Cosmic Queries – Before the Big Bang

Summary

StarTalk Radio: Cosmic Queries – Before the Big Bang

Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Co-Host: Paul Mercurio
Release Date: March 11, 2025

---

1. The Superconducting Super Collider and Its Impact

Timestamp: 00:47 – 07:09

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Paul Mercurio delve into the historical significance of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), a massive particle accelerator project initiated in Texas during the Cold War era. Tyson humorously suggests renaming it the "Super Duper Collider" to emphasize its grandeur, while Mercurio adds, “The Gargantuan Super Collider” (03:14).

Key Points:

• Purpose of the SSC: Designed to accelerate particles to near-light speeds to discover new particles and advance our understanding of the universe.
• Superconductivity: The importance of developing room-temperature superconductors, which could revolutionize technology by allowing electricity to pass without resistance.
• Cancellation of the SSC: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the U.S. government, under President Reagan and later President Clinton, cited budget overruns and shifting priorities to cancel the project. Tyson speculates that geopolitical changes, such as the end of the Cold War, influenced this decision (06:00).

Notable Quote:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (04:00): “Because if you can find a room temperature superconductor, Ooh, that would transform everything.”

---

2. The Shift of Particle Physics to Europe

Timestamp: 07:09 – 15:05

With the cancellation of the SSC, the hub of particle physics research shifted to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. This led to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which ultimately discovered the Higgs boson, often referred to as the "God Particle."

Key Points:

• CERN’s LHC: Became the most powerful collider, leading to significant discoveries like the Higgs boson.
• Implications for U.S. Science: The U.S. lost its leading position in particle physics research, allowing European scientists to make breakthrough discoveries that the SSC might have achieved earlier.

Notable Quote:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (07:09): “The European center for Nuclear Research, CERN, which is located in Switzerland... and the LHC became the detector that found the mythical Higgs boson, the God particle.”

---

3. Listener Questions: What Existed Before the Big Bang?

Timestamp: 16:26 – 23:22

Tyson addresses a listener’s question from Emily in Kyoto about the nature of stardust and the origins before the Big Bang. The discussion transitions into the concept of the multiverse and the philosophical implications of existence.

Key Points:

• Stardust: Emphasizes that humans are literally made of stardust—elements forged in stars and spread across the galaxy via supernovae.
• Origin of the Universe: Discusses theories about what might have existed before the Big Bang, including the multiverse hypothesis, which posits an infinite number of universes.
• Philosophical Implications: Explores how origins questions persist unless a universe can create itself, leading to endless loops of causation.

Notable Quotes:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (34:08): “We are not only poetically, but literally stardust. We are made of ingredients that were forged in the hearts of stars.”
Emily’s Question (16:57): “What existed before the Big Bang?”

---

4. Time Travel and Relativity

Timestamp: 23:37 – 33:25

A listener named Umar from Seattle poses a question about the possibility of accelerating time to visit the past. Tyson and Mercurio engage in a discussion about the complexities of time travel, the effects of relativity, and its portrayal in popular culture.

Key Points:

• Relativity of Time: Explains how traveling at high speeds can slow down time relative to others, but accelerating time to visit the past remains scientifically unfeasible.
• Zeno's Paradox: Introduces Zeno’s paradox to illustrate the mathematical challenges of infinity and how it relates to movement and time.
• Pop Culture References: Discusses time travel scenarios in "Star Trek," highlighting the potential dangers of altering past events and the philosophical dilemmas they introduce.

Notable Quote:
Paul Mercurio (24:55): “Can we accelerate our time and essentially visit the past? Or does it just mean we just get old super fast?”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (27:33): “We are prisoners of the present, forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.”

---

5. Stardust and Future Evolution

Timestamp: 33:25 – 38:26

Listener Emily from Kyoto asks whether the air we breathe contains stardust and speculates about the future evolution of life based on this cosmic foundation. Tyson elaborates on the scientific perspective of stardust and its role in biological evolution.

Key Points:

• Composition of Air: All elements essential for life, such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, originated from stars, making humans and their environment literally composed of stardust.
• Future Evolution: The endless possibilities of chemical evolution driven by the periodic table, suggesting that future developments in chemistry and biology are boundless.
• Interconnectedness of the Universe: Highlights the profound connection between cosmic processes and the building blocks of life on Earth.

Notable Quotes:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (34:32): “We are made of ingredients that were forged in the hearts of stars...”
Paul Mercurio (34:26): “What does future evolution hold based on this foundation of stardust that we just talked about?”

---

6. Infinity in the Observable Universe and Mathematical Paradoxes

Timestamp: 39:18 – 42:25

The final listener question from Sparkman addresses the presence of infinity in the observable universe. Tyson and Mercurio explore mathematical concepts like Zeno's Paradox to explain the nature of infinity and its manifestation in reality.

Key Points:

• Infinite Universe: Discusses theories that suggest the universe might be infinite, and the implications of an endless multiverse.
• Zeno’s Paradox Revisited: Explains how infinite divisibility of space and time does not prevent reaching a destination, as the sum of an infinite series can converge to a finite value.
• Practical Implications: Explores whether infinite concepts are observable and meaningful in the physical universe versus abstract mathematics.

Notable Quotes:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (39:54): “The universe itself might be infinite. If there's a multiverse, it's pumping out an infinite number of universes...”
Paul Mercurio (41:56): “But it's so random to pick half. You could say I gotta pass the third. The point at the 1/3.”

