Stars Talk to Neil – Alien Love

How certain are we about aliens? Neil deGrasse Tyson and cohosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly answer science questions from celebrities like Kevin Hart, Jack White, Nikki Glaser, and more!

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

• 0:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming up on StarTalk, special edition, it's gonna be celebrities ask Neil. And I take questions from the likes of Kevin Hart, the musician Jack White. Oh my gosh, and we explore whether gold is rare in the universe. What is the nature of love? And are aliens real? Coming up on StarTalk.

• 0:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

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

• 0:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk. Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. This is a special edition, which means we've got Gary O'Reilly.

• 0:47Gary O'Reilly?

  Hi Neil.

• 0:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the house.

• 0:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 0:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck Nice.

• 0:49Chuck Nice?

  Hey hey.

• 0:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Also in the house here at my office, the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History. Today, we're gonna do celebs ask Neil.

• 1:01Gary O'Reilly?

  We want to call them stars.

• 1:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stars.

• 1:03Chuck Nice?

  Oh, look at that, the stars.

• 1:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At StarTalk, stars are talking, talking, they got questions.

• 1:07Chuck Nice?

  The stars are talking to Neil.

• 1:08Gary O'Reilly?

  See, we don't know whether it's you talk to stars or stars talk to you. It depends how you feel and who should go first.

• 1:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, these are stars. These are stars. So at my walks through life, if I bump into somebody famous or one, I befriend one. I try to get them, if they have a question about the universe and get their permission to put their question in the show.

• 1:28Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 1:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I don't answer it at the time, so they gotta like.

• 1:32Chuck Nice?

  Now, now we, now we have forced them to listen to the show.

• 1:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 1:36Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 1:36Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 1:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To get, to get the answer.

• 1:39Chuck Nice?

  Yes, this episode will air in approximately six weeks.

• 1:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 1:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Or so.

• 1:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what questions are you, are we ready for these?

• 1:48Gary O'Reilly?

  I think we should be.

• 1:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so who's first up?

• 1:50Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, so we have a Hollywood actor and stand-up who, I should say really, star has risen to the heights. Very much so, it is Kevin Hart.

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Kevin Hart.

• 2:00Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 2:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you meant stand-up comedian, you said have a stand-up.

• 2:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 2:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stand-up comedian.

• 2:05Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, a stand-up comedian.

• 2:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I guess there aren't many stand-up other, there are no stand-up astrophysicists.

• 2:09Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 2:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No.

• 2:12Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 2:13Gary O'Reilly?

  No, it's a long no.

• 2:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 2:15Gary O'Reilly?

  But he has an interesting question about space.

• 2:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh.

• 2:19Gary O'Reilly?

  Let's take a listen and let's get your reaction.

• 2:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  Hey Neil, Kevin Hart here. Uh, I have a metaphysical question for you. I know you're probably saying to yourself, Kevin, ooh, I didn't know that you were into metal, metaphysical stuff, but I am. Uh, Neil, if I were to go to space and I wore dress pants and I didn't iron them, is space capable of taking the wrinkles out? Or am I gonna be in space wrinkled up?

• 2:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He might wanna look up metaphysical.

• 2:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna check out the definition. You're picking the man apart. He's, he's brought his curiosity to the table. Honest curiosity, and you're another comedian, and you don't like other comedians

• 3:06Speaker 03

  That's not true.

• 3:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  coming into space.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  That's not true.

• 3:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I think that's what's happening.

• 3:09Chuck Nice?

  Let me tell you something, I enjoy Kevin. I think he is funny. I'm, you know, listen, I, I just think that

• 3:21Chuck Nice?

  when you say you have a metaphysical question.

• 3:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you talking about ironing pants?

• 3:25Speaker 03

  You might wanna make it a metaphysical question, is all I'm saying, okay?

• 3:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, Kevin, my man.

• 3:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Kevin. So, uh, have you noticed that you don't have to iron pants, you don't have to iron clothing to get rid of the wrinkles? They have these steam irons.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where you hang up the clothes in the closet, and you go vertically up and down. So it's not a traditional iron, we have a flat iron on an ironing board. Right, which is weight. Okay, that's weight and heat. Right. And steam will flatten it out. But you can, you can take out the wrinkles if you just glide up and down with a, a heat source that has steam within it. You can do that. Okay, so now watch. If I put your ass in space.

• 4:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 4:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I put you close enough to a star. The energy from the star will heat your body. You will sweat trying to stay cool. That sweat will evaporate and steam your pants.

• 4:38Chuck Nice?

  Well, there you go, with you in them.

• 4:41Gary O'Reilly?

  That just sounds like someone getting cooked.

• 4:43Chuck Nice?

  When you're done, you'll be like a salmon.

• 4:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Steam salmon inside the foil.

• 4:48Chuck Nice?

  That's what you'll be.

• 4:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Remember back in the 60s, 70s, space boots would look that silver foil?

• 4:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, they all had silver, right.

• 4:55Gary O'Reilly?

  So now, if you had those and that happened, you are gonna get cooked.

• 4:59Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, what gets me is I would think that someone of Kevin's stature would be able to afford dry cleaning.

• 5:08Gary O'Reilly?

  In space.

• 5:09Chuck Nice?

  Even in space.

• 5:12Gary O'Reilly?

  We now get to the point where he has a butler.

• 5:14Chuck Nice?

  Oh, he definitely has not a butler, but he has somebody that attends to that.

• 5:20Gary O'Reilly?

  So he's gonna have a space butler.

• 5:22Chuck Nice?

  That's kinda like.

• 5:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If he's going to space, surely he'd have a space, yeah, he would have it.

• 5:26Chuck Nice?

  Have a space butler.

