Cosmic Queries: The Science of Humans at War

Author Mary Roach is back to help host Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice answer fan-submitted questions about the softer side of military science: people, from advances in combat medicine, to the possibility of building super soldiers.

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

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm your host Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, and this is StarTalk.

• 0:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is a Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk.

• 0:33Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it is.

• 0:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And in this Cosmic Queries, we're gonna be talking about the science of war.

• 0:37Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, man.

• 0:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, science of humans at war.

• 0:40Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, and I have to tell you, man, people are obsessed with this subject.

• 0:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't understand how, I don't, I don't get it.

• 0:48Chuck Nice?

  I have never received the breadth of queries.

• 0:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because you solicited questions on this topic already.

• 0:56Chuck Nice?

  Yes, we have solicited questions from all over the internet.

• 0:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was told this morning that this would be the topic, but you've been scheming all week on this.

• 1:03Chuck Nice?

  All week long, we've been receiving questions, and I have to tell you that, people are very passionate about it, and they're, you know, they're doing a lot of deep thinking, you know?

• 1:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 1:12Chuck Nice?

  Some of the questions, I'm like, you were clearly high when you wrote that question. You had to be high to write that question.

• 1:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because I, because I don't have any, I mean, while-

• 1:22Chuck Nice?

  You don't get to see the questions.

• 1:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, that's true, but though I be a scientist, I have no particular expertise in this topic.

• 1:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 1:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so I figured, okay, then they plunked a book down in front of me called Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. So I said, damn, I gotta read this book like in the next hour, but then they told me, no, Mary Roach, the author of the book, is here with us.

• 1:42Chuck Nice?

  Yes!

• 1:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From Oakland, California, Mary Roach, yes. Thank you, Mary, this is not your first time on StarTalk.

• 1:48Mary Roach?

  No, no.

• 1:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's like your fourth time or something.

• 1:50Mary Roach?

  I think we, yeah, the fourth, yeah.

• 1:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you got like the coolest StarTalkian books we could ever find, so great, great to have you on here, so basically, these questions are gonna be from Mary.

• 1:59Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll, I'll, I'll be Mary's sidecar on this. I could back her up with some physics if we need it.

• 2:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is her book.

• 2:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, for the most part, this is, uh, this is what people-

• 2:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And Mary, I'm not gonna lie to you and say, oh, I read this book, and I haven't read it yet, I just saw it like this minute.

• 2:12Mary Roach?

  No, no problem.

• 2:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every other talk show host is lying to you when they said they read your book.

• 2:15Mary Roach?

  I know, I know.

• 2:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know this.

• 2:16Mary Roach?

  I know, I haven't read it either. I don't remember what's in it. I wrote it a long time ago.

• 2:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:22Mary Roach?

  We'll see what these.

• 2:23Chuck Nice?

  We'll see what the people say. And listen, you know, like I said, some of the questions are out there.

• 2:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But just before you go in, oh, go ahead. Just an overview.

• 2:30Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 2:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is this subject?

• 2:31Mary Roach?

  Okay, so this is military science, but specifically not the weapons and the bombs and the strategy, which I, you may have a lot of questions there about that, and I will turn those all over to you.

• 2:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:42Mary Roach?

  So this is the human.

• 2:44Chuck Nice?

  Right, the human condition.

• 2:45Mary Roach?

  Yeah, it's extreme heat and loud noise and fear and panic and flies and diarrhea and all of the things that people don't necessarily think about, but the military thinks about because it knocks soldiers out of commission. And anyway, so.

• 2:57Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 2:57Mary Roach?

  That kinda.

• 2:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's all in here. So this, this is like your, this was your next project after all these other completely far-flung places you have been in your book portfolio.

• 3:07Mary Roach?

  Yeah, you'd think I would take a body of knowledge that I've worked on and build upon that so that I don't.

• 3:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But no.

• 3:12Mary Roach?

  No, I gotta start all over again.

• 3:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Start all over.

• 3:16Mary Roach?

  Knowing nothing.

• 3:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so let's try this.

• 3:19Mary Roach?

  Okay.

• 3:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. Well, no, no, but still before.

• 3:21Mary Roach?

  Okay.

• 3:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is the most weirdest scientific thing you can share with us about military grunts?

• 3:27Mary Roach?

  Okay, here's, okay, here's.

• 3:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just, just, just fill the soil here first.

• 3:31Mary Roach?

  This book starts out with the chicken gun, and I love the.

• 3:33Chuck Nice?

  The chicken gun?

• 3:34Mary Roach?

  Because I like to say the word chicken whenever possible.

• 3:37Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:38Mary Roach?

  Chicken gun.

• 3:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I think I know the chicken gun story.

• 3:39Mary Roach?

  Chicken gun.

• 3:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:40Chuck Nice?

  I have never, I don't think I'm familiar with the chicken gun.

• 3:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's, you're testing the, the, the canopy airplanes of fighter pilots.

• 3:49Chuck Nice?

  Okay, so, okay.

• 3:50Mary Roach?

  The chicken is a stand-in for your turkey vulture, your Canada goose, your starling, whatever it is. It's kind of a worst-case scenario because the chicken, it's a, it's kind of an odd choice because it doesn't, chicken doesn't actually fly.

• 4:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It don't fly, yeah.

• 4:02Mary Roach?

  You're not gonna, no matter how long you're a pilot, you are never.

• 4:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not gonna hit a chicken. It's a bird and it's readily wearable at your grocer's.

• 4:09Mary Roach?

  It's consistent.

• 4:10Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:11Mary Roach?

  Yeah, so you take a frozen chicken, you thaw it out, you load the chicken gun and you fire it at the canopy.

• 4:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:17Mary Roach?

  Yeah, so.

• 4:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At the same speed that the plane would otherwise encounter it flying through the air.

• 4:21Chuck Nice?

  Flying through the air.

• 4:21Mary Roach?

  Right, but it was, there were a lot of thought went into this because there's also, because they're like, well, the chicken, this will be, it's, it's very dense, it's a big, heavy thing, that'll be great, but in fact, there's something called.

• 4:33Mary Roach?

  Pause for drama. The feathered bullet phenomenon.

• 4:35Chuck Nice?

  The feathered bullet phenomenon.

• 4:38Mary Roach?

  Tiny little bird, you know, starling maybe, you know, hits the windshield, pew, just like a bullet, right into the pilot, so.

• 4:44Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 4:45Mary Roach?

  Yeah, so, you know, you think you have it figured out, yeah, we'll use a chicken. And then there's.

• 4:49Chuck Nice?

  And then all of a sudden, a tiny bird comes through and shoots you in the head.

• 4:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, because the bird, uh, peers a tinier hole and.

• 4:56Mary Roach?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a different kind of impact, basically, that was not previously considered.

• 5:00Mary Roach?

  It's a more focused, it's closer to a bullet.

• 5:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so to test this, they should just shoot bullets at.

• 5:05Mary Roach?

  They could do that, chickens.

• 5:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sit here, and let's see, the bullet hits you.

• 5:12Mary Roach?

  Ready?

• 5:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 5:13Chuck Nice?

  Or find a finch that's packing.

• 5:16Mary Roach?

  You have a bird, fire a gun.