---

Conclusion: Embracing the Unknown

Throughout the episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson emphasizes the importance of curiosity and the willingness to explore the unknown. He encourages listeners to keep questioning and seeking understanding, despite the vastness and complexity of the cosmos.

Final Quote:
Neil deGrasse Tyson (43:19): “This has been StarTalk's grab bag cosmic Queries from my office here at the American Museum of Natural History. Paul, thanks for coming in.”
Paul Mercurio (43:29): “As always, I bid you, keep looking up.”

---

Key Takeaways:

• Scientific Progress: The cancellation of major projects like the SSC can have long-lasting impacts on a country's scientific leadership and discoveries.
• Cosmic Origins: Understanding the universe's origins continues to challenge scientists, with theories like the multiverse offering potential explanations.
• Relativity and Time: While relativity allows for fascinating phenomena like time dilation, practical time travel remains beyond our current scientific capabilities.
• Stardust Connection: Our very existence is intricately linked to the cosmos, highlighting the profound interconnectedness of all matter.
• Infinity and Mathematics: Mathematical concepts of infinity, while abstract, have intriguing applications and implications for our understanding of the universe.

---

Stay Connected:
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a week early. Start your free trial on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

Remember: Keep Looking Up!

Transcript

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries. You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns. McDonald's breakfast comes first.

[LinkedIn Ad Voice]

Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? Well, with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company seniority, skills. Wait, did I say job title yet? Get started today and see how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So, Paul, it's not every day I get to think about infinities. Somebody asked about that. That was fun. Yeah, it's a little spooky.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's a little spooky and it sort of keeps you thinking. And then you ultimately get to the point where you don't think that there's a definitive answer to the question about.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Infinity or you give up on life.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's exactly right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And we had a little bit of a celebration of the centennial of quantum physics.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

This is the 1920s, and I hear.

[Paul Mercurio]

There'S a big pool party at your house to celebrate that. So everybody's invited.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Coming up, StarTalk. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science, science, and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk. Neil DeGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. Today we're doing cosmic queries, Grab Bag edition, and I've got co host here, Paul Mercurio. Paul, welcome back.

[Paul Mercurio]

Great to see you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I love your work, man.

[Paul Mercurio]

Thank you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, I see you on the late show. Yeah. The occasions when I'm on, I see you warming up the crowd, but he occasionally gives you a slot.

[Paul Mercurio]

Oh, yeah, I've been on a bunch of times and I'm gonna be going on again very soon.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, we'll look for you. We'll look for you.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's always great.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And you got. There's like a Broadway show or a stage show, permission to speak. And we all know your podcast, Inside.

[Paul Mercurio]

Out with Paul Mercurio.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Inside out with Paul Mercurio.

[Paul Mercurio]

And you're on it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I think I've been on that a couple times.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I still owe you money for that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So there's no categories here.

[Paul Mercurio]

There's no categories. This is loose. But I gotta tell you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And you got pages and pages, dude.

[Paul Mercurio]

We got tons of. And they're all good and varied. And they're from people all over the country and all over the world in different age ranges, which you'll see.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, good.

[Paul Mercurio]

So it's really cool.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Hit me.

[Paul Mercurio]

So this is Mancheno Cheno from the US of A. Had the SSC in Texas gone through, where would we be today? Do canceled projects like this set us back as a species? Also, what other major scientific breakthroughs have been made or halted?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Ooh, made or halted. I like that.

[Paul Mercurio]

Sounds like he's digging.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So the ssc, the Superconducting Super Collider. Which was, had I been in charge of naming it, I would call it the Super Duper Collider.

[Paul Mercurio]

I was gonna say, I think it needs more adjectives.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's what I know.

[Paul Mercurio]

The Gargantuan Super Collider.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They ran out of adjectives.

[Paul Mercurio]

Oh, my God, honey, look at the size of this collider.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, so they missed out on that one. I thought if you take certain metals and you reduce their temperature, there comes a point where they become superconducting, where electricity can pass through them and there's no resistance and they don't get hot and it just moves. We call that superconductivity. In the 1970s and 80s, there was research into can we make superconducting materials at a higher temperature? In other words, as you lower the temperature of the material, can it become superconducting at a much higher temperature than previously enabled?

[Paul Mercurio]

Why is that important to seek it at a higher temperature?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Because if you can find a room temperature superconductor, Ooh, that would transform everything.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, but then every average person is going to have it. And then we're going to have all these people with superconductors, and all of a sudden people are going to be turned into like little ants, like ant man. What are you people crazy?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Is that how he became an anti.

[Paul Mercurio]

You guys can't put power like that in a.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, that's a very good point.

[Paul Mercurio]

You want to meet my brother in law? You don't want that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Should have some guardrails.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So it came of age when higher temperature superconducting materials were becoming available. And why does that matter for any collider? You're accelerating particles. The particles have electric charge. And if you move an electric charge through a magnetic field, you can accelerate it and you adjust the magnetic field, make it just right. It can get very, very fast. The particles can go very fast, hitting 99% the speed of light.

[Paul Mercurio]

And what does the manifestation of that very fast moving particles look like?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Is that it's just a beam of particles, like, typically protons, and you slam it into a target.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And that creates a field of energy out of which brand new particles can form.