• 5:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

• 5:28Chuck Nice?

  He's got it like that.

• 5:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so Kevin, if you don't otherwise have a.

• 5:33Chuck Nice?

  A space butler.

• 5:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, there's a word for that, for that person who looks after your clothing.

• 5:37Chuck Nice?

  A valet.

• 5:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Valet. If you don't have a space valet, boy, that's the subject of a sitcom.

• 5:43Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 5:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  My space valet.

• 5:44Chuck Nice?

  My space valet.

• 5:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Where do I park the spaceship?

• 5:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you don't happen to have a space valet, you can steam out the wrinkles of your clothing with your own body heat.

• 5:54Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 5:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 5:57Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm not sure he's gonna be satisfied with that.

• 5:59Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna say the best metaphysical answer you could have given.

• 6:05Gary O'Reilly?

  It could have been metal physical, and then we could have gone with iron.

• 6:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, for the same reason, if you're all sweaty inside your ironed clothes.

• 6:15Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you go sit in a car.

• 6:17Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you're sweaty in the car, and you get out of the car, you have a fresh set of wrinkles that have been pressed by the heat and the steam of your body.

• 6:27Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 6:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why you're wrinkled, but the wrinkle doesn't know that wasn't on purpose. It says, oh, I feel pressure, and I feel heat, and I feel moisture, I'm gonna make a crease. Is that the creases are all misaligned.

• 6:41Gary O'Reilly?

  We don't have air-conditioned seats in space yet.

• 6:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, well, yeah.

• 6:46Chuck Nice?

  I don't, yeah, I don't think you would need them, to be honest. Mm-hmm.

• 6:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 6:50Chuck Nice?

  You know, you just open the window.

• 6:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Roll down the window.

• 6:53Gary O'Reilly?

  Even better.

• 6:54Chuck Nice?

  Roll down the window.

• 6:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, if you're not facing a star, it's very, very cold.

• 6:57Chuck Nice?

  You're right.

• 6:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. Facing a star, it can be very, very hot. Anyway, that's the answer, Kevin.

• 7:02Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 7:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For you.

• 7:02Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 7:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 7:04Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, next up.

• 7:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got more?

• 7:05Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, yes.

• 7:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 7:06Gary O'Reilly?

  There's more. All right, musician and singer-songwriter Tommy James from Tommy James and the Shondells.

• 7:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tommy James?

• 7:12Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 7:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 7:13Gary O'Reilly?

  Throwback.

• 7:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I met him.

• 7:15Gary O'Reilly?

  Throwback.

• 7:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At Sirius XM headquarters here in New York. I'm there, and he said, "Hi, I'm Tommy James." And it was like a religious moment. Like, "And the Shondells?" No, no, just Tommy James. The Shondells. I don't know where he left the Shondells.

• 7:31Gary O'Reilly?

  Exactly.

• 7:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But he has so many hits in that period of time. Like, was it the late 60s, early, mid 60s, early 70s? Uh, and, and you, you would recognize the tunes if you heard him. Tommy James.

• 7:46Gary O'Reilly?

  Now, he's got, he's got a question about, of all things, coffee.

• 7:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coffee?

• 7:51Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep, let's take a listen and we'll get your reaction on the other side.

• 7:54Chuck Nice?

  Coffee.

• 7:56Speaker 04

  My question to you is very simple. If I drink 8 o'clock coffee at 9 o'clock, can I create a singularity?

• 8:07Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 8:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so that's a metaphysical question.

• 8:09Chuck Nice?

  Once again.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, he didn't pre-advertise it as a metaphysical question. Okay, uh, the way I would answer that is, if you drink 8 o'clock coffee at 9 o'clock.

• 8:21Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The coffee thinks you're in a different time zone.

• 8:25Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The coffee's fine with its 8 o'clock-ness.

• 8:29Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 8:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's 8 o'clock somewhere in the world.

• 8:32Chuck Nice?

  And that's what I was gonna say, 'cause it's 8 o'clock somewhere.

• 8:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At all times, it's 8 o'clock somewhere in the world. You know how you know that? 'Cause the world has 24 time zones.

• 8:41Chuck Nice?

  Right. Right.

• 8:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually, it's more than, sometimes zones go thirty minutes.

• 8:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 8:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's, these are crazy people who do that, okay?

• 8:49Chuck Nice?

  Maybe not crazy, we won't call them that.

• 8:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, these are people who wanna be different.

• 8:54Chuck Nice?

  Right, more than that, yeah, cuz we shouldn't even have Mountain Time. To be honest, let's be honest.

• 8:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cut them some slack.

• 9:00Chuck Nice?

  We really should.

• 9:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know, like, how many people live in Mountain Time?

• 9:03Chuck Nice?

  How many people, like, eight?

• 9:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I think, I think, I think the coffee is not thinking about you, it's only thinking about itself.

• 9:11Chuck Nice?

  How selfish.

• 9:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then you resonate into the time zone where it is eight o'clock in the morning at that moment.

• 9:16Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I didn't know coffee had times affixed to it, I've never.

• 9:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not all brands.

• 9:21Chuck Nice?

  Eight o'clock coffee?

• 9:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, no, that was a brand.

• 9:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that was a brand of coffee?

• 9:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 9:25Chuck Nice?

  Eight o'clock, oh, I, I get it.

• 9:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 9:28Chuck Nice?

  I think you're right, I'm, I'm seeing it came in a red bag or something, eight o'clock coffee, I think it was. Yeah, or am I thinking Chock Full of Nuts? Yeah, Chock Full of Nuts. That's the heavenly coffee. That's the red.

• 9:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, if you're any actual working person.

• 9:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 9:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You, if, you ain't awake by eight, you ain't getting, you go, you.

