Cosmic Queries – Quantumly Stupid

Summary

StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: Quantumly Stupid

Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Co-host: Chuck Nice
Date: November 11, 2025
(Note: Comic co-host referred to as “Gary” in the transcript.)

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Overview

In this “Cosmic Queries: Grab Bag” edition, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice (with Gary) tackle a wide range of listener questions—a blend of pop science, deep physics, cosmic curiosities, and tongue-in-cheek banter. The episode’s loose theme is the weirdest, silliest, and most mind-blowing questions from fans, especially surrounding quantum physics, dimensions, time, teaching, and the universe’s quirkiest features. True to StarTalk’s spirit, the science is thorough, approachable, and peppered with humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Flatlands, 4D Space, and Perception Across Dimensions

[03:03–07:49]

• Question: Can we, as 3D beings, observe truly 2D spaces? Would 4D beings interact with us as easily as we would with a 2D “flatlander”?
• Neil’s Breakdown:
  • “If you’re 2D, you have no thickness… how does any light or matter even interact?” But for fun, if you could, a 2D being would only disappear from view when turned edge-on.
  • 3D beings could see all inside a 2D creature; analogously, a 4D being could see all our innards:

    “A 4D person, they see all your guts.” (Neil, 06:42)

  • The challenge: “I don’t know how a 3D person would hide from a 4D person. Which way to orient ourselves, the way a 2D person can do that to us? …I have to think about it some more.” (Neil, 06:08)
• Memorable Moment: Lighthearted reminiscing about old internet cartoons and the “Operation” board game.

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2. Space Elevators: Science Fiction or Imminent Tech?

[08:12–12:06]

• Inspired by: Apple TV’s Foundation and the concept of a Trantor “Star Bridge.”
• Neil’s Take:
  • “The motivation for a space elevator is you can get to an orbit without ever firing a rocket… but you’d be sitting in an elevator going 23,000 miles.”
  • “Access to space now is routine and the price continues to drop, especially because of Innovations in SpaceX … so you hardly hear talk of a space elevator anymore. It was a solution to a non-problem.” (Neil, 10:59)
  • Feasibility: Technically possible but currently impractical, given advances in rocket tech.

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3. Ultimate Alien Answers: What Would You Ask an Advanced ET?

[16:10–18:02]

• Listener Q: If a superintelligent ET could grant one answer, what would you ask?
• Neil’s “Every night” Question:

  “Is the human brain sufficiently smart to figure out the entire universe?” (Neil, 16:14)

  • “If it’s not, then I’ll buffer my expectations. But if it is, then on would we march from there.”
• Gary’s Big Bang Curiosity:

  “What caused [the Big Bang] to happen? What was there before? Give me the lay of land before the Big Bang.” (Gary, 17:34)

• Philosophical Note:
  • “Origins questions are always the most challenging in science because you don’t have other examples to compare it with.” (Neil, 18:02)

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4. Alien Digestive Systems, Poopless Life, and Everyone Poops

[18:56–20:25]

• Oddball Query: Do acid-blooded aliens (like in “Alien”) need digestive tracts, and do they… poop?
• Neil: “Plant-based alien… its waste product would be oxygen. That’s pretty good. …A poopless alien is totally fine.” (Neil, 20:19, 20:23)
• Comic Relief:
  • Jokes about the infamous children’s book Everybody Poops—and how it might not apply for all space life.

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5. AI Teachers vs. Human Connection in Learning

[21:18–23:29]

• Question: If AI could perfectly clone a real teacher, is the human touch still “essential”?
• Neil’s View:
  • “AI can ape your style, can dig up some content, but it can’t intuit something different that might be happening in a student and make an adjustment… that remains in the realm of the inventive, creative teacher.” (Neil, 22:43)
  • The “ever-changing human” is key; adaptation is central to real teaching.

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6. Does Spacetime Snap Back? Gravity, Flatness, and Entropy

[24:11–25:17]

• Listener Q: Is there a force making spacetime flat again after a massive object moves away? Gravitational entropy?
• Neil: If you remove matter/energy, “there’s no reason for the spacetime to be curved… expanding or contracting universes have large-scale shapes, unrelated to just one galaxy.” (25:06)

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7. ‘Now’ in the Universe—Are We Seeing the Past?

[26:04–27:36]

• Query: Is our “now” seeing stars as they are, or as they were?
• Neil:
  • “We see things not as they are, but as they once were… Might as well speak of it in the present.”
  • Fun thought: “If you looked in a mirror 33 million light years away, you’d see the dinosaurs going extinct.” (Neil, 27:03)

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8. Time Travel Coordinates and Cosmic Complexity

[27:48–32:46]

• Listener Q: Would time travel require knowing the origin point of the universe, factoring in expansion, etc.?
• Neil:
  • “Rich Gott… would say you can [calculate it] using mathematical trajectories in the vicinity of black holes…”
  • Cautions about the “no-disruption conjecture” (can’t prevent your own existence).
  • Entertaining aside on “djinn songs”—paradoxes where something (like a song) is caught in a time loop (“Johnny B. Goode”/Back to the Future).