[Paul Mercurio]

And we harness that energy.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, no, it's not for energy. It's for what? New particles exist in this universe that we didn't know about before we turn on the switch.

[Paul Mercurio]

We have enough particles. Why do we need new particles?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Because you always want more particles. Come on.

[Paul Mercurio]

What do you do? What are you doing with the new particles?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We need more because a new particle might explain something we didn't understand.

[Paul Mercurio]

Oh, okay. So you're constantly in search.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's like what we were talking about on another show. So you never probing.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Never rest. So it came of age at that time. And by the way, it's still the Cold War, early 90s. So under Reagan, we say, yes, let's start this project. Superconducting Super Collider. They dig the hole. By the way, it'd be the largest and most powerful super collider in the world.

[Paul Mercurio]

They dig a hole somewhere out there.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, it's like. I forgot the diameter. A couple hundred miles. I mean, huge.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, it's the Meadowland. That's how they did it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Some states are not large enough to contain this collider, such as Rhode Island. All right.

[Paul Mercurio]

Which is where I'm from.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You're from Rhode Island.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's my home state. You can the world stop making any small reference and compare it to Rhode Island? Can we all move on from that? If I hear blankety blank twice the size of Rhode Island, I'm gonna create my own super collider and zap you. Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I didn't know it was that sensitive. Rhode Islanders carry. Yes, there's issues.

[Paul Mercurio]

We have size issues.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You have issues. Okay, so Texas. Clearly big enough. So it's in Waxahachie, Texas. Okay. They acquired the land, started digging the hole, and the years go by. And around 1989, 1990, the government takes another look at the contracting, the budgets, and they judge that there are cost overruns that we cannot afford, and they zero the project. That's different from canceling it, but it's the same thing.

[Paul Mercurio]

From what I read, the project was fairly far along.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yes, it was. Yes. It was the research, the engineering, and then they zeroed the project. And once that happened, the center of mass of particle physics would no longer be in the United States. But just because you don't do it doesn't mean some other folks can't or won't. And the European center for Nuclear Research, cern, which is located in Switzerland. But it's a European consortium, an international consortium, I should say. They said, all right, you're not gonna do it. We're gonna do it. So then they built as part of their facility the Large Hadron Collider. You might have heard of that. The LHC that became the detector that found the mythical Higgs boson, the God particle. The particle whose field grants mass to other particles. That's badass. If you're gonna be a particle, that's the particle you wanna be.

[Paul Mercurio]

You wanna be.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And so there's a book called the God Particle written about the Higgs boson. That was written decades ago because we knew it should be there. We don't have an accelerator that can detect the energies where we would find it.

[Paul Mercurio]

And that's the particle that kills his brother. The other particle who thinks he's cheating, he's Fredo. He kills his brother Fredo. I'm sorry, I got this mixed up with the Godfather. Go ahead, continue. I'm a little. So, in all seriousness, why couldn't the scientific community in America convince the federal government and the people funding this that this was a mistake?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Because they didn't call it a super duper collider. That's my answer.

[Paul Mercurio]

Those idiots would have understood the significance.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so watch that talks about the budget, that we can't afford it. I have a different view. No time in the 20th century when we had the power to make particle accelerators, did anyone complain if there were cost overruns? You don't even know if there were cost overruns. Maybe there were no cost overruns. I didn't check the budget on every single particle accelerator in the country in the 20th century. There's Brookhaven, there's Stanford Linear Accelerator. There's. There's all. There's outside of Chicago, Fermilabs. Okay? All over the country. And they're all under the auspices of the Department of Energy, by the way. So a budget serves this. All right? This gets canceled. Wait a minute. What else happened in 1989? Peace broke out in Europe. Yeah, peace broke out.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

The Berlin Wall came down, and within three years, four years, the Soviet Union was dissolved. Oh, there was cost overruns. We can't divorce politics if you're threatened with your life and your way of living. There are no cost overruns. That's not.

[Paul Mercurio]

And how can. That's exactly right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, I don't mean to be blunt about it.

[Paul Mercurio]

So here's a blank check. Keep me alive.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Keep me alive. Yes, yes, right. Keep me alive.

[Paul Mercurio]

And by the way, very clever to put it under the auspices of the Department of Energy instead of the DoD so that it can look like it's.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It looks like just a science project that we don't care.

[Paul Mercurio]

We're gather our energy out.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Correct, correct. But 20th century was the century of the physicist from beginning to end all the way through and no Cold War. Oh, by the way, President Clinton comes in in the 1990s and it's the first time that anybody remembers the budget is balanced for the United States. And so they want to take credit for balancing the budget. Except there's no Cold War anymore. Okay, so he takes office, there's no Cold War. So yeah, let's be real about budgets. All right? Let's understand this, right? And I write about this. It's speculative. There's no document that says this. The document says cost overruns, we're zeroing the budget. We have other priorities. There's others that said that when the space station was coming online, the space station would be primarily served through NASA's Houston. NASA Houston, the Johnson Space Center. Others declared that the politics of it were you can't have two major projects in the same state that would get that much attention from the government.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, but you can move one to another state.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, you can't move the hole in the ground, the accelerator.

[Paul Mercurio]

You can't move the other.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, no, Johnson Space center, you can't move that.