• 9:47Chuck Nice?

  Forget it.

• 9:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Forget it.

• 9:48Chuck Nice?

  You don't deserve coffee. Coffee is for closers, not for people who sleep past eight o'clock.

• 9:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly, or for people who had to wake up at six.

• 9:56Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 9:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And get to the job early.

• 9:57Chuck Nice?

  That's right, yeah.

• 9:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so, it should be six o'clock coffee.

• 10:00Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I don't know anybody who has to be to work that gets up at eight o'clock.

• 10:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then, so, oh, now I gotta be awake at eight thirty for my cup of coffee.

• 10:09Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 10:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, that's my, that's my answer, but some of his songs.

• 10:12Chuck Nice?

  See, he's a musician, so eight AM is like, really, really early in the morning.

• 10:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but, eight, musicians, they, they wake up at noon.

• 10:21Chuck Nice?

  That's five thirty AM for him.

• 10:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For everybody else, okay.

• 10:24Chuck Nice?

  Eight AM, yeah, and mine's will be four o'clock, as far as he's concerned.

• 10:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, all right.

• 10:27Chuck Nice?

  He's getting up super early.

• 10:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tommy James and the Shondells, he, he sang Crimson and Clover.

• 10:33Chuck Nice?

  Crimson and Clover.

• 10:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you remember that?

• 10:35Chuck Nice?

  Not by him, but yeah, yeah, I know I did.

• 10:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But people covered his songs a lot.

• 10:40Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, people's covered his songs.

• 10:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, but it was good stuff, man, that's cool. There's another one, I think I'm alone now.

• 10:46Chuck Nice?

  And that's another, well.

• 10:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who knew that's him?

• 10:49Chuck Nice?

  That was Tiffany in the early eighties.

• 10:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tommy James had that before Tiffany.

• 10:52Chuck Nice?

  I know, but that was the cover version. So, she's covering him?

• 10:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She's covering him, yeah, yeah. Yeah, go check out his, his playlist, it's really, you'll recognize every one of the songs.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 11:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, totally.

• 11:02Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:11Speaker 05

  I'm Kais from Bangladesh and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 11:28Chuck Nice?

  Alright, who's next? Who else you got?

• 11:30Gary O'Reilly?

  Glad for that throwback. So, next question, we have a stand-up comedian, comedienne, because you got fussy the last time, so I'm throwing comedian in. And also an actress, Nikki Glaser. She has...

• 11:40Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:40Gary O'Reilly?

  So, it's a two-part question, so bring your patience. Here it comes. Take a listen and we'll get your reaction on the other side.

• 11:49Speaker 06

  Is 100%, it's 100% that there's alien life out there, no matter what, right? Like, it's been proven, right? Because I got in an argument with someone recently. Bill Maher told me that that's ridiculous. I said, "No, it's been proven, it's 100% true that there must be alien life somewhere." Is that true or not? And also, is love real?

• 12:09Chuck Nice?

  How am I gonna put, how am I gonna answer those two questions at the same time?

• 12:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Easy. You're gonna do this separately.

• 12:13Chuck Nice?

  Easy. If you think love is real, that's the reason why you think it's 100% sure that there are aliens.

• 12:22Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, that's 100% cynical.

• 12:25Chuck Nice?

  You get the same answer, but, okay. Yeah, exactly, because, yeah. Alright. If you say yes to both of those, that's a... It says what kind of person you are. It says what kind of person you are. Like, there's 100%, we're definitely sure that there's aliens and love is real. Well, I got news for you. There's not 100% sure that there are aliens, even though it's very likely. And love is a chemical reaction to, that your brain has, so that we can further our DNA into the future. So, it's all BS, okay? No such thing as love. Except she didn't ask you. Exactly, right. So, let's get to the...

• 13:01Gary O'Reilly?

  Is your answer any different?

• 13:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It just sounds a little more academic. Yes, exactly. We all will put a academic spin on it. All right. Instead of a cynical one. So, when you look at the ingredients of life on Earth. Yep. The chemical ingredients. Right. Wait, what's the number one molecule in your body? Uh, carbon. That's an atom. Oh, I'm sorry, you said molecule. I said molecule, dude. That's another element. Molecule is more than one element together. Put together. I'm trying to think which element is put... Oh, okay, so that'd be, um, water. Water, thank you. We're more than half water. Yeah.

• 13:40Gary O'Reilly?

  I was thinking it.

• 13:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, and water is more than half what? Uh, it's more half oxygen. H2. H2, one O, sorry.

• 13:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thinking it backwards, yes. I'm gonna take away the degree we gave you for honorary... Okay, H2. Two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. So we're mostly water. Water is mostly hydrogen. Right. So, the number one atom in our body is hydrogen. Right.

• 14:09Gary O'Reilly?

  I said that and you said me no.

• 14:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I asked for the number one molecule. And then we unpack the molecule and we get hydrogen. The number two atom in our body is oxygen. Right. The number three is carbon. Right. Number four, nitrogen. Number five, my favorite element of them all, other. Okay, so.

• 14:28Gary O'Reilly?

  How much of a... How much are people full of shit? Is that quantifiable or is it different?

• 14:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, people have other elements in them. Yeah, right. No, no, no, no. Oh, here's one I saw on a comic. So there's a periodic table of elements and one of the boxes, it just has a picture. Of a mouth agape person. Yeah, and that's the element of surprise.

• 14:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so if you look at that ranking of elements, so it's hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, other. Right. Okay? Now let's look in the universe. The number one atom in the universe is hydrogen. Hydrogen. Number two is helium, but that's chemically inert, nothing you could do with it anyway. Next in the universe, oxygen. Next, carbon. Carbon. Next, nitrogen. Next, the other class, other. Okay? We are one for one, the same ingredients in order, in rank order, in the universe. Right. So, when Earth made life four and a half billion years ago, when Earth made life four billion years ago, it was being highly opportunistic.