• 5:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, exactly. No, just four days ago, I was at Edwards Air Force Base, and I saw the canopy of the F-22 fighter. And it was large and beautiful, it was completely transparent. And what the pilots were telling me is that now, it's not just a canopy to their side and to their front, it is completely around them. And so they have full, high-quality visual confirmation of anything that's around them.

• 5:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 5:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I said, shouldn't you be flying with instruments rather than relying on your own damn eyes?

• 5:46Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that's normally the pilot's way.

• 5:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, okay.

• 5:49Chuck Nice?

  Rely on instruments.

• 5:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I, no, if you're a fighter pilot, that's what I thought. But, but anyhow, let's get to, so, so, that's a good, interesting example.

• 5:55Mary Roach?

  Chicken, yeah, the chicken, the chicken gun.

• 5:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chicken gun.

• 5:57Mary Roach?

  The problem I found out is that when birds, birds and planes take off into the wind, so the birds are like, oh, no, no, no, you know, heading along, they're not looking behind, so they, they're, they don't have a visual awareness to get out of the way, so that was a, that's a problem.

• 6:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're not looking at what's coming at them.

• 6:12Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:12Mary Roach?

  The plane's coming up from behind.

• 6:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But for me, that's one of the, uh, one of the most beautiful metaphors.

• 6:19Mary Roach?

  Do tell.

• 6:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's in life.

• 6:24Mary Roach?

  Here we go.

• 6:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When the wind is against you.

• 6:26Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Remember, that is exactly the condition.

• 6:30Chuck Nice?

  To take.

• 6:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Planes take flight.

• 6:32Chuck Nice?

  Wow, and that's a be, that is a beautiful metaphor.

• 6:34Mary Roach?

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:35Chuck Nice?

  Right. Uh, mine is when the wind is.

• 6:37Mary Roach?

  The Canada geese.

• 6:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sticking with the airplane here.

• 6:42Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly.

• 6:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why do you have to ruin my metaphor?

• 6:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, yeah, so-

• 6:46Mary Roach?

  I thought you said chicken. That shows the more lovely Canada goose.

• 6:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so the, yeah, the plane wants the highest speed it can be relative to the air. It's not about the ground.

• 6:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's about the air. So you take off into the moving air, then, uh, you can take off at a lower ground speed because your airspeed's higher. That's all.

• 7:02Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 7:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what's going on.

• 7:03Mary Roach?

  And the birds figured that out, too.

• 7:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 7:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 7:05Mary Roach?

  Very intelligent.

• 7:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So let's do this. Chuck, you solicited questions on this topic?

• 7:09Chuck Nice?

  And we have them. And our first question is a Patreon patron's question, which of course, if you, uh, if you actually support us on Patreon, then, uh, we will, uh, put your question to the top of the queue and-

• 7:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that right?

• 7:21Chuck Nice?

  Yes, as a matter of fact.

• 7:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're actually buying their way to the top of the thing?

• 7:24Chuck Nice?

  I, I can think of no better way to get people to participate.

• 7:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 7:29Chuck Nice?

  Or to get votes.

• 7:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay. Buy the votes. Okay. Uh, what's your, uh, what's your first question?

• 7:35Chuck Nice?

  Uh, this is from Jeff Prime, who is a Patreon patron, and Jeff wants to know this from Omaha, Nebraska. "My unit and I were deployed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. I personally have known several men from my unit that suffer from PTSD while other members do not. With all other variables being equal, is there a biological reason why some soldiers handle war differently in a mental capacity that helps explains why some soldiers suffer PTSD while others do not?"

• 8:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good one. Mary, what do you have?

• 8:08Chuck Nice?

  It's a very good question. Very good question.

• 8:09Mary Roach?

  Yes, and I do not know the answer.

• 8:11Chuck Nice?

  Cool.

• 8:11Mary Roach?

  Yes.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:12Chuck Nice?

  There you have it.

• 8:13Mary Roach?

  There.

• 8:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you have it.

• 8:14Chuck Nice?

  And moving on.

• 8:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I'm joking. I can reflect on this fact.

• 8:17Mary Roach?

  There's probably, uh, there's probably a reason.

• 8:21Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. I, I would, I would think that if we knew that, uh, definitively, then we would be able to delineate why that is and then look for a cure to PTSD.

• 8:30Mary Roach?

  Or, or keep those people out of-

• 8:33Chuck Nice?

  Or keep those people out of combat.

• 8:34Mary Roach?

  Right, which is what, one of the things in the book was, uh, they were looking at heat injuries, and there's a huge individual variation in who can acclimate to extreme heat, like who can feel, like, start sweating heavy and sooner, and there's like, "I can deal with this," and other people can't, and they get heat stroke, and they sometimes die.

• 8:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm pretty good in a wide- range of temperatures.

• 8:52Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 8:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What I found is, oh, could you put on the heat? Okay, put on the, and I'm just kinda.

• 8:55Mary Roach?

  Can't see.

• 8:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chilling with the cool.

• 8:57Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I'm, I'm just.

• 8:59Chuck Nice?

  You're self-regulating.

• 9:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, kinda, I, I, it's not that I don't feel hot or feel cold, it's that I'm okay with it.

• 9:07Chuck Nice?

  Now, you have a, uh.

• 9:08Mary Roach?

  See, it's probably psychological. You just roll with everything.

• 9:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe it is psychological rather than physiological. I, in either case, you still wanna know who's susceptible to PTSD and who isn't.

• 9:17Chuck Nice?

  Right, right.

• 9:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And of course, there's that very famous scene, I know, only know it from the film, I, I assume it was true, with Patton. Uh, walks into a.

• 9:27Chuck Nice?

  Uh, infirmary.

• 9:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Infirmary.

• 9:29Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 9:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And there's these wounded soldiers there, banders, and there's one soldier who has no wounds at all, he's there in tears at the edge of the bed.

• 9:37Chuck Nice?

  What they called back then, shell shock.

• 9:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there was shell shock.

• 9:40Mary Roach?

  And then combat fatigue.

• 9:41Chuck Nice?

  And then it was combat fatigue.

• 9:42Mary Roach?

  And now it's PTSD.

• 9:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  PTSD, not, it wasn't enough syllables, you gotta keep it, it's more real when you have more syllables.

• 9:49Mary Roach?

  Give us an acronym.

• 9:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Finally, pay attention to it.

• 9:51Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 9:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so he slapped, he bit slapped.

• 9:56Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, he did.

• 9:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The soldier, and thi- this made it to the press, that he had no sort of compassion.

• 10:02Chuck Nice?

  Compassion.

• 10:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 10:03Chuck Nice?

  Empathy for this young man.

• 10:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For the, yeah, and he was saying.

• 10:07Mary Roach?

  Cause he, didn't bother him, apparently, so he figured everybody else should.

• 10:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I guess it was a day when psychological injury was not viewed as the same as physical injury. Whereas today, so often, uh, this is how we do, okay.

• 10:19Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 10:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, what else you got?

• 10:21Chuck Nice?

  That's a great question, um.

• 10:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It remains a great question without an answer available from this table.

• 10:27Mary Roach?

  I don't have an answer.

• 10:28Chuck Nice?

  There's nothing wrong with that, okay? Uh, now, this one is really for Neil, uh, Mary, uh. And I'm reading it, Neil, because I'm not sure what this guy's talking about.