[Paul Mercurio]

What does the Florida do it in? Florida?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, Florida already has a space center, but that's not where the astronauts.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's kind of negative thinking. That kept the super Duper Collider from.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Existing in Florida's space center. They don't train the astronauts there. The astronauts are trained in Houston. NASA has 10 centers, strategically put. All right, this is.

[Paul Mercurio]

Listen, my friend, you just said it a minute ago. If we were on the verge of a brink of war, they'd find a way out of those coast overruns, both of those programs to exist.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So I wrote about this in my book from a few years ago, when was it? 2017. Accessory to war. The unspoken alliance between astrophysics and the military. And I talk about this two way street between the frontier of modern astrophysics, particle physics in there as well, because particles we learn about the Big bang and the needs of the military. So that became the most obvious accounting for that to occur. We lose the center of mass. It goes to Europe. Europe eventually discovers the Higgs boson. Nobel prizes all around. Our accelerator was depending on the beam three to six Times more powerful than the most powerful settings of the lhc. So we would have discovered the Higgs boson decades ago, and perhaps either at.

[Paul Mercurio]

That time or in the resulting decades. Other things.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Oh, thank you. Other things. Perhaps other things. But once you get there now, you ask the next questions. It's a new place to stand.

[Paul Mercurio]

You never stop and you have a.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Proscenium looking beyond what else is out there. Exactly.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's never about the question you even know to ask. It's the question you haven't thought of yet, because there's a place you will soon stand that will give you a view that you didn't even know is possible.

[Paul Mercurio]

And based on that perspective, the setback is almost exponential, in a way.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Right?

[Paul Mercurio]

Well, no, we don't know what we don't know. And that's a shame.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You don't know what you don't know. Correct. And that's deep and important and real. They're trying to boost the energies of the LHC to go to the next level there. So that was getting back to the specifics of the question. The discovery of the Higgs boson was delayed decades because of that decision. But science is science. It's not about the creativity of an individual. If Beethoven did not compose the Ninth Symphony, if Van Gogh did not paint the Starry Night, no one who will ever be born in the future will compose or paint that.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Whereas in science, you can be very creative and be ahead of everybody, but eventually everybody catches up and we move beyond it. Because what decides what is true is not the public's voting on. Oh, we like your artwork. It's nature, which is the ultimate judge, jury, and executioner of your idea. And if you don't want to do it in the United States, another country does it, by the way. It's international. So we had Americans who were part of that collaboration, but we didn't lead it.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's all.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And I'm an American. I'm a 20th century American. When we let everything. And now I'm going to. What do you. What you got over there? Guys, Can I look over the fence?

[Paul Mercurio]

I had that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We almost had that.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's like. It's like you're looking over the fence and your neighbor's got an in ground pool, and you've got an above ground. Yeah, we're the. The. America's a country when it comes to that. With the above ground pool. Well, that was a great question.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Tremendous answer I gave. It was a long answer, but it.

[Paul Mercurio]

Was no, it was great.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries. You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns. McDonald's breakfast comes first. I'm Kais from Bangladesh and I support StarTalk on Patreon.

[Paul Mercurio]

This is StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I love this person. This is Rupesh. Hi, my name is criti. I am 11 years old. I'm in the sixth grade. I live in Carry, North Carolina. In my school we are doing a passion project and my topic is astrophysics. As I find this topic very interesting. I have also recently been reading.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Chris is 11 years old.

[Paul Mercurio]

This I know, right? Been reading.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, no, you lying. It's not 22 or. Okay, okay, fine.

[Paul Mercurio]

It says I know how to read. I've also been reading your book, Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry. By the way, could you come up with a longer title? Jesus. I have a question for you and I love if you could answer it for me, as that question would be added into my project plus your answer. So, speaking of truth, this kid's asking you to help her cheat. Is the question very basic? What existed before the Big Bang?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I can answer that.

[Paul Mercurio]

You can?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Yes.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay, go ahead.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We had no idea. Okay, next question.

[Paul Mercurio]

This is why people find scientists annoying.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We want some definition. We generalize to everybody else just because you want.

[Paul Mercurio]

We want some definitive answers in our life.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Just cause in this moment you find me annoying.

[Paul Mercurio]

Here's generalized. I got two things that existed before the Big Bang. Ready?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Lint, maybe.

[Paul Mercurio]

And a single sock. It started all with a single sock.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Floating around that is missing from the laundry.

[Paul Mercurio]

That single sock, it's lost in space.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Floating around in space and in time.

[Paul Mercurio]

In time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We don't know for sure. And we wouldn't even know how to experimentally verify our ideas. But there are some ideas. And when you run the equations back through time of general relativity, Einstein and quantum physics, by the way, we are in the centennial decade of the discovery of most of the important tenets in quantum physics. So I feel it gives me goosebumps, actually. And not only that, that's the decade where Edwin Hubble. Hubble was a person before he was a telescope.

[Paul Mercurio]

Before a telescope that didn't work.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It works now.

[Paul Mercurio]

Was he as defective as a person as he was as a telescope?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Mama didn't think so. In the mid-1920s, he discovers that these spiral fuzzy things in the night sky, spiral nebulae, were whole other galaxies, like the Milky Way. This is freaky.

[Paul Mercurio]

Was there speculation as to what it was before he just.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Spiral clouds. There were other fuzzy clouds that weren't spiral. So they were like.