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9. Does Light Do Work? Solar Sails, Lasers, and Propulsion

[33:26–38:52]

• Listener Q: “Does light ever do any work? What would that look like to an observer?”
• Neil’s Cool Example:
  • Bill Nye and the Planetary Society launched a real solar sail; it “did work”—reflected sunlight increased orbital height.
  • “Reflection as propulsion. Yes.”
  • Nanoprobes with Mylar sails may one day be laser-pushed to Alpha Centauri at 20% light speed—getting there in 20 years!

  • “The light is doing work. Reflection as propulsion.” (Neil, 35:28, 35:41)

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10. Black Holes: Do They Eventually Eat Galaxies?

[42:14–46:43]

• Listener Q: Will galaxies eventually be eaten by their central supermassive black holes?
• Neil:
  • “The mass of the galaxy swamps the mass of the black hole. There’s a limit to how much you’re going to credit the black hole for the whole damn kit and caboodle.”
  • For most of a galaxy, the orbits don’t decay into the black hole—unless something (like friction, or a direct encounter) forces matter inward.

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11. Galactic Collisions and Black Hole Mergers

[46:51–48:39]

• Listener Q: When galaxies merge, do their black holes collide?
• Neil:
  • “They will very likely eventually find each other… black holes, heavy thing in the middle.”
  • Colorful analogy: “If there were four bumblebees in the continental United States, the chances are greater that two would bump into each other than two stars collide in our galaxy.” (Neil, 47:18)

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12. Wild Theories: Is Spacetime a Crystal Lattice?

[48:50–51:18]

• Listener Q: Could spacetime itself be a “super solid lattice”—defects in which form time loops and echo signals we mistake for mystery?
• Neil:
  • Intrigued, he draws parallels to how crystals channel movement, and speculates on experiments to test lattice properties.

  • “Maybe the entire fabric of the universe is a crystal... That’s intriguing.” (Neil, 50:57)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Neil deGrasse Tyson on higher dimensions:

  “If you’re looking at a 2D creature, you can see inside their organs… So I look really ugly to a 4D person.” (06:08–06:44)

• On space elevators:

  “You just get on the elevator. Third floor, women’s lingerie…”
  “What is an entire floor doing of just lingerie?” (09:37–09:59)

• Big existential questions:

  “Is the human brain sufficiently smart to figure out the entire universe?” (16:14)

• On teaching:

  “AI can ape your style, it can dig up some content, but it can’t intuit something different that might be happening in a student and make an adjustment.” (22:43)

• Time travel & pop culture:

  “That song was never actually written. It just lives in a time loop.” (31:42)

• On galactic collisions:

  “It’ll be this cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity.” (47:59)

• On big theoretical physic concepts:

  “Maybe the entire fabric of the universe is a crystal. That’s intriguing.” (50:57)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [03:03] Flatlanders and 4D space
• [08:12] Space elevator in Foundation & scientific plausibility
• [16:10] What to ask an alien superintelligence
• [18:56] Alien digestion and waste
• [21:18] AI teaching vs. the human touch
• [24:11] Does spacetime “snap back”?
• [26:04] "Universal now" and cosmic light travel
• [27:48] Space-time coordinates and time travel
• [33:26] Solar sails and light-driven propulsion
• [42:14] Black holes & the fate of galaxies
• [46:51] Galactic collisions and merged black holes
• [48:50] The lattice-structure universe hypothesis

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Tone & Style

• Language: Friendly, geeky, and accessible; Neil is direct and whimsical, Chuck Nice offers comic relief, Gary plays the “everyman” with smart, skeptical queries.
• Atmosphere: Informal Q&A, plenty of jokes, pop culture references, approachable yet deep dives on the science.

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Summary

This episode is a classic StarTalk “grab bag”—mixing deep cosmology, theoretical physics, hypothetical musings, and approachable, irreverent humor. The hosts tackle everything from why a 4D being sees your guts, the real barriers to space elevators, existential questions for ETs, the (non)pooping habits of aliens, whether AI can really teach, to whether our universe is secretly a giant crystal. It’s a celebration of curiosity, clever listeners, and the never-ending fun of pondering the universe.

“Keep looking up.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Transcript

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[Host - Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A grab bag cosmic queries, the level of questions getting higher and higher.