• 10:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 10:39Chuck Nice?

  Okay, uh, and this is from Nick.

• 10:44Chuck Nice?

  Sazfransky, Sazfransky, do you think that's right? Sazfransky. Sazfransky.

• 10:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Buck, if you start pronouncing names correctly, then we won't know what to do with you. However you want, and that's your thing now.

• 10:56Chuck Nice?

  That's my thing.

• 10:56Mary Roach?

  It could be Zafransky, I don't know.

• 10:58Chuck Nice?

  Zafransky, right?

• 10:59Mary Roach?

  Zafransky.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  Here we go.

• 11:00Mary Roach?

  I don't know.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  Uh, this is what he says, "I'm a young sci-fi, uh, uh, writer and fantasy. I'm currently working on a hard science fiction book. My question is, how much do we understand, here's the thing, Neil, exotic particles? What, if any, effect they do have on the human body?" And, and then he says, "If you could put a blurb about my book, I'd really appreciate it."

• 11:21Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, so, I don't think I'm gonna do the blurb about the book, but...

• 11:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I think I have a way to, to link this back to Mary, but we, we have the portfolio of particles that exist, that have been measured, they have names, they have masses, they have, you know, energies in different states and this sort of thing, and half-lives. And so, some particles just go straight through you, like neutrinos.

• 11:39Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Billions go through you every square centimeter, every second, from the sun, and they do nothing to us, they don't interact. What matters is if they interact with you, that's the difference. Okay, and if they interact, they could do damage. And so, so this is a, so if you wanna weaponize a particle, you would make some kind of device that you know contains particles that will interact with your body in some way, mess with your DNA, mess with your skin, mess with whatever, and then that becomes a weaponized ray gun, basically.

• 12:13Chuck Nice?

  So you make the particles a delivery system for some type of debilitation?

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct, correct. Now, we do this for, for electromagnetic energy. So, there's a, uh, there's a movable microwave device, which is, and it's a non-lethal anti-personnel weapon.

• 12:32Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's non-lethal. So, if there's a crowd of people, you drive up this truck, you aim this antenna at the people, and it's like you just put them all in a microwave oven.

• 12:41Chuck Nice?

  Now, do you first get them to hold a burrito?

• 12:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they can eat it on the way.

• 12:46Mary Roach?

  You gotta take the wrapper off.

• 12:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly. So, so what happens is their skin starts feeling hot, and they, and they wanna go... Out of the beam.

• 12:55Chuck Nice?

  So they scatter.

• 12:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They scatter, they scatter, so you can decentralize what might be a mob that's coming. Um, is there any discussion in the military about, um, weapons, the effect of weapons on people that are not just guns, that you're traditional?

• 13:09Mary Roach?

  Well, there was, uh, not in this book, but one of my previous books, there was, uh, infrasound. I don't know which book this was even, they were, there was this.

• 13:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She's got so many books, she don't remember which book that was in that she wrote.

• 13:18Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty cool.

• 13:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that's badass, actually.

• 13:20Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty badass. And some book that I wrote somewhere. I believe I said.

• 13:27Mary Roach?

  So what you can all, you all do is like buy them all.

• 13:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Buy them all, lay them out, shoot the point to it.

• 13:31Mary Roach?

  And you let me, you let me know.

• 13:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You buy them all.

• 13:34Mary Roach?

  Exactly. So, yeah, but infrasound, there was this talk about that they, that the military was looking for, uh, uh, non-lethal weapon, I think it was. Supposedly it would, uh, infr- no, it's infrasound and it was like long, slow waves.

• 13:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Low frequency waves.

• 13:50Mary Roach?

  Frequency, and then it would, it would have the same resonant frequency as some of the internal organs, so you, it would create fear, nausea, uh, terror, uh, but yeah, never.

• 14:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is like in Jurassic Park.

• 14:03Mary Roach?

  Never went anywhere.

• 14:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When T-Rex.

• 14:05Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 14:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like the liquid in the.

• 14:07Chuck Nice?

  Right, and you see the, uh, the vibration in the liquid in the glass.

• 14:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, right.

• 14:11Chuck Nice?

  That type of deal.

• 14:12Mary Roach?

  Yeah, like they were sort of like, they would launch a ball of infrasound, but anyway, I could never find it.

• 14:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That'd be a knob, there'd be T-Rex would be one of the settings.

• 14:18Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:19Mary Roach?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 14:20Chuck Nice?

  By the way, the military doesn't have to look for that, we already have it, it's called One Direction.

• 14:24Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 14:25Chuck Nice?

  They're a boy band.

• 14:28Mary Roach?

  Well, there was some concern about, uh, uh, NASA had concerns about, cause the engines were putting in a launch, they would be putting out tremendous amounts of infrasound and they were afraid they were gonna deliver jelly to the moon, that it was that intent, but I think as it turned out, it wasn't.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But in fact, they do have what they call a sound abatement system, and before every launch, in the seconds before they ignite the engine.

• 14:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You see this, basically, a swimming pool's worth of water dumped onto the launch pad. And the water absorbs the acoustic reverberations, that's right. They're worried that the acoustic reverberations would just completely tear apart the entire bottom half of the rocket.

• 15:05Mary Roach?

  Right, like the singer with the glass, breaking.

• 15:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, yeah, except now, so what they do is they put in the water, that absorbs the energy, and that way the energy doesn't hit the rocket again. So next time, watch very closely, every single launch. And they're big tanks surrounding launch pads, they're water tanks. Bada bing! And then the vibrations hit, it vaporizes the water, so some of the smoke you see coming out is steam, basically. Vaporized by the energy, the acoustic energy of vibration.

• 15:32Chuck Nice?

  That's amazing.

• 15:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Give me one more question.

• 15:34Chuck Nice?

  By the way, that is the exact sound that it makes when the water is dumped. Bada bing!

• 15:40Mary Roach?

  Bada bing!

• 15:41Chuck Nice?

  Awesome. It's awesome.

• 15:43Mary Roach?

  Bada bing, three words.

• 15:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Give it to us, Chuck.

• 15:49Chuck Nice?

  Okay, here's a, here's a quick one, since we don't have a lot of time. Tech Advancement Through Wars from Matty Stark on Facebook says this. "How do you feel about the idea that war is necessary for technological advancement?"

• 16:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, let me, let me, let me cast that in a grunt question, okay?

• 16:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 16:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, how much have we, how much has war advanced medicine?

• 16:11Mary Roach?

  A lot, in terms of combat trauma, I mean, did stuff like, alright, you've got somebody whose artery is cut and they've got about two minutes, so, you know, get it in terms of getting it.

• 16:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two minutes before they're dead.

• 16:20Mary Roach?

  Before they bleed out and they're dead, like, two minutes to stabilize, get, stop the bleeding, stabilize them and get them somewhere. They've gotten really good at that, so, emergency care, that's been huge.

• 16:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And of course, the whole concept of triage.

• 16:33Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's a war-based, yeah.

• 16:35Mary Roach?

  Exactly. And also things you wouldn't necessarily think about, there was a Navy guy, Captain Phillips, not that other Captain Phillips.

• 16:41Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 16:42Mary Roach?