[Paul Mercurio]

But there were telescopes that existed before his.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, but you have to know the distance to things. You can't just pace it out by walking it. All right? If you find the distance to a spiral nebula and it's 100 times farther away than other nebulae, then it's sitting outside of your galaxy. All right? And so he discovered that in mid decade. And then by the end of the decade, he discovers the expanding universe. That decade, 1920s. Yeah, roaring 20s, right before the market crashed in October 1929.

[Paul Mercurio]

And then, you know, people weren't so focused on science, unfortunately. It's like the science of eating and having food on your plate.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

When you run the equations back, you generate this entity that pumps out universes, possibly an infinite number of universes. It just pumps them out. And we call that the multiverse. A term that's just been uptook by Marvel Comics.

[Paul Mercurio]

Comics.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And not only Marvel, but of course, Rick and Morty.

[Paul Mercurio]

With all of these brilliant minds out there over the years, why haven't. What is your theory as to what's keeping us from knowing what existed before the Big Bang?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We've been figuring out other things like the origin of the Earth and the origin of the moon and the origin of stars and the origin of. And now we're on the origin of galaxies. So the origin of the. Give us a chance here if top people work.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, but you're avoiding the question. Like I'm having an argument with my wife. You're avoiding the question.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Stop. What I'm saying is science is more about knowing what question to ask than to have an answer for every question posed. Isaac Newton, my man. Here's my little finger puppet of him here next to my voodoo thing. I don't even know what that. That showed up in my office one day. I don't know where it came from.

[Paul Mercurio]

That is a little creepy.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, I don't. I have no. This was just in my. I don't even know where. Where it came from.

[Paul Mercurio]

Things gotta put some weight on a little malnourished.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We'll sit him there. Isaac Newton, in his book Optics, published 1704, wrote it in English so that, like, regular people could read it. Not in the academic language. Latin for scholars. At the end of his book, he has a section called Queries. By the way, this is where I get the word cosmic queries. It's not called cosmic questions, which would also kind of work. You get the alliteration. But cosmic Queries. He has a section in the back called queries. Yeah, these are just stuff that spilled off his dinner plate. One of them is, I wonder if the stars of the night sky are just like the sun, except much, much farther away.

[Paul Mercurio]

Wow.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Paul Mercurio]

Wow.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah. And that's like a scrap off the dinner plate.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And this is the guy who utters this line, I'll mangle it only a little. He says, sometimes I feel like a child sitting on a shoreline, picking up one pebble for being shinier than another, when an ocean of undiscovered truths lay before me.

[Paul Mercurio]

Wow.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's Newton saying that. My man. So, anyhow, so the multiverse is there for what might have been around before the Big Bang. But that just moves the question back, you know? Where'd the multiverse come from? Yeah, it just keeps going. That plagues origins questions.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And by the way, it somehow doesn't plague religious people.

[Paul Mercurio]

Well, I was just gonna say it's sort of. We're not even talking about the theory that God created everything. And. Yeah, there is. It's not science.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, it's not a theory.

[Paul Mercurio]

It's faith that says that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So. So what intrigues me is when I say, well, I don't know what was around before the big Something had to be there. Something. We got top people working on it. Give us a chance. It had to be God. I said, maybe the universe always was. No, it had to have a beginning. And so it's okay, well, so what do you say? Well, it was God. And so then I say, well, who created God? God always was. God was always there. So they allow that within themselves to say, God always was, but won't allow the scientists to say, maybe the universe always was. Apparently, that's not allowed. But it's allowed when you're religious and you say that about God. So all I'm saying is the origins questions will always be able to push it forward, unless somehow it creates itself and then you have a loop, but we're not there yet. It's a frontier. Give me some more.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, you got it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Grab bab me some more.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah. This is Umar Chima Umar from Seattle, longtime StarTalk listener. I finally decided to get off my cheap ass and become a patron.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I love that.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Thank you, Umar, for getting off your cheap ass. Okay, okay.

[Paul Mercurio]

Save your money because T shirts are coming. Patreon Saints. Patreon Saints, here's my first question. We know that we can slow down our time relative to others by traveling at a super high speed or getting very close. To. To a massive object in space. But is there a way to accelerate our time instead of slowing it down? Can we accelerate our time and essentially visit the past? Or does it just mean we just get old super fast? And if anybody knows about getting old.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

See, I'm proud of my age. I'd like to believe that I have wisdom to show for it. You do, that's all. I don't want to get old. I don't want to get old. Yeah, because they're not learning new things.

[Paul Mercurio]

Exactly.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They're stuck in some previous time in their lives where they wish they were still on the football team or on the. Still on the cheerleading squad. When.

[Paul Mercurio]

Speaking of which. That's why I don't want to go back to the past. Because I'm not going to ever win that 50 yard dash and then embarrass myself. I couldn't get Mary Ferguson go to the prom with me. Don't get me started.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We have issues. You bring it to the show. You got to leave those in therapy.

[Paul Mercurio]

I can't. This is why I'm here. I need you. So can we accelerate our time and visit the past?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I think you have to look at it differently.

[Paul Mercurio]

The guy's a paying customer. He can look at it any way he wants.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's true. Customer's always right. You're right, you're right. Whatever you're thinking, you're right.