• 15:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It made life out of the base ingredients given to it by the formation of the universe and stars itself. So unless you want to say that what happened on Earth with the most common ingredients in the universe was rare. Right. At some point, you're gonna have to say, oh, my gosh, this probably played out many places in the galaxy and in the universe itself. Right. So it is highly likely, as Chuck alluded to with fewer words, that there's life elsewhere in the universe. Highly likely. But we do not yet have evidence of it. So what you're saying is...

• 16:14Chuck Nice?

  And even though it's highly likely, let's be honest, if you go out into a supermarket, there is every kind of cake in that supermarket, but it has not yet been made. So you got eggs, you got milk, you got flour, you got vanilla, you got everything.

• 16:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was deep.

• 16:31Chuck Nice?

  Right? So just because all the ingredients are in the supermarket, doesn't mean that there's a cake in the supermarket.

• 16:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, there isn't a bakery section.

• 16:40Chuck Nice?

  Well.

• 16:41Gary O'Reilly?

  So using that theme...

• 16:44Chuck Nice?

  I don't go to such a fancy market.

• 16:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 16:46Gary O'Reilly?

  So the universe isn't going to the fridge late on a Saturday night and finding it bare. It has everything it needs to make...

• 16:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In every nook and cranny of the universe itself. Okay? And because hydrogen and oxygen are the two most abundant chemicals in the list that are chemically active, water, you don't expect that to be rare.

• 17:07Chuck Nice?

  Right. Exactly.

• 17:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  H2O.

• 17:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Would there be an ability to create other life forms but by changing the magnitude of what was in play?

• 17:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Possibly. It's different for different life on Earth, but we're still carbon-based.

• 17:22Chuck Nice?

  Carbon-based.

• 17:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right? Some people say maybe there could be silicon-based life. Silicon sits right below carbon on the periodic table, and all elements in a column form similar families of molecules. So you can have CO2... There's silicon sitting right below us, S I O two.

• 17:38Chuck Nice?

  And there is going to be silicon-based life form. Um, as a matter of fact, we're on the precipice of it right now.

• 17:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, we call that the silicon chips.

• 17:45Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 17:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's not what they mean.

• 17:47Chuck Nice?

  I know, but I'm just saying, we're creating silicon.

• 17:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We are creating silicon.

• 17:52Chuck Nice?

  And it's gonna replace us.

• 17:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's gonna be our overlord.

• 17:55Gary O'Reilly?

  But then, then you look at the synthetic biological intelligence that's coming through with research right now, which will then sit maybe alongside the silicon intelligence.

• 18:06Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I mean, that, that, let's hope that never happens. Please, God, no.

• 18:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Can I scare him anymore now?

• 18:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so now, people say, well, we've been looking and we haven't found it.

• 18:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 18:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So maybe there isn't any. Well, how, how much do you think we've looked so far?

• 18:25Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 18:25Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 18:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. And so here's an analogy we get from my friends up at SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Organization up in Northern California.

• 18:34Chuck Nice?

  There are a ray of dishes that they listen to the world, the whole universe.

• 18:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Telescope dishes tuned in for anybody's gonna talk to us. All right.

• 18:43Gary O'Reilly?

  As if they're gonna wanna talk to us.

• 18:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At all. What a big assumption that is. They care about us.

• 18:49Chuck Nice?

  Right. Like, one day we're gonna hear a message just like, hello, hello, what? You know, I don't think it's on. Does it? I don't think it's working, Harold.

• 19:04Gary O'Reilly?

  So always Harold.

• 19:04Chuck Nice?

  So always Harold.

• 19:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was the first alien contact.

• 19:11Chuck Nice?

  That's the first alien contact.

• 19:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so they gave an analogy. You go to the ocean shore.

• 19:18Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 19:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you take a cup of water, I mean, you take an empty cup and you scoop up some ocean water and look at it and you conclude the ocean has no whales.

• 19:28Chuck Nice?

  Wow. That's a great analogy, man.

• 19:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's like us in the amount of the space we've looked, the number of frequencies we've looked, over time that we've looked,

• 19:38Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 19:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  is identical. You can actually calculate that these probabilities are similar.

• 19:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 19:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To do that and say that the ocean has no whales, using this cup as evidence that it doesn't. So we have no place to stand to declare that there's no life in the universe, given how little of it we have searched. Alright, so that's that, the answer to the first part.

• 19:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 19:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But is there love?

• 20:00Chuck Nice?

  And what's it got to do with anything?

• 20:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It matters to her.

• 20:03Chuck Nice?

  Apparently so.

• 20:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Matters to Nikki. But, so, is there love? Here's how I will answer that.

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm. With cards and chocolate?

• 20:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One doesn't have to decide whether or not love exists. If you can measure things that happen on the assumption that it does.

• 20:31Chuck Nice?

  Oh, I see. I see where you're going with this.

• 20:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you make the measurements of it.

• 20:36Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay, I'm near a cave and there's just snow and I see bear footprints out front. I don't see a bear, so I don't think it's exa- they're footprints.

• 20:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You walk a little further, there's poop. There's, you wa- with, it's berry poop, because bears like berry. You have this-

• 20:55Chuck Nice?

  Near there, the carcass of a small child.

• 20:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stop. So, so, you're allowed in science to make measurements of phenomena that betray the existence of a thing that you hypothesize could be there.

• 21:15Chuck Nice?

  Right. Alright.