  But, who came, uh, came up with this, um... discovery that if you, you know, someone's got extreme diarrhea like cholera where you're like losing five gallons of liquid. He even invented this thing, the cholera cot. It's a cot with a hole in a bucket. You're just, and you're, you're, you're gonna die quickly because you're just, um,

• 16:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 17:00Mary Roach?

  leaking.

• 17:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 17:01Mary Roach?

  You're leaking.

• 17:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But so what has he invented? The bucket? What's, what's, that's not an invention?

• 17:04Mary Roach?

  Well, the cholera cot was one invention, but not the important one. The important one was if you add glucose to the rehydration fluids, it enhances absorption of the fluids and the salt. So now you can drink them rather than hook up an IV. So in a third world country where somebody, they don't have to make their way to a clinic and get hooked up to an IV, they can actually drink this stuff and it's saved, you know, millions of lives. Because it's still like two, you know, two, some million people die.

• 17:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here's, here's a morbid question. You ready?

• 17:29Mary Roach?

  Ready. I'm always ready.

• 17:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have more people, have more lives been saved by the medical advances from war than lives that have been lost from the waging of war itself? Wow.

• 17:41Mary Roach?

  Interesting. Well, they, you know, okay, well, here's a figure for you.

• 17:44Chuck Nice?

  This war is good for you people.

• 17:46Mary Roach?

  I know.

• 17:46Chuck Nice?

  They have to kill you in order to save you.

• 17:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're listening to StarTalk. Stay tuned for another segment. Welcome back to StarTalk. Here's more of this week's episode. And I'd left you with a question just before the end.

• 18:17Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 18:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I, I just wanted to know, given, given how many lives have been saved by medical advances from innovations during war.

• 18:24Mary Roach?

  Right.

• 18:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Could one make the case, the morbid case, that the number of people who have died at war is less than the number of lives who've been saved by the medical advances derived from it?

• 18:35Mary Roach?

  Probably just from the, the, the dysentery and diarrhea statistics alone. I mean, you're telling, okay, so. Two point five million peoples a year still there WHO that's the figure for deaths.

• 18:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  World Health Organization.

• 18:47Chuck Nice?

  Still to this day.

• 18:48Mary Roach?

  Yes.

• 18:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two and a half million people die from dehydration, from diarrhea.

• 18:50Mary Roach?

  A lot of them children.

• 18:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cholera or some other.

• 18:52Mary Roach?

  And yeah, in developing nations, so that's a huge.

• 18:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two and a half million a year.

• 18:57Mary Roach?

  Two and a half million, yeah, from, uh, from, yeah, exactly.

• 18:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so fifty million people died in the Second World War, was the last number I checked. So twenty-five years of that, that's just the diarrhea alone.

• 19:08Mary Roach?

  Right.

• 19:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but they are dying, we didn't stop them from dying. So I want to know if lives have been saved.

• 19:14Chuck Nice?

  Well, well, no, but you're saying that just the advancements that we've made, uh, to combat that, uh, may, may have saved, uh, a significant number of lives. Whether or not it balances, we don't know, but.

• 19:27Mary Roach?

  Right, but my statistic that, you know, the, no, those, they're still dying.

• 19:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're still dying.

• 19:31Mary Roach?

  Oh.

• 19:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what you're saying, that number could have been much larger.

• 19:32Chuck Nice?

  Much larger, yeah.

• 19:33Mary Roach?

  If that's the number, they're still, yeah.

• 19:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the number that's still dying, it would have been huger, hu- huge.

• 19:39Mary Roach?

  Huge.

• 19:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Huge. It would have been huge.

• 19:41Chuck Nice?

  Huge.

• 19:42Mary Roach?

  Right, right.

• 19:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just like my hair, huge.

• 19:47Mary Roach?

  Huge, huge.

• 19:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not like my hands.

• 19:53Mary Roach?

  But then now, you know what, there's some, I recently saw a statistic on the, uh, uh, the number of deaths from car crashes versus the, like, every year that there's been a military conflict, the number of deaths just from car crashes dwarfs the number from killed in whatever the war that's going on.

• 20:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, not, not the Second World War, but surely since then.

• 20:12Mary Roach?

  No, no, since then.

• 20:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, we lose, we lose a hundred, a hundred people a day.

• 20:16Chuck Nice?

  And now are they only, are they only accounting American deaths, or are they counting the number of people, because we tend to kill a lot more people than.

• 20:22Mary Roach?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 20:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that's true, that's true, but I can tell you, it's a hundred people a day on the roads. And at the peak of the Vietnam War, we were losing a hundred servicemen a week. So it's basically a factor of seven higher in cars than in military, not, not the First World War, I mean, not the Second World War. But here's something I tweeted recently, the Second World War, you do the, you run the math?

• 20:41Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, we were losing one thousand humans per hour.

• 20:47Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One thousand per hour. Died at the hands of another human being during the six years of the Second World War.

• 20:55Mary Roach?

  Hmm, wow.

• 20:56Chuck Nice?

  That's insane.

• 20:57Mary Roach?

  However, the Mexican-American war, seven to one ratio, uh, disease to combat injury. Dysentery, diarrhea, malaria, seven to, to one. Of course, you think Mexico and diarrhea, they're always gonna be linked.

• 21:11Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 21:12Mary Roach?

  Yeah, I know. Poor Mexico, even back then.

• 21:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Even back then. Don't drink the water. Back then.

• 21:16Mary Roach?

  Yeah, so, yeah, there was that quote, William Osler, dysentery has been more fatal to soldiers than powder or shot.

• 21:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 21:24Mary Roach?

  Wow. That's even as good as your chicken metaphor that you let loose earlier.

• 21:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not, I've...

• 21:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright Chuck, what else you got?

• 21:33Chuck Nice?

  Here we go, let's move on. This seems to be a big theme that people wanna know about. And, uh, this is, this is from, uh, Heren Filth, okay, that's the name.

• 21:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's how you're pronouncing the name, but go on.

• 21:48Chuck Nice?

  No, no, F-I-L-T.

• 21:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let me have fun with how you can't pronounce stuff.

• 21:52Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 21:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, go on.

• 21:53Chuck Nice?

  Uh, maybe he just wrote it, maybe that way, wrote it with, wrote it that way to make, to mess with me.

• 21:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 21:57Chuck Nice?

  Uh, here you go, uh, "Hi Neil, really love the show, keep it up. My question is, in recent films such as Civil War, we're talking about Marvel Comics Civil War, we see genetically advanced soldiers like Bucky, who was a character, uh, Captain America's friend, uh, I'm sorry, I'm translating as he asks the question. And, uh, the Winter Soldiers, uh, also part of the, uh, genetically modified soldiers, uh, could super soldiers eventually become a reality? If so, what are the biological implications of doing such a thing? Greetings from Mexico City."

• 22:31Mary Roach?

  Whoa!

• 22:32Chuck Nice?

  Yes!

• 22:32Mary Roach?

  This is a show for you.

• 22:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, so Mary?

• 22:37Mary Roach?

  I wanna go to Mexico City, it's supposed to be great.

• 22:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, so Mary, are there studies of, uh, have there been attempts to modify the human physiology in war?

• 22:46Mary Roach?

  I saw this amazing paper, uh, uh, DARPA, you know DARPA? DARPA's the way outside the box.