[Paul Mercurio]

Just keep sending the money, people. Come on, send the money.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You shouldn't look at it that way. You should look at it as your speed as seen by others. By the way, you don't feel this at all. It's only as measured by others. So if you go fast and time slows down for you, you're still ticking. To you, it's one second per second. To everybody else, it's one second per 10 minutes. One second per hour.

[Paul Mercurio]

I'm not following how to explain it. How is it observable by others? My speed?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

If I see you. Oh, so I'm here and I see you whiz by at some speed.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay, see you walk down the hall.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, I was thinking of a rocket ship, but sure.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay. All right. A rocket ship.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Walk down the hall at half the speed of light.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay, which I can do.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right. I have an equation, a formula that tells me the rate at which your time is ticking relative to me. And I plug it in and I forgot the number. It might be ticking a third or a fourth.

[Paul Mercurio]

My time is different than yours because you're stationary and this thing is moving.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No that's almost the right way to say it. Your time is different from me because we are moving relative to each other. As far as you're concerned, you are stationary, and I'm moving past you at half the speed of light. We don't know. So you will look at me and say, oh, he's moving slow. And I look at you and say, oh, you're moving slow. Both of us will measure the same thing about each other. If we are passing each other in the night at half the speed of.

[Paul Mercurio]

Light, one going one direction, one going the other direction.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Correct. And so why is half the speed.

[Paul Mercurio]

Of light a critical?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's not. I could say 10%, but it's not linear. So the faster you go relative to the speed of light, the greater and greater the effects are. All right, so half the speed of light is not half the effect. It's a small fraction and it grows rapidly. All right? It goes at, like, the square of your velocity as you get closer. How do I make your time go slower if you're going half the speed of light? I make you go faster. Now you go 3/4 the speed of light. 90% the speed of light. And I can watch you slow down relative to me. How I speed you up? Go slower. Go 1/4 the speed of light, 1:10 the speed of light. How slow can I get your time to go? Stop right in front of me. And that is the slowest we can make your time go.

[Paul Mercurio]

Which is the same time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And that happens to match my time. Correct. They want to go backwards. We don't know how to do that because I have to repeat my time poem. Please, if I may.

[Paul Mercurio]

Please.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We are prisoners of the present, forever transitioning between our inaccessible past and our unknowable future.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's exactly what I say to my wife when she asks if I bought pickles. And I forgot.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You know, you're bringing your issues into.

[Paul Mercurio]

Well, you make it very relatable to my life. And I have a lot of issues. And, you know, I love you, man. I love you. So the answer is not your fault.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's not your fault.

[Paul Mercurio]

But there's this obsession in pop culture with this time travel.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We want to go backwards in time.

[Paul Mercurio]

And you think. Do you just think? And I know they never say absolutes, but, like, why? It's dangerous because you start flirting with the past and you alter the future. Whatever.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, you can flirt with your own future.

[Paul Mercurio]

So if you went in the past, what would you change?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You have to watch out for that because you don't know the full set of contingencies that would follow.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay? Who cares about anybody else?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, they don't. Because you say if you go in the past and there's Hitler as a child, will you kill Hitler as a child? Would you do that? What you don't know is there's someone else that would rise up that would have been worse than him for the stability of the world in the 1930s and 40s. You don't know that. I'm keeping the past the way it is, not knowing whether, having altered it. By the way, this was explored in an episode of Star Trek. They went back in time to the 1930s or late 30s. I forgot the exact year. And Bones, I think it was Bones, the surgeon falls in love with a woman. You're not supposed to do that.

[Paul Mercurio]

Cause you're messing with.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You're messing with time, the space time continuum.

[Paul Mercurio]

But as usual, men led by their.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Whatever.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's a scientific fact. That is a scientific fact. Go ahead.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, on that subject, by the way, the first interracial kiss between a black person and white person was on Star Trek, and it was William Shatner.

[Paul Mercurio]

Oh, I remember that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It was kissing Lieutenant Uhuru.

[Paul Mercurio]

I remember that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. They got all kinds of hate mail from the south that. There's 1967 somewhere around there. Meanwhile, Captain Kirk can visit all these galaxies. There's a green woman, a blue woman.

[Paul Mercurio]

She's got a tumor over here, a horn over here.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You can kiss them. They're clearly female aliens. He's kissing all up in them. But another human who has skin, he's.

[Paul Mercurio]

Kissing a woman that looks like a Kreller. That's fine, but not that black woman. Damn it. We have standards.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Bones falls in love with this woman. And she's a peace. She's into peace. She doesn't want war. She sees nations building up and she tries to prevent the start of the Second World War. This is her motive and her mission. Meanwhile, she gets hit by a bus or a truck and dies. And Bones is distraught. He wants to go back in time again to prevent that, to save her. They go back in time again. That's when Spock does his research. He realizes she has to die, because if she lives, she will successfully delay the entry of the United States into the Second World War, giving Germany, Nazi Germany, the leg up in creating the atom bomb. And they create the atom bomb first and take over the world. And this is communicated to Bones. And the scene where she's going out into the street and the truck is coming, he wants to save her and they and Kirk and they hold him back and they just watch her die.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Cause that's a different world that they don't want to have happen.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So stay in the present. Get your ass out of the past.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay. Okay, that sounds good.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Oh, by the way, Hawking has a time travel conjecture where he says he thinks that as we get closer to traveling through time, there'll be some new law of physics that we will discover that will prevent it.