• 21:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I will say that there's enough evidence of the existence of love in the conduct of our species that we should proceed with no denial of how real it is.

• 21:30Chuck Nice?

  Hmm. You, you sir are an eloquent romantic, indeed. I still say it's chemical reaction.

• 21:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but, but that does not diminish

• 21:42Chuck Nice?

  That's true.

• 21:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  the feeling, the reality, and the consequences of love in this world.

• 21:47Chuck Nice?

  That's true, absolutely.

• 21:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Nikki, yes, there's love.

• 21:51Chuck Nice?

  And, and you're right about the aliens too, Nikki.

• 21:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, cuz she heard that it wasn't. Yeah. And she got challenged on Bill Maher. Right. Right. She's saying that, yeah, it's definitely. Yeah, and Nikki, Bill Maher should not be your source of cosmic enlightenment.

• 22:04Gary O'Reilly?

  Maybe why she asked the question.

• 22:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, no, that's why she came. Yeah. Okay. So Nikki's got Netflix specials. Specials. And she's got potty mouth, though. She does. She's got potty mouth. Talks a lot about body parts in her comedy. All manner of body. Yeah. Parts. Body orifices. But she does it in a funny way, so I have no problem. Yeah, yeah, so check her out when you can. Yeah.

• 22:25Gary O'Reilly?

  So if we're looking at love existing, does that then roll itself out into other species? Do they experience love the way we experience love? And if we take it off-world and there are other life forms, are they likely to experience love?

• 22:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we went through many decades.

• 22:46Gary O'Reilly?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Even possibly centuries, declaring without evidence that we're the only ones with a consciousness about our existence. We're the only ones that have feeling. And we're the only to distance ourselves from the rest.

• 23:01Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 23:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the animal kingdom. Yeah. And the more we study animals, the more we learn. I'll just give an example.

• 23:08Gary O'Reilly?

  Go on.

• 23:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a video, you can find it, of a tortoise. Now, whenever you see a tortoise, it's not doing anything, right? Sticking its head out and then back in.

• 23:19Gary O'Reilly?

  Right.

• 23:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where it's eating lettuce.

• 23:21Gary O'Reilly?

  Mm-hmm.

• 23:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a tortoise with a, like, security cam footage, but with no one else is around, and it's playing with a ball.

• 23:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a ball, and it goes up to it, and it rolls it, and it sees where it goes, and it goes back and rolls it again.

• 23:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is beautiful.

• 23:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Right.

• 23:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? There's other footage of pigs having fun.

• 23:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Right.

• 23:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What will pigs do when you're not fattening them for slaughter? If you look at other animals, when you're not chasing them.

• 23:53Gary O'Reilly?

  Mm-hmm.

• 23:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they don't know anybody's looking, many of them are just having fun. If they have the capacity to have fun, should they not have the capacity to love? To have other feelings that bring joy to them. I will not declare that they do not have love. I'm not gonna be that guy.

• 24:13Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, alright.

• 24:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm gonna, and, and can I get a little weird on you here?

• 24:17Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 24:18Chuck Nice?

  Can we stop you?

• 24:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I, I, yeah, you can, I think.

• 24:21Chuck Nice?

  Alright, no, go ahead.

• 24:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I spent some time in Texas.

• 24:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 24:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I had a roach-infested apartment.

• 24:26Chuck Nice?

  That sounds like Texas.

• 24:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so I wanted to like, study the roaches so that I can know my enemy. So, I trapped some, and instead of killing them, I kept them in jars, and I observed their behavior.

• 24:39Chuck Nice?

  And after three days, they had set up a pickleball court. And they were playing pickleball.

• 24:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, so I, so I set it up, and I'm observing them, and so first of all, they're very clean, in the sense that they're always cleaning their legs and their antennas. They bring their antenna down, and they clean it, and they're doing this at all times. You don't know that because you're chasing them, ready to squash them. They don't have time to clean their antenna while you're chasing them as they're escaping death. But when they're not otherwise escaping death, that's what they're doing. And I see two roaches come up to each other after they clean their antennas, and their antennas just kinda touch, like that.

• 25:20Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And what am I gonna say? Oh, they're touching their antennas, but they don't actually feel emotion? That's like the porpoise, the porpoises swimming in the ocean, no, in the, in the, in the water park.

• 25:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One turning to the other, commenting on the humans who are up there and say, well, they face each other and make noise, but there's no evidence yet that they're actually communicating with each other. Okay? That's me thinking that roaches don't have this kind of understanding about themselves. Maybe the touching of the antenna was love.

• 25:49Chuck Nice?

  Mm.

• 25:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Roach love.

• 25:51Chuck Nice?

  Next time, I'm gonna suggest that you call orkans.

• 25:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but I can tell you, if it's not roach love, what you do know is that they're making babies.

• 26:01Chuck Nice?

  Right, that's true.

• 26:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Roaches know how to make babies.

• 26:04Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 26:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, alright, so I, I'm not gonna say other animals don't feel love.

• 26:09Chuck Nice?

  Alright, so that's awesome.

• 26:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 26:24Gary O'Reilly?

  Next question, you ready?

• 26:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got another one, let's do it.

• 26:25Gary O'Reilly?

  Alright, we're all loved out. This time, pop icon Jack White, and I think, if I'm not mistaken, he's got a question about rare earth minerals and their existence throughout the universe.

• 26:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, this is Jack White, the guitarist, singer, performer, and the White Stripes. Jack White.

• 26:42Gary O'Reilly?

  The man that appears in every stadium around the world if there's a sporting event, even though he's not there, always his music that gets played.

• 26:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jack White.

• 26:50Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 26:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, let me tell you why I met him. Okay, he's a fan of the universe. He was a fan of Carl Sagan's.