• 22:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.

• 22:54Mary Roach?

  Yes, it was a paper, uh, it was speculation. It was not projects that are underway, but they were listing like...

• 23:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One of the whole points of DARPA is to have highly speculative research.

• 23:02Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 23:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It could break open a whole new field of, of military might.

• 23:07Mary Roach?

  So, this was in particular, modifications to the human body, what could we do? And inspiration from the animal kingdom. So they were look, they were looking at, uh, unis, unihemispheric sleep, which you have in marine mammals and in some geese and ducks. And where

• 23:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like one eye open.

• 23:22Mary Roach?

  Yeah, exactly. So they funded some research, some basic research into marine biologists and bird people, ornithologists would be the, I guess the word.

• 23:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I call them bird people.

• 23:35Mary Roach?

  Looking, looking.

• 23:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Bug people, I call them bug people.

• 23:38Mary Roach?

  Yeah, the bug people have probably been doing some work too. But, you know, fun, just looking into like, how does this work? And could we foster this and somehow make our soldiers able to sleep? Yeah, because sleep deprivation is huge and it affects your performance, your military performance. So if there were a way to sleep with one half on the brain and keep the other eye open to make sure nobody's sneaking up.

• 23:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then you swap brain halves.

• 24:00Mary Roach?

  Yeah.

• 24:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Presumably both halves. Like sharks. Yeah.

• 24:03Mary Roach?

  Alright, so, so it was that, it was an amazing list. There were things like, you know, the human llamas or, or could you, you know, somehow have more hemoglobin for mountain warfare? Could you make somebody able to, you know, kind of sherpa eyes them quickly to be able to, you know, to, to function better at high altitudes? I do remember surgically installed gills was on the list.

• 24:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hmm.

• 24:25Mary Roach?

  Wow.

• 24:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, now. It'd be like Waterworld right there.

• 24:29Mary Roach?

  Yeah, exactly. Waterworld.

• 24:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Does Kevin Costner know about this? That's right.

• 24:33Mary Roach?

  We're gonna work on, we're gonna try him out first.

• 24:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When he came around his neck and you saw the gills in the movie. Yeah. So, so here's my take on that, not that anybody asked, but I'll tell you my take. At the early days of space exploration, there was all this talk about modifying the human physiology to accommodate the stress and strain on our body in space. Mm-hmm. And in almost every case, they came up with an engineering solution to the problem rather than a biological one. Where it therefore was not invasive to the human body. They would talk about, is there some pill you can take where the brain would not require as much oxygen when you do a high G turn out from a, you know, from a, as a fighter pilot might, when they're, when they're turning around? And, and that way your brain wouldn't need as much oxygen and still, and then the engineers just developed these, these suits.

• 25:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, where they just squeeze your leg. Squeeze your leg, blood ain't got no way to go. Right, right. So, so, so many of these are, how about one where you don't feel nauseous and feel nausea in zero G? Or you can just spin up the space station and create one G? So, so my, my, oh, you, do you want to make bulletproof skin or just make Kevlar bullet and wear a bulletproof vest? Right, so. I want the bulletproof skin.

• 25:47Chuck Nice?

  Just saying, I'm

• 25:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're just saying

• 25:49Chuck Nice?

  I'm just gonna go on record and say the bulletproof skin is what I would go for.

• 25:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I'm, I'm more Tony Stark on this. Give me the, give me

• 25:55Chuck Nice?

  Either suit.

• 25:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Give me the power, the money and the brains and we'll make, we'll make anything we need. I will be able to fly.

• 26:03Chuck Nice?

  That's cool, that's cool.

• 26:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, what else you got?

• 26:05Chuck Nice?

  Alright, here we go. Um, Johnny Glasgow from Facebook says, hi Neil.

• 26:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That would be Facebook, our followers on Facebook.

• 26:14Chuck Nice?

  Our followers on Facebook.

• 26:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Facebook headquarters.

• 26:15Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly, right. He's not actually having coffee with Zuckerberg right now. Um, uh, he says, uh, hi Neil, hi Mary. Uh, what scientific advances made during wartime have the biggest positive effect on our civilian lives today?

• 26:35Mary Roach?

  I'm gonna have to go with the medical stuff.

• 26:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The medical stuff.

• 26:38Mary Roach?

  Yeah, the stuff we were talking about earlier.

• 26:40Chuck Nice?

  We were talking about earlier, that is, that is the most positive effect.

• 26:42Mary Roach?

  Positive effect, yeah, right. I mean, I guess you could talk about, I mean, like, taking forward the whole notion of drones completely taking humans out of the equation, but that's, you know, it's got other issues, but, uh...

• 26:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The whole episode on Star Trek.

• 26:57Chuck Nice?

  That was indeed, where they fought the war through mathematical calculations.

• 27:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 27:02Chuck Nice?

  And then people reported to a chamber, uh, for

• 27:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of execution, because the calculations showed that you would have been

• 27:09Chuck Nice?

  You would have been killed in the, in the battle.

• 27:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They just walked in and they took him out.

• 27:12Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly. And that, which is

• 27:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Captain Cook said, "No, you can't do that way."

• 27:18Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 27:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is not war. War is ugly and bloody.

• 27:24Mary Roach?

  Spock said, "Actually, though, statistically, I can see the merit to this particular approach."

• 27:31Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that, that, well, that's cool, yeah, that's, so definitely the, the medical advancements is...

• 27:36Mary Roach?

  That's what comes to mind in terms of a positive, yeah, positive.

• 27:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I would say

• 27:39Chuck Nice?

  Now, are there any technological advancements?

• 27:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I would say one thing.

• 27:42Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 27:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The V-2 rocket was the very first intercontinental ballistic missile which became the foundation of our entire space arsenal.

• 27:50Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 27:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So everything that we know and love about space, including where you get your, your, your, your weather maps from, from the Weather Channel. You get people saying, "I don't mind going to, I don't, what do I need space for? I have my GPS in the Weather Channel, that's all I need."

• 28:05Chuck Nice?

  That's like get your, get your government hands off my Medicare.

• 28:10Chuck Nice?

  That's what that statement is.

• 28:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly what that is.

• 28:12Mary Roach?

  So I would say. Yeah, but no, now, that, yeah, NASA, I mean, anything that's miniaturized, fire.

• 28:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah, the entire miniaturized.

• 28:19Mary Roach?

  Light weight.

• 28:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, that was, that was NASA, not war.

• 28:21Mary Roach?

  I know. I know, but there's probably a, I, yeah, I, I, there's probably.

• 28:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The war didn't have to miniaturize the way NASA did.

• 28:26Mary Roach?

  No, no, no.

• 28:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to launch it for, you know.

• 28:28Chuck Nice?

  Well, then again.

• 28:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every ounce cost you money.

• 28:30Chuck Nice?

  Here's a war thing, though. The first.

• 28:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, it's $10,000 a pound to orbit.

• 28:34Chuck Nice?

  Oh, God.

• 28:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you've got a little extra gut.

• 28:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 28:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ain't flying that in space.

• 28:37Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You go get back on a treadmill.

• 28:40Chuck Nice?

  So how about this? Um, I believe the first computers were used to calculate the trajectory of mortar shells.

• 28:48Mary Roach?