[Paul Mercurio]

On the subject of Star Trek, can you explain to me why when they transport Kirk, his shirt never fits proper? They can't make it so it's a little bigger. It's like he went to the baby Star Trek store.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Because it fits tightly. Because he was a buff body back then.

[Paul Mercurio]

I understand, but not by today's standards.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

But back then he was. Plus, of all the captains, he's the captain I'd want to be.

[Paul Mercurio]

Why the pointy sideburns?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I did give myself pointy sideburns in my day. But he took on all his own fights.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's music. You remember that?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Yeah. So the point is, if you are a crew member and your captain is fighting the bad guy, you're gonna fight the bad guy.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You're not gonna be like Jean Luc Picard and say, go fight them.

[Paul Mercurio]

No.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Get your own ass out there. No, but this is. Don't just point your fingers.

[Paul Mercurio]

I don't want the guy leading to get in a fight and die.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

He's Kirk and he's got phasers. Don't worry about it.

[Paul Mercurio]

I'd be like, hey, I gotta stay back here.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, he's got phasers. We good?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, but he's got all the change to put in the meter when he's parking the ship in the middle of the thing. You don't know what you're talking about. I think he does have a good body. I'll give you that in the day.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That was a good body. Okay. You think the transporter should have had a tailor?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

He shows up looking down.

[Paul Mercurio]

Exactly. Yeah. With a jaunty hat, a cane. Come on.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's a different transporter. That's a more expensive transporter. The one that's also your tailor. Okay.

[Paul Mercurio]

Emily Koneko, Reynolds. Hello, Neil. This is Emily in Kyoto.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Nice.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah. Is there stardust in the air we breathe or is the stuff in the air that air is made of just an evolution of stardust? I get the impression that everything is an evolution of stardust, which makes me wonder, what does future evolution hold? And I can tell you Future evolution. There will be a time when humans don't have to bend over to put their shoes on. It's called Skechers future. Is this where we are now that we have shoes that people can't bend over to put their shoes? Is Skechers a sponsor? I am so annoyed by this. Is this where we are now?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, okay. We invented automobiles.

[Paul Mercurio]

I can't go all the way down there.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And flight and supersonic transport. And we went to the moon, and this generation makes right.

[Paul Mercurio]

I don't have to bend over three feet, and I could put more weight on.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I think the baby boomers are getting older, but they've always been inventive because we went to the moon under the baby boomers. Watch. So we're making our lives easier, making it seem like it's better for everyone, but it's really just for ourselves. Okay, okay. All right. Because we can't bend over.

[Paul Mercurio]

Exactly. All right, so I get the impression that everything is an evolution at Stardust, which makes me wonder, what does future evolution hold? Now, this is evolution. Could be in the context of astrophysics or biological evolution.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right, so allow me to clarify a couple of things. I speak glibly, that we are not only poetically, but literally stardust. We are made of ingredients that were forged in the hearts of stars. Not all stars. This kind of stars that, in the end of their lives, explode and become supernovae, scattering their enriched guts around across the galaxy. I was gonna say contaminating. Enriching other gas clouds with the ingredients of life itself. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen. Go all down the periodic table right to iron.

[Paul Mercurio]

And these are particles that are smaller than the diameter of hair.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Atoms. They're atoms. Okay. So I've loosely called it dust because these atoms gather and they make larger molecules. Dust has a specific definition in space. We speak of dust in space. So dust are agglomerations of molecules that are stuck together but are not chemically connected. You could pull apart the dust to get raw molecules. You pull apart the molecules to get atoms. I'm saying the foundations of this are elements on the periodic table. And I loosely call all of that dust. So if you inhale dust from your shelf with the. No, the Wiffer puffer. What do you call that thing?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Swiffer Puffer.

[Paul Mercurio]

The Whiffer Pooper scooper.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They don't want to mix those two up.

[Paul Mercurio]

The whiff and poofers. Those are the Yale choirs.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Oh, the Whiffin poofs are the Yale Glee club. Yeah. Okay. The Swiffer.

[Paul Mercurio]

If you hire the Yale Glee Club to dust your house, and dust is generated. Go ahead.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

The Swiffin Poofers.

[Paul Mercurio]

The Swiffin.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So if you. So if there's dust and you inhale it. Yeah, that's like household dust, which commonly is like pet dander and other things. Yes. If you get to the bottom of that, ultimately, those ingredients came from stars and from the origin of the universe. So it's not an evolution of dust so much as dust taking on other shapes. So when I say we're made of stardust, the actual dust from stars has been processed here on Earth, but it's still the same ingredients, the nitrogen, oxygen, carbon. And so if I were to be more sort of chemically accurate in my discussion of dust, that changes the whole conversation. Hannah Holmes wrote the Secret Life of Dust from the Cosmos to the Kitchen Table. Great title. A former science editor with the, I think, the LA Times. But anyhow, so dust is everywhere. But rather than look at dust and say, this is cat dander, and this is from sawdust, I as a cosmologist, cosmetologist, as an astrophysicist, it's all stardust to me. And in that famous song, was it by Kansas. All we are are dust in the wind.

[Paul Mercurio]

Dust in the wind.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And he says, all we are is. That's what we are.

[Paul Mercurio]

But this human being that I am is stardust.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You are traceable to stars.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And to me, that's a stardust memory that I carry.