• 26:57Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 26:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I met him at a meeting of the Board of the Planetary Society when I served on the Board, and he came because he's just interested, he might have even been a donor, I don't remember. Planetary Society was founded by Carl Sagan and two of his colleagues to try to up the awareness of people's caring and sensitivity to the plight of Earth as a planet.

• 27:19Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 27:20Gary O'Reilly?

  What a great idea.

• 27:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so right now, our friend Bill Nye is CEO of the Planetary Society. So I'm there and I meet him for the first time, we posed for some photos, and just recently I gave one of my public talks in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives.

• 27:38Gary O'Reilly?

  Hmm, what a surprise.

• 27:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He sent me, he dropped me a line, saying, "Neil, I hear you're in town. I'm gonna come see. Can you..."

• 27:45Chuck Nice?

  That's kinda cool.

• 27:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, can you get me some tickets?

• 27:49Chuck Nice?

  Oh, wait a minute, he didn't pay for his ticket?

• 27:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was gonna say, pay for your own damn ticket. No, no.

• 27:54Chuck Nice?

  You've got enough money to pay for your own ticket, Jack White? Calling me up to mooch tickets off of me.

• 28:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mooch tickets.

• 28:00Chuck Nice?

  Hey Neil, it's me, Jack White, you know, famous guitarist from the White Stripes, was wondering, uh, can I get a free ticket to your show, Neil?

• 28:10Chuck Nice?

  Come on now.

• 28:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No love for Jack.

• 28:14Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 28:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, anyway, yes, I forwarded to, I got him some free tickets.

• 28:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then he invited me back to his place. And so I hung out with him about a half hour. All right. Okay. He showed me, he collects a lot of memorabilia. It was fun. You know what just happened to be on TV in that moment?

• 28:33Chuck Nice?

  What's that?

• 28:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  2001: A Space Odyssey.

• 28:35Chuck Nice?

  Oh, look at that.

• 28:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just happened to be on TV.

• 28:37Chuck Nice?

  No, it wasn't. He had that set up.

• 28:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yep.

• 28:39Chuck Nice?

  He had it on DVR. He had it on DVR. You walked in, he hit the play button. He was like, wow, what a coincidence. You're here in 2001, the Space Odyssey is on. Oh, what are the chances?

• 28:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, maybe that was also how, I don't know, maybe. I'm with you. But I pointed out some scenes where they got the physics wrong in 2001. But anyhow, at the end, I said, let me get a question from my man here, Jack White. All right. So, let's see, let's see what he asked me.

• 29:07Speaker 07

  Dr. Tyson, I have a question. Is gold actually rare in the universe? And part two, is it rare on the planet we live on?

• 29:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You notice how that question can be played in any civilization across the galaxy?

• 29:29Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it can.

• 29:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because he didn't mention Earth.

• 29:30Chuck Nice?

  He didn't mention Earth. And the planet we live on.

• 29:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The planet we live on.

• 29:33Chuck Nice?

  That's what he said.

• 29:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can we play that when we're Mars colony?

• 29:37Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 29:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So. It's possible for something to be rare,

• 29:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  but common.

• 29:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Explain.

• 29:47Chuck Nice?

  Ah ha.

• 29:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. Uh, let me give some simple examples.

• 29:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In your life, birth is rare.

• 30:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But in the world, birth is common. I understand that now. Okay. Okay. It's a big event if you're birthing out a baby. Mm-hmm. It's even a bigger event if I'm birthing out a baby.

• 30:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm. I'm just saying. You're just saying biologically. So, um, death is rare in your life. How many, unless you are working a hospital or serve in the military. Right. How many dead bodies have you actually ever seen in your life? Yeah. Right. At, you know, most of few, at most. Yeah. Yet it happens all the time. So something can be rare, but common. So, gold is rare because most things are not gold.

• 30:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But gold is everywhere. Okay. Even in them there hills?

• 30:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Especially in them there hills.

• 31:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was classic frontier gibberish. That was great. Especially in them there hills. So, uh, it's just, if it's everywhere but not all concentrated, then it's a challenge to gather it, alright? And so, if, I've met a gold mine, no, a gold prospector, once. My wife is from Alaska and there was a guy who spent his life doing this. A lot of people in Alaska do that. Yeah, exactly. And so, he had a gold nugget. Does ingot have a special definition? An ingot is probably above a, so I don't know. Yeah, but it is. An ingot has been melted down into a bar. Okay, sorry. Okay, so he just had a, he had a gold, natural gold. That's a nugget then. Nugget. Yeah.

• 31:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, like the Denver Nuggets, a nugget. He had a gold nugget on his wife's neck, you know, and I said, "What's the biggest chunk of gold you ever found?" He said, "It's around my wife's neck." Wow. And it was, it wasn't more than a centimeter across. So, and he does this his whole life. So you're not finding much gold where you're looking, but you can find some, and it's a big effort. Right. Okay? However. Mm-hmm. By the way, do you know that gold is very heavy? Yes. Okay? A cubic foot of gold

• 32:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  weighs 1,800 pounds. Yeah, that's why they sell it by the ounce.

• 32:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gold is one of the densest metals on the periodic table. Right. There's like two things denser than it. And it's not reactive, right? Osmium is the densest element. What'd you say? Osmium. Osmium?

• 32:37Gary O'Reilly?

  So if gold is so dense, why when you get a higher carat of gold, is it softer?

• 32:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, density and softness have nothing to do with each other.

• 32:46Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, thank you.

• 32:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the same way, in the same way, you can have something that's hard yet fragile. Right. Like, like stemware for wine, or the shell of an egg. Right, or crystal. Crystal. It's hard, yet fragile.