  That is, that is.

• 28:49Chuck Nice?

  Is that correct?

• 28:50Mary Roach?

  That is true.

• 28:51Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 28:51Mary Roach?

  Yes, yep, yep.

• 28:52Chuck Nice?

  And now we have computers. I mean, we know what they do now.

• 28:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, so in fact, the military led the development of supercomputing.

• 28:59Mary Roach?

  Yes.

• 28:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's right. Nowadays, it's commercially driven because the demand is there, but in the, in the day, yeah.

• 29:05Chuck Nice?

  Back in the day.

• 29:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 29:06Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 29:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 29:07Chuck Nice?

  All right, well, not bad, not bad at all. Okay.

• 29:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What else you got?

• 29:10Chuck Nice?

  Here we go. This is from Christian Prizblik. Prizblik. Okay, here you go, Mary. Take a look.

• 29:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now they're just messing with you, Chuck. They're just messing with you.

• 29:19Chuck Nice?

  I know, Christian, right?

• 29:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're the Joe Smiths out there.

• 29:23Chuck Nice?

  Prizblik?

• 29:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next time, can a Joe Smith please ask Chuck a question?

• 29:27Chuck Nice?

  I know, where's Joe Smith when I need him? Okay, Christian Prizblik from Twitter, uh, says this. Uh, do vets of armed combat face a disproportionate number of chronic health issues? And does race play a role or, or as well as class? So class and race, do they play a role i- in the, uh, chronic health issues that vets face? And do vets face more chronic health issues than anyone else by virtue of being a vet?

• 29:59Mary Roach?

  I, well, yeah, yeah.

• 30:01Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 30:02Mary Roach?

  There's a tremendous amount. I mean, there's like, just starting with here, the number one VA expense, hearing loss.

• 30:08Chuck Nice?

  Really?

• 30:08Mary Roach?

  Come away with, yeah, I mean, it's not just, it is not just rifle, bombs going off and rifle fire. It's steady state noise a year in a, a Blackhawk helicopter.

• 30:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:16Mary Roach?

  Which is like 106 decibels in hearing. And so they, and they have hearing protection.

• 30:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck's imitating helicopter.

• 30:22Chuck Nice?

  Does he like that?

• 30:23Mary Roach?

  I like that, yeah, yeah. Can you do a, uh, an M16?

• 30:26Chuck Nice?

  Uh, uh, well, M16 is a little bit more staccato, so it's.

• 30:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The M16, the rifle.

• 30:35Mary Roach?

  Sounds like a duck.

• 30:36Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I do.

• 30:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But then there's the Huey from Vietnam.

• 30:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's like, it was a, it had a pulse, it was a pulsing, pulsing sound. So you're saying the consistent, the persistently, being persistently bathed in high decibel sound, even beyond just whether you were near an explosion.

• 30:58Mary Roach?

  Right, and, and the other problem is that when the, uh, when the noise, when things go kinetic, when there's fire, when there's like, there's no warning, you don't have time to go, oh, roll down my foam earplug and pull my outer ear back and put that, you know, there's just not time, and they're not gonna wear that stuff all the time, because you lose your situational awareness, you can't hear somebody shouting, get down, help somebody over there, so they, uh...

• 31:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They've tried to do that in some movies.

• 31:23Mary Roach?

  Well, they have, yeah, they have, special operations is really cool, bionic hearing, it's so cool, it's a headset, and it attenuates the loud noises.

• 31:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It changes the range.

• 31:33Mary Roach?

  Right, so the loud stuff gets quieter, and the quiet stuff is amplified, so you're like the bionic, I was thinking, it's like, didi didi, so you could hear across the room. You could hear a conversation.

• 31:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that was, no, that was the eye, what you're doing.

• 31:44Mary Roach?

  Oh, was that the eye?

• 31:46Chuck Nice?

  That was the eye.

• 31:48Mary Roach?

  That was the ear?

• 31:48Chuck Nice?

  That was the ear.

• 31:49Mary Roach?

  Okay, I think you're right, yeah.

• 31:50Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, Amy Summers had the ear.

• 31:52Mary Roach?

  Amy Summers, and now she's selling mattresses. Late night TV.

• 31:57Chuck Nice?

  Can you hear it now?

• 32:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, so, okay, so that's interesting, so these, so...

• 32:03Mary Roach?

  Anyway, yeah, but that's just, that's the biggest one, but then, um, yeah, uh, you've got a traumatic brain injury, and you've got, and orthopedic stuff, I mean, if you're in a vehicle that is designed to withstand an ID going off, I mean, you'll survive, you survive, but you, you, like, the bottom of it would come up and slam into the foot and the pelvis and the spine.

• 32:23Chuck Nice?

  Speaking of that...

• 32:23Mary Roach?

  Spines, uh, just to wear and tear on your body, even if you're not blown up.

• 32:27Chuck Nice?

  So, speaking of that, and this question is from...

• 32:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, these are veterans that have been in combat, right?

• 32:31Mary Roach?

  Yes.

• 32:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Veterans, generic veteran.

• 32:34Mary Roach?

  Right, right.

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause many, most veterans have not been in combat.

• 32:37Mary Roach?

  Right.

• 32:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So.

• 32:38Mary Roach?

  Oh, so do they have more? Well, I, uh, yeah, I don't know.

• 32:41Chuck Nice?

  Well, yeah, I mean, you know.

• 32:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We presume it's combat veteran.

• 32:43Chuck Nice?

  We would have to assume because, I mean, I mean, I'm gonna say carpal tunnel doesn't count. I've been sitting at this desk filling out these reports for weeks. My wrists are killing me.

• 32:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually, I have this book called Dear, Dear America, which is a collection of letters home from Vietnam.

• 33:00Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was collected before they made a Vietnam memorial here in Lower Manhattan. And so on the memorial are, are subsets of these letters.

• 33:07Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 33:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The book is all of them.

• 33:08Chuck Nice?

  That's cool.

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and just to your point, Mary, these are letters from all manner of servicemen serving in Vietnam. And there's some talking about like their friends getting blown up in front of them and.

• 33:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and wading through the muck and mire and the mosquitoes.

• 33:24Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then there's another letter of someone who's in a, in a, in an office.

• 33:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In Vietnam, saying, I can't, you know, I don't wanna laugh, but it's so hot in here. It's almost 94 degrees and the fan doesn't work. I, these working conditions are unbearable. They're unbearable. It's like, do you have any idea what's going on?

• 33:46Chuck Nice?

  Around you?

• 33:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Around you?

• 33:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:49Mary Roach?

  My typewriter keys are sticky. The humidity.

• 33:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I think it's your, your biggest problem is your biggest problem. That's really what that is.

• 33:58Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 33:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whatever your biggest problem is, that's your biggest problem.

• 34:00Chuck Nice?

  Wow, that's cool. Um.

• 34:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How many, how many questions can you squeeze into this?

• 34:04Chuck Nice?

  All right, you know what?

• 34:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Try it, go.

• 34:05Chuck Nice?

  Here's the deal, I'm gonna, we're gonna go philosophical less. Olen Hausa, Olen Hausa says, um, do you think there can be, or ever has been, something that can unite humans so effectively as war? What a profound question.

• 34:22Mary Roach?

  Mars mission.