[Paul Mercurio]

So if you go back to the question from Emily, I get the impression that everything is an evolution of stardust, which makes me wonder.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Which is fair. That's very fair.

[Paul Mercurio]

So now her question is, what does future evolution hold based on this foundation of stardust that we just talked about?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It is the richness of the chemistry that the periodic table of elements grants us.

[Paul Mercurio]

Got it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And as far as I can tell, it knows no bounds.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's the beauty of science.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

If you. The water molecule, H2O, you break it apart. The hydrogen joins something else, the oxygen joins somebody else, and there the universe progresses. Unless it finds itself in a nuclear furnace, and then it'll become. Can become another element. But absent that, you're breathing oxygen atoms that were exported by a star 5 billion years ago.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Feel it. Feel that connectivity.

[Paul Mercurio]

Feel the burn.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Feel the burn. I think that's all the time we have.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah, I think so.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Don't you have a really fast one? That's a really fast one. And I'll give it a sound bite answer.

[Paul Mercurio]

Go really fast. While a stable Staple. This is Sparkman. Well, it's a staple. It's Sparkman.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Sparkman.

[Paul Mercurio]

That's all I got. While it's a staple of mathematics, such as calculus, are there any instances of infinity in the observable universe?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Ooh. Well, the universe itself might be infinite.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes, I have it, Neil. Explaining anything that's as long it takes to. That's ultimate definition of infinity. Good night, everybody. I'll be here all week.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I don't get no respect. I try to.

[Paul Mercurio]

No, it's a great question, though, seriously.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So the universe itself might be infinite. If there's a multiverse, it's pumping out an infinite number of universes, each of.

[Paul Mercurio]

Which could be infinite in another, in its own dimensionality.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So, for example, I can have a sheet of paper that goes to infinity in every direction, but then I can have another sheet of paper floating above it that also goes to infinity. And they don't intersect.

[Paul Mercurio]

Because they can go like this.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, because they coexist, but in a higher dimension than either of them. Each sheet of paper is only in two dimensions.

[Paul Mercurio]

But aren't magnetic forces pulling them together in some way?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

There could be, or even gravitational forces. And if you have two universes that collide. Oh, you're talking about on Earth, the two actual sheets of paper. I'm talking about two universes that are infinite but not colliding with each other. If you embed them in a higher dimension, you can get away with that as you would with two sheets of paper. That's all I'm saying. There are people, top people, wondering if there's a parallel universe, might we feel something of them, of their gravity? Is there some leakage out of their space time that we might feel? That could be the future of detections of parallel universes, of the infinite universes. But my favorite example of infinity is Zeno's Paradox, where you want to exit the door, you got to go halfway, then you gotta know another halfway and then another halfway. You just keep doing that.

[Paul Mercurio]

Wait, when I walk through the door, I walk through the door?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, you're going halfway first, and then you're going halfway again.

[Paul Mercurio]

Here's the door. Here's me. How am I going halfway? I walk through the door and I don't stop.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, you're being too rational here. You gotta stay with the math. Okay? You wanna exit the front door. Before you get to the door, you have to cross the halfway point, don't you?

[Paul Mercurio]

Halfway point of what?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Between where you happen to be standing and where the door is. Yes, we agree.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Now you gotta cross the halfway point between there and the door.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay. Okay, I got you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And then the half, and the half and the half.

[Paul Mercurio]

But it's so random to pick half. You could say I gotta pass the third. The point at the 1/3 point at 1/3.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

1 I could have. That's correct.

[Paul Mercurio]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right, but. So there's an infinite number of halfway points.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes, I get it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And Zeno saw this and said, by that reasoning, you'll never get to the door because there's an infinite. But of course you do get to the door. So what's going on? And what he didn't realize is that you are covering more and more halfway points in less and less time. And the infinity actually converges to a finite amount of time. Right.

[Paul Mercurio]

Because you're cutting down the distance.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Correct.

[Paul Mercurio]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And infinity can be cut into something that's finite, so. Yeah, but other than math. No, I mean, the universe is finite to our observable edge.

[Paul Mercurio]

All right. So there's no such thing as To Infinity and Beyond. I think that's.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You just dissed a book that I co wrote with my producer.

[Paul Mercurio]

No, that I.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Do you know the title of that book?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

To Infinity and Beyond?

[Paul Mercurio]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yes. Why are you dissing the book?

[Paul Mercurio]

No, I didn't remember that. Actually, I'm referencing a Disney movie. Do I look that smart?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Paul, we gotta go.

[Paul Mercurio]

Yeah. This has been great. You're fantastic. Thanks for coming back. It's great to see you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, man.

[Paul Mercurio]

Love you.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Keep us smiling. Keep us laughing.

[Paul Mercurio]

Absolutely.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right. And we'll find you on the road.

[Paul Mercurio]

Permission to speak My Broadway show, directed by Frank Oz. PaulMercurio.com for tickets, we're going to be in Dr. Phillip Segworth.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Mercurio.

[Paul Mercurio]

Mercurio. M E C U R I O.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Like the S A T word. Mercurial.

[Paul Mercurio]

There you go.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

This has been StarTalk's grab bag cosmic Queries from my office here at the American Museum of Natural History. Paul, thanks for coming in.

[Paul Mercurio]

Thanks for having me.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

As always, I bid you, keep looking up.