• 33:02Gary O'Reilly?

  Alright.

• 33:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so that's why you can be dense, yet soft.

• 33:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, good question though.

• 33:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Thank you.

• 33:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I like that. Gold is very malleable. Right. Malleable. So, so, nature, nature has done something very cool. Ready? When it form, when we form planets in orbit around stars, initially it's very hot, and the whole planet is molten. If you are molten, that means heavy things can go to the bottom and light things go to the top. We did a whole explainer on this, didn't we, Jack? Okay? One of my favorites. Okay, so, while you are in your molten state, all the heavy stuff goes to the bottom. The light stuff floats to the top. What would that be? All the metals, the heavy metals.

• 33:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, iron, nickel, cobalt. Metallica, death metal. Death Metal! Pantera.

• 34:02Gary O'Reilly?

  Totally guaranteed.

• 34:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're gonna find Metallica in the center of the...

• 34:05Gary O'Reilly?

  At what level is thrash metal? We're gonna get into the weeds here.

• 34:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Heavy metals, all, the bands are all there. So, they go to the middle and the light stuff floats like rocks. Okay? Rocks are light.

• 34:18Gary O'Reilly?

  In comparison.

• 34:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Compared with metals.

• 34:20Gary O'Reilly?

  Right.

• 34:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? If you have a chunk of metal and a, and a rock, and you drop them in the water, the metal's gonna fall faster than the, right? Cause it's gonna cut through the water faster. Alright. So, oh, but in the air, they fall the same rate. Right. That's a Galileo thing. Alright, so, what happens to these objects? They cool.

• 34:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they become solid.

• 34:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then, in the early solar system, which was an especially badass shooting gallery, other planetesimals can slam into you and shatter you to smithereens. Oh. After you have formed. Right. After you've been pre-sifted. What that means is, the asteroids you become. Right. Are now pre-sifted for the ingredients. That's right. Some of them will be rocky, others will be metallic. Right. We have metallic asteroids in the solar system.

• 35:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you go lasso one of those and bring it to Earth, it will have, depending on the size, of course, but there are asteroids out there with more gold in them than have ever been mined in the history of the Earth.

• 35:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Was it a movie or a TV series that they had a mining ship out in space?

• 35:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, that's, isn't that, um? That's called The Expanse. The Expanse, The Expanse, they're mining the asteroids for the natural ingredients. Because you don't have, it's pre, it's pre-sifted. The geologists have a word for it, it's called differentiation. That's how, what they call it, but it's just, I call it pre-sifted.

• 35:51Gary O'Reilly?

  The supermarket, but all the aisles.

• 35:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, but yeah, if you're picking aisle one and aisle two among the asteroids, there you have it. So, you can find places where gold is especially concentrated, because nature already did it for you, because gold is heavy. There you go. Right, and it's why Earth's core, we have an iron core. Whoa, whoa, by the way, there's way more iron than gold. Oh, God, yes. There's not much gold in the universe, because start there, okay?

• 36:18Gary O'Reilly?

  It's sent the price of gold up.

• 36:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, wait, wait, wait, so if you bring that asteroid to Earth, which has all that gold, then what happens to the price of gold? Well, it plummets unless you're smart enough to leave it parked a little further out, and bring it in a bit at a time. Just a little bit at a time, keep that price going. So, uh, yeah, so gold is plentiful but highly scattered unless you're gonna find the pre-sifted stuff in asteroids. Oh, by the way, there's more gold in the ocean than have ever been mined on Earth. That makes sense. Okay. In the ocean or in the ocean bed? Most of the Earth is ocean, or surface, right, right. So, if you, if you can set up a gold sifting device and you just, and maybe as the tides come through. You have a passive filtering device. You can slowly accumulate the gold that's in the ocean.

• 37:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The ocean doesn't need the gold. Yeah, we can make much better use of it than the ocean can. Man, I'm sure there's a goldfish joke in there somewhere. Gold, oh! But I'm not gonna do it. Oh, goldfish joke, that's clever. I'm not gonna do it. Okay, alright.

• 37:18Gary O'Reilly?

  You are, aren't you?

• 37:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I'm not. So...

• 37:24Gary O'Reilly?

  He's gonna sit there squirming until he says that.

• 37:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so the answer is it's rare but common.

• 37:30Chuck Nice?

  Rare but common.

• 37:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 37:32Gary O'Reilly?

  There you go, Jack, and who knew a musician would live in Music City? Nashville.

• 37:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah, that's where he lives.

• 37:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Alright, next one up, coming out of the entertainment business, but staying in entertainment with the sporty verse. Cam Johnson from the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA team.

• 37:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cam Johnson visited me in my office.

• 37:51Chuck Nice?

  Oh, wow!

• 37:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cam Johnson came to my office.

• 37:54Gary O'Reilly?

  He's a rising star in the NBA, so...

• 37:56Chuck Nice?

  Just to come in and say hi?

• 37:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, just to, I got, I got, you know. Why are you surprised?

• 38:01Chuck Nice?

  Because I don't think he's coming by for basketball tips. Yeah, I was hoping you could coach me on how to box out and, uh...

• 38:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There could be some physics lessons in there.

• 38:12Chuck Nice?

  Having some trouble with my crossover, man, I was hoping.

• 38:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There could be some physi... I had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in that chair.

• 38:18Chuck Nice?

  I know.

• 38:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And we talked about the physics of the skyhook. That's right, that's right, that's right. Okay, so Cam Johnson, alright, you look at him from a distance, he looks like a regular guy, and then he walks up next to you, he's like six, seven or something, you know. It's just, they're tall, these folk.

• 38:34Gary O'Reilly?