• 34:23Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, look at you with the Mars mission.

• 34:26Mary Roach?

  Landing a human Mars, I think everybody's gonna tune into that, right?

• 34:31Chuck Nice?

  Mmm.

• 34:31Mary Roach?

  You think?

• 34:32Chuck Nice?

  Mmm.

• 34:32Mary Roach?

  I don't know.

• 34:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so I, so I, let me agree and add to that. So I've thought a lot about things that unite humanity.

• 34:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 34:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So one of them is war, which is the largest organized. Unification of humans that we experience.

• 34:47Chuck Nice?

  That immobilizes us like a good war.

• 34:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, and what odd thing is it immobilizes us against one another, but it's nonetheless mobil- mobilizing. Another one is the Olympics.

• 34:58Chuck Nice?

  True.

• 34:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And another is the World Cup.

• 35:00Chuck Nice?

  Which by the way is a metaphor for war.

• 35:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, it is actually, and so too is the World Cup. Except you don't end up dead at the end of it.

• 35:06Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 35:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the World Cup, the Olympics, and the International Space Station. When you look at the cost of the International Space Station, the number of countries involved, it is the greatest collaboration of nations outside of the waging of war. You look at just the total investment that has gone in it, basically three billion a year plus. So, yeah, yes, so I agree, landing on Mars could do that if it's done as a

• 35:31Mary Roach?

  As a global, yeah, exactly.

• 35:33Chuck Nice?

  As it's done.

• 35:34Mary Roach?

  Which it would be, wouldn't it? I mean, don't you think?

• 35:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It can be, but I don't have enough confidence in the human species to think that we wouldn't do it out of competitive urges rather than cooperative urges.

• 35:44Chuck Nice?

  So you're saying that if we make it a reality show competition between countries, we're more apt to go to Mars than if we were just to wait for us to finally come together?

• 35:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Feeling is that your urge to be innovative is greater stimulated when you're in competition than when you're in cooperation. That's my feeling here.

• 36:02Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 36:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As capitalism at its best reveals. Where you wanna, you want, I want your money, I don't want you to give your money to the other person.

• 36:11Chuck Nice?

  So now that competition drives me to be better than the other guy.

• 36:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There it is.

• 36:14Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 36:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There it is. I think we're out of time. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Well, let me just, so, so, so.

• 36:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mary. Let me, let me, let me break ranks here and pull away from Chuck's questions.

• 36:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 36:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is there one other thing you want us to know about your book before we, before we end, end StarTalk today?

• 36:33Mary Roach?

  Oh, gee, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a dark topic, but it's an interesting, quirky, fun read. I don't want people to get it, I mean, it's, you mean war is serious, but there, the people, people in the military have a good sense of humor and it's

• 36:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to, I think, yeah.

• 36:48Mary Roach?

  Anytime there's death involved and life and death and all that, so it's, so it's, um. It's fun.

• 36:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you interview, you interviewed servicemen?

• 36:55Mary Roach?

  I was, I was on a nuclear sub. I was in Camp Lemon.

• 36:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They let you in?

• 36:59Mary Roach?

  It took me a year and a half to get on.

• 37:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I know, I know, yeah.

• 37:02Mary Roach?

  Yeah, they did.

• 37:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's pretty cool, actually.

• 37:04Mary Roach?

  It was cool, yeah, it was cool, so. So I was all over the place and it's, it's, it's, it's an interesting, it's a foreign culture. And like any foreign culture, it's just a really interesting place to go and to learn about, so.

• 37:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cool. Mary, thanks again for being on StarTalk.

• 37:18Mary Roach?

  Thanks, thank you.

• 37:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and so we'll just, I want to be on your, on your tour list every single time.

• 37:23Mary Roach?

  Oh, you bet.

• 37:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 37:25Mary Roach?

  Oh, yeah, you'll never get rid of me.

• 37:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want to be like the only show that had every one of their damn books. Right here, we get them all.

• 37:31Mary Roach?

  Six for six, so.

• 37:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, we got to close out this part of the show. When StarTalk returns, Chuck Nice and Bill Nye take over the studio for a segment of maker-themed cosmic queries. Yes. Brought to you by Google.

• 37:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back. Here's more of StarTalk.

• 38:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is from at Mrs. Doodle Journey on Instagram.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  At Mrs. Doodle Journey.

• 38:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At Mrs. Doodle Journey.

• 38:11Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:13Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is the best way to make a portable greenhouse? So I suppose she's looking at this.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  If I were, no, no, no, no, this weekend.

• 38:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 38:24Speaker 03

  Yes, with clear plastic inflatable dome. That's what I do.

• 38:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's it? That's all you really need?

• 38:29Speaker 03

  What I, what I do, people play tennis under inflatable domes. People make inflatable domes for their backyard for fun.

• 38:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 38:36Speaker 03

  Held up by a fan.

• 38:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  So you could, I could easily imagine a clear plastic dome. You carry it in essentially a backpack or a shopping cart or a hand truck.

• 38:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 38:48Speaker 03

  And you show up at wherever you want inflatable dome zone and turn the bad boy on. And the fan to hold the thing inflated will run off a solar panel connected to a battery that would keep the thing inflated all night. I did that without even. Just from the hip.

• 39:05Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna tell you, that was impressive.

• 39:06Speaker 03

  And then in space, it seems like it would be just the same thing with a lower pressure inflatable dome. And plants do seem to grow okay in space. You know, that's a little game they play up there.

• 39:16Chuck Nice?

  Right. So as long as you have the right soil.

• 39:20Speaker 03

  Or the right.

• 39:20Chuck Nice?

  The right.

• 39:21Speaker 03

  Hydroponic medium.

• 39:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:23Speaker 03

  Can I say medium?

• 39:24Chuck Nice?

  I like that.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  You're on the radio medium.

• 39:26Chuck Nice?

  I like hydroponic even better.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  Yes, uh, and then, uh, then you can grow stuff, I guess, portably.

• 39:33Chuck Nice?

  Awesome.

• 39:34Speaker 03

  But still, so far, you still need light, a source of light and water and hydroponic nutrients.

• 39:39Chuck Nice?

  That's why they have lamps and closets. I'm sorry.

• 39:41Speaker 03

  Uh, can't hear you. Don't know what you're talking about. But you know, uh, changing the subject to, uh, what used to be illegal manuf- or legal agriculture at home.

• 39:53Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 39:53Speaker 03

  Looks like that's all gonna be legal soon enough.

• 39:56Chuck Nice?

  Well, it should be, let's be honest.

• 39:57Speaker 03

  I just, can I ask as a fellow citizen?

• 40:00Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 40:01Speaker 03

  I don't wanna breathe a secondhand smoke from the legalized and properly taxed marijuana sales.

• 40:07Chuck Nice?

  You do not wanna breathe the second.

• 40:09Speaker 03

  I do not wanna breathe the secondhand smoke.

• 40:10Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's why they'll have coffee houses where you will can go and designated areas for people who.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  And grown in inflatable greenhouse.

• 40:17Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 40:18Speaker 03

  Maybe in an inclement place, say you're in Norway or something in the wintertime and you just gotta have your inflatable greenhouse for whatever.

• 40:27Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:27Speaker 03

  You could do that.

• 40:28Chuck Nice?

