bill Nye?

  Uh, no.

• 43:29Chuck Nice?

  Okay, good. And we're moving on.

• 43:31Bill Nye?

  Somebody does. You want to recover the water and isolate the bacteria. That's what you want to do. Get on it.

• 43:37Chuck Nice?

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

• 43:42Bill Nye?

  This is Edwina?

• 43:43Chuck Nice?

  This is Edvina.

• 43:44Bill Nye?

  Edvina.

• 43:45Chuck Nice?

  Lightning round, um, notification.

• 43:52Chuck Nice?

  Here we go.

• 43:52Bill Nye?

  Very thoughtful. She's a rubber chicken.

• 43:54Chuck Nice?

  Rubber chicken, people.

• 43:56Bill Nye?

  With electronics.

• 43:57Chuck Nice?

  Yes, exactly. It's amazing. All right, let's move on. Um.

• 44:01Bill Nye?

  Is it electronic or is it pneumatic?

• 44:02Chuck Nice?

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

• 44:05Bill Nye?

  Pneumatic.

• 44:06Chuck Nice?

  Pneumatic, is that what that's called?

• 44:08Bill Nye?

  Pneumatic means having to do with breath.

• 44:10Chuck Nice?

  That's breath. Oh, right, because like when you have, uh, uh, uh, pneumonia.

• 44:15Bill Nye?

  Or you have pulmonary, pulmonary.

• 44:17Chuck Nice?

  Right, there you go.

• 44:18Bill Nye?

  Another noun for you. All right.

• 44:20Chuck 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?

• 44:34Bill Nye?

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

• 44:36Chuck Nice?

  Right, there you go.

• 44:37Bill Nye?

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

• 44:40Chuck Nice?

  Boom.

• 44:40Bill Nye?

  She wasn't strictly a scientist.

• 44:42Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 44:43Bill Nye?

  It's pretty great.

• 44:43Chuck Nice?

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

• 44:51Bill Nye?

  Cronava?

• 44:51Chuck Nice?

  Cronava. Okay, here we go.

• 44:53Bill Nye?

  B.

• 44:54Chuck 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?

• 45:12Bill Nye?

  No.

• 45:14Bill 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.

• 45:26Chuck Nice?

  There you go. All right. 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?

• 45:40Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 45:41Chuck Nice?

  Yes, there you go.

• 45:43Bill Nye?

  It's off that way.

• 45:44Chuck Nice?

  Over there.

• 45:45Bill 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?

• 45:53Chuck Nice?

  We're actually.

• 45:53Bill Nye?

  Neil will give you an earful on that.

• 45:55Chuck 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 50 years or so, technological advances have been crazy. Is this due to reverse engineering of, oh, God, alien technology?

• 46:14Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 46:14Chuck Nice?

  You totally got me.

• 46:16Bill Nye?

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

• 46:23Chuck Nice?

  All right, Alan. There you.

• 46:25Bill Nye?

  Wow. Humans are so stupid.

• 46:28Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 46:29Bill 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.

• 46:37Chuck Nice?

  Unless some alien, uh, some alien landed and instructed him, right?

• 46:40Bill Nye?

  Yeah.

• 46:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay. Uh, James Coltes 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?

• 46:50Bill Nye?

  Yes. I want to find life on another world. Now, if that's an invention, but I would like to enable that, there probably going to be some inventions involved in creating a robotic rover. Can go to Mars, go up to the recurring slope linear, the stream, RSLs.

• 47:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 47:07Bill 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.

• 47:17Chuck Nice?

  All right, and...

• 47:18Bill Nye?

  We're getting down near the end here Chuck.

• 47:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we are, we are.

• 47:20Bill Nye?

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

• 47:22Chuck Nice?

  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?

• 47:31Bill Nye?

  Bring us all together.

• 47:32Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 47:33Bill Nye?

  Yes.

• 47:34Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 47:35Bill 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, that would be even more profound. Carry on, this has been StarTalk with Chuck Nice, and I've been your guest all-star host Bill Nye. Let's change the world. Keep looking up.

• 48:07Bill Nye?

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