  What a surprise.

• 38:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I'm trying to remember, why did he come by my office?

• 38:39Gary O'Reilly?

  You have magnetism.

• 38:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I think it was like a day off for them, and they've got people who handle them, and they find out what their interests are. And he loved science when he was in college.

• 38:49Gary O'Reilly?

  That's great.

• 38:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And especially like his astronomy class. So he wanted to come and just get a little infusion, okay?

• 38:55Gary O'Reilly?

  Let's see what his curiosity was.

• 38:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's see where it took him.

• 38:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, let's see where it goes.

• 39:00Speaker 08

  What's up, Neil, this is Cam Johnson. Question for you. Can we feel the change in spin speed of the Earth at the equator versus at the poles? Obviously, at the equator, the Earth is gonna be spinning a lot faster. And at the poles, it's gonna be spinning a lot slower.

• 39:22Speaker 08

  And obviously, this has a lot of effect on the planet as a whole. But can we as humans kind of feel that change?

• 39:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting question.

• 39:35Chuck Nice?

  Clearly, he knows that the Earth spins faster at the equator.

• 39:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, at the equator, you are moving 1,000 miles an hour.

• 39:45Speaker 08

  Cool.

• 39:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, west to east, 1,000 miles an hour. As you go north or south of the equator, the the surface of the Earth is not moving as fast. It's moving as a solid object, of course. But your circumference is not as big if you are farther away from the equator than the equator is. So, but you still make one turn in a day. So you're clearly moving slower. All right, so if we paved over Earth. Okay. And I never thought of this example, boys. First time I'm thinking of this. You pave over Earth, start you at the equator, and we say, run due north. And don't stop. Okay.

• 40:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you start running due north, but then they no longer tell you which way north is. You just start headed to the Santa Claus. Okay, you start running, and you're always going in a straight line.

• 40:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You will think you're going in a straight line, but you're not. Step back, and we see your path. Your path would have curved east. And you'll never hit the North Pole. The point where you took your last step has higher sideways motion than the point where you just landed. So it is carrying you east without you even knowing it, even though you think you're running in a straight line. Another way to do this, if anyone still has them. Remember the record players? Okay. Take a little marble, start it at the end of the record player, and then roll it inwards.

• 41:16Speaker 08

  You will have ruined that record.

• 41:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It will overtake the spindle and come in ahead of it. So that's kind of the only way you would know it. By the way, clouds know all about this, alright? That's why they circulate into storms.

• 41:31Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Clouds coming up from the south, they overtake their destination. Clouds coming down from the north, fall behind. As you do this, that creates a circulation. So all storms in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise.

• 41:43Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 41:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the weather feels it. That's what creates our storms. You would feel it if Earth were paved over and you ran, but otherwise, no. No one has any clue.

• 41:53Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:54Gary O'Reilly?

  And I asked you this question before. Is there a point on Earth, right at the axis, where it actually doesn't rotate?

• 42:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, the very top spot. It's all rotating. Everything is rotating.

• 42:07Gary O'Reilly?

  Is there like one molecule?

• 42:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One atom right at the top?

• 42:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 42:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, because then everything would be turning around.

• 42:14Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, just why I'm asking, because it seems like there would be.

• 42:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, here it is, here it is. Mathematically,

• 42:18Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 42:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  there's a point that would not be rotating.

• 42:20Gary O'Reilly?

  Fine.

• 42:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But physical matter is not mathematical. There's always going to be a molecule there that's going to be dancing in a circle. And the worst case is, you only have the one molecule that's just pirouetting.

• 42:31Gary O'Reilly?

  How elegant.

• 42:33Chuck Nice?

  The lone ballerina molecule.

• 42:35Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, oh, the ballerina molecule.

• 42:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 42:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, we've got to trademark that.

• 42:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, thanks for those questions.

• 42:43Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, don't thank me, thank the stars.

• 42:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, yeah, yeah.

• 42:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Stars and their curiosity.

• 42:47Chuck Nice?

  It was fun.

• 42:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're good. We can do this again? Do we have other questions?

• 42:51Gary O'Reilly?

  Well, it depends how buddy you are with the.

• 42:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With famous folk.

• 42:54Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 42:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright.

• 42:55Chuck Nice?

  And tell Cam to, you know, get some more Brooklyn Nets up here.

• 43:01Gary O'Reilly?

  I might have the ceiling busted out, but yeah, we'll work with it.

• 43:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In fact, there's something that went semi-viral where we picked the, was the top 10 draft picks in the universe.

• 43:11Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 43:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's a thing they do, apparently. So they said, what's your first pick? And I'll take the Milky Way galaxy. And I, that was my first pick. I'll take the formation of the moon.

• 43:22Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 43:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Four billion years ago. So we go down and we create our top, our, our dream team of the cosmos.

• 43:28Chuck Nice?

  Of the cosmos. That's pretty cool.

• 43:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's online, you can check it out.

• 43:31Chuck Nice?

  Alright, yeah.

• 43:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With Cam Johnson. So just to take us out, if I reflect on what has just happened, we have people who made a name for themselves doing things that have nothing to do with science.

• 43:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yet, deep within, they retained a kind of curious, dare I say, geek underbelly? Something that historically was never valued, especially not by the bullies. "Oh yeah, you're carrying a calculator, you did well in your math class." Never boded well for the geeks. But for those who are brave enough to come forth in whatever is their profession and say, "I retain geek curiosity and I'm gonna take it to Neil deGrasse Tyson." I respect you and honor you, first for your bravery and for retaining doses of curiosity well into adulthood. Keep it going.

• 44:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This has been StarTalk, special edition. Neil deGrasse Tyson, as always, bidding you, keep looking up.