  Your coffee house, uh.

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Uh, enjoyment.

• 40:31Chuck Nice?

  Enjoyment, right.

• 40:31Speaker 03

  Just don't make me breathe this. I just never liked the smell, if I may whine. It's never liked the smell. And you worked in nightclubs for a hundred years.

• 40:40Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 40:41Speaker 03

  Everything smelled like smoke.

• 40:43Chuck Nice?

  Well, you not, not, well, that was one of the great things about moving here to New York City was shortly after I moved here, uh.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  When was this?

• 40:51Chuck Nice?

  Uh, nineteen ninety-nine, exactly. But shortly thereafter, uh, the mayor said, no more smoking in the, in anywhere. We're gonna get rid of smoking and.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Interior spaces.

• 41:04Chuck Nice?

  No interior spaces. And everyone lost their mind.

• 41:07Speaker 03

  Thought the place was gonna go out of business.

• 41:09Chuck Nice?

  It was gonna go out of business. Got it, especially the, uh.

• 41:11Speaker 03

  Restaurants.

• 41:11Chuck Nice?

  Restaurants and more importantly, the comedy clubs. Because they're like, what are you talking about?

• 41:16Speaker 03

  It's all we do here.

• 41:17Chuck Nice?

  All we do here is smoke and drink. That's all that happens here.

• 41:19Speaker 03

  And so occasional laugh is told.

• 41:21Chuck Nice?

  And right, and we don't even care about that as long as people are smoking and drinking. And sure enough.

• 41:25Speaker 03

  What happened is.

• 41:27Chuck Nice?

  The more people came.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  And they spent more money.

• 41:30Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. All right. So let's move on to at Jennifer. Hmm. You know, Jennifer.

• 41:37Speaker 03

  It's a long last name.

• 41:38Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my Jennifer.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  Melcade.

• 41:43Chuck Nice?

  Okay, okay.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  Okay. Anyway, Jennifer.

• 41:46Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. Coming to us from Instagram. Now, this is somewhat of an existential question.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  Like dude.

• 41:52Chuck Nice?

  And so you're gonna have to kind of really just branch yourself for a bit. Hey, Bill. What's next? After 3D printing?

• 42:03Speaker 03

  I Jennifer, I don't know.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  I don't know, but I think additive manufacture of all sorts is in the future for sure. You know, you can. You can design shapes you can make additively or 3D printing that you can't. Make through conventional machining. So. What's after that? I guess molecular scale. 3D printing or atomic scale.

• 42:27Chuck Nice?

  Look at you. You had it in you.

• 42:29Speaker 03

  Yes, atomic scale 3D printing. Individual atoms placed on, let's say substrates of circuit of exotic new future circuits.

• 42:37Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  Extremely compact hustling against. Moore's law, you know, where um every 10 years we double the amount of memory in a given volume.

• 42:46Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 42:47Speaker 03

  Yes. That's the future, Jennifer. I've answered it succinctly. And you can take that to the bank, Jennifer. No.

• 42:55Chuck Nice?

  That does seem reasonable. All right. So now, okay, so this is this these names.

• 43:01Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 43:02Chuck Nice?

  Uh.

• 43:02Speaker 03

  All right. So go ahead.

• 43:04Chuck Nice?

  All right. So this person, I'm gonna call you Yoi. Okay.

• 43:07Speaker 03

  Yoi, that's pretty cool.

• 43:08Chuck Nice?

  Yoi, all right. Hey, Bill.

• 43:10Speaker 03

  I think you mean yo.

• 43:12Chuck Nice?

  Or yo.

• 43:12Speaker 03

  Yo.

• 43:13Chuck Nice?

  You could stop right there.

• 43:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, yo, Bill.

• 43:15Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yo. And it says, hey, Bill, what are the limits of 3D printing? Don't cop out and say the human mind, Mr. Science Guy. Do we know yet what we cannot do or could never do with 3D printing?

• 43:29Speaker 03

  Well, I think of something big. What's a big thing?

• 43:33Chuck Nice?

  Uh, Empire State Building.

• 43:34Speaker 03

  Empire State, I don't see why you couldn't 3D print it. No, and imagine the printer.

• 43:39Chuck Nice?

  How big does the?

• 43:40Speaker 03

  Oh, no, no, the printer could go around, well, not just that. The printer could go around, uh, the foundation in a big spiral. And it's going up to the sky indefinitely, as somebody, as long as somebody fed it spiral 3D printing fluid.

• 43:54Chuck Nice?

  You know what? Now that you say that, there are these window cleaning, uh, Autobots. That they use, I forget the building in Australia.

• 44:04Speaker 03

  Clean windows.

• 44:05Chuck Nice?

  Yes, but.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Robotically.

• 44:06Chuck Nice?

  Robotically, and, uh, that's how they work. They just go around the building all day long.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  In a spiral, yeah, why not? What's not to love? So, I mean, you can, in other words, think of it where the printer doesn't have to be bigger than the object being printed. Let's go with that insight.

• 44:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:22Speaker 03

  Follow me?

• 44:22Chuck Nice?

  Right, I got you, got you.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  Like a spider web is bigger than a spider.

• 44:26Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  Like the Empire State Building is bigger than a human.

• 44:28Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 44:29Speaker 03

  By some, by some fraction.

• 44:30Chuck Nice?

  My god.

• 44:31Speaker 03

  And humans showed up there and built the freaking thing.

• 44:34Chuck Nice?

  See, so, hey, yo, here's the problem. You think too small. No, I'm joking.

• 44:38Speaker 03

  No, no, he or she is a listener and viewer. We love you.

• 44:42Chuck Nice?

  No, we do love you.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  You're not.

• 44:44Chuck Nice?

  Uh, that's a really good point, though. It's, a spider web is much bigger than a spider.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 44:48Chuck Nice?

  And it's because you're building out, and so this would be building around.

• 44:52Speaker 03

  Spider provides the protein, the raw material, and then also the design and construction. It's very cool.

• 44:57Chuck Nice?

  Look at that.

• 44:58Speaker 03

  Think big, think big. Doesn't have to be a spiral, that was Uncle Bill just kinda jamming.

• 45:03Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm. Alright, here we go. Uh, Swanson Dinner.

• 45:09Chuck Nice?

  Swanson Dinner wants to know this.

• 45:12Speaker 03

  Our good friend.

• 45:12Chuck Nice?

  Our good friend Swanson Dinner, Swanay, uh, says 3D printing seems like a great way to pave the road for human colonization of.

• 45:19Speaker 03

  pave the road, get it?

• 45:21Chuck Nice?

  Solar system.

• 45:22Speaker 03

  Well, that's it. That's what we want to do, is have 3D printers onboard spacecraft that would make everything an astronaut needs when he or she needs it, rather than packing all this stuff.

• 45:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 45:32Speaker 03

  And I'm sure, I think you'll want a substantial number of rolls of duct tape. But also, you'd have a machine that would print all the tools you might need. Should anything go wrong, you make the tool to fix that thing. Otherwise, you don't take the tool. Instead, you take computer programs, computer files, full of what, of the files to make the tools.

• 45:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thanks for listening to StarTalk Radio. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Many thanks to our comedian, our guest, our experts, and I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Until next time, I bid you to keep looking up. [Music]