[Co-host - Gary]

I know I might have to go back to school.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I have to bring in some big guns next time. Yeah, man, I'm loving it though.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, it's good stuff.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Yeah. All right, coming up Next, welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk Cosmic Queries. I got with me. Chuck.

[Co-host - Gary]

Nice, Chuck. Hey, what's happening, Neil?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. This is a grab bag.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, it is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What's the verdict on how long it takes me to answer a question?

[Co-host - Gary]

Believe it or not, because they put out this to the audience. They like the longer answers. The producers, well, the producer wants to go, want us to go as quickly as possible because they want to get more answers in.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, that was the.

[Co-host - Gary]

But they asked the people and the people like the long answers.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And people spoke.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, people have spoken.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Have risen up.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. I won't do it on purpose. It's just, it's, it's, it's organic when it Happens.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's the passion, the passion of the universe flowing through me. This is Alex K. Who says hello, Dr. Tyson. Lord. Nice, Alex. From Bucharest, Romania. Here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bucharest.

[Co-host - Gary]

Bucharest. What keeps me up at night is flatlanders and 4D space, I often hear. Ah, I love it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's some geeky stuff right there. That's that we get. Give him a geek award for that. Okay.

[Co-host - Gary]

I often hear that dark matter or dark energy could be B, the 4D leaking into our 3D space. But living in 3D space, can we ever actually observe a truly 2D space? And if not, wouldn't that mean 4D beings couldn't interfere with our world either? Just as we don't notice any real 2D beings?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I see where he's coming from. Yeah. I think what he's saying is, if there were 2D creatures in our world, how would we ever know?

[Host - Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, so holding aside the fact that if you're 2D, you have no thickness.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you have zero thickness, how does any light or matter even interact with you? Because light and matter reflect. Yeah. Okay, so let's just ignore that very real complication, but let's ignore it for the moment. Okay? Okay. There was a cartoon back when the Internet was a fun place to just explore humor and cat videos. Oh, yeah, There was a. There were two illustrated creatures and one of them was 2D. I forgot their names. It's like, hey, Joey, I just became 2D. And he's looking at him, he looks a little flat, but he wasn't sure and all he did was turn sideways and he disappears. Disappears. He turns sideways towards your sight line. And then they laughed and they were just having a good time. Those were the days on the Internet, man.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, man. Now it's nothing but Nazi. It's Nazi Yahtzee. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it implies that even if you're invisible edge on that the light is somehow still reflecting off of you face on. Right. Okay, so a 2D world in front of us would be completely visible. You would see light reflecting off of their substance. Right, their 2D substance, whatever that is. Only when they go sideways do they disappear from your view because they have no thickness. So we three dimensional creatures. Would four dimensional spatial dimensional creatures be able to see us? It means there must be some orientation we can take where we disappear to them. Just following this sequence. I can't picture what that would be.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, well, yeah, I can't either because I'm 3D, so I'm looking around, everything's 3D. So what do I look like? To a four.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't know. You know, I don't know how a 3D person would hide from a 4D person. Which way to orient ourselves, the way a 2D person can do that to us. I don't know how you do that. I have to think about it some more. What I do know is, and we've said this before, if you're looking at a 2D creature, you can see inside their organs, their inner organs. 2 d people can't see because they have skin, this line, which is their 2D skin. They can't see through the line, but we can see directly into their bodies.

[Co-host - Gary]

So I look really ugly to a 4D person.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

4D person, they see. They'll see all your guts.

[Co-host - Gary]

They just see guts and. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And I think the first thing we do when we have four dimensional beings is to make the medical doctors and have them perform surgery.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right. It's a game of operation for them. Nothing to it. Take out wrenched ankle, good to go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I forgot about that game operation. I wonder how many people came doctors out of that.

[Co-host - Gary]

You know, that's a problem. If they did, they probably pretty bad doctors. I'm just saying, like if the game operation was your inspiration, you know, they're standing over the operating table with a pair of tweezers. I don't know what to do.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Or they're trying to settle malpractice suits.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So that's what I know. And for me, that's the most intriguing thing. That you can see inside of somebody who's otherwise completely enclosed in skin. In the same way the 2D person is completely enclosed by a line.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right. And you can see what's inside that line.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Inside that line. So that's the best I can give him on that question.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. Well, that's cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Otherwise. Yeah, I don't know where to take it.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. All right, well, this is Jeff Drumsites and Jeff Drum sight says, Greetings, Dr. Tyson Lord. Nice. I recently began watching Apple TV's version of Ismac Asimov's Foundation. It is awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yes, yes. That's the one where they have the, the. The hereditary rulers who are clones of each other.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

Clones.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's the limit of heredity. Of heredity.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's it.

[Co-host - Gary]

You know, all the lineage is just a clone of blindness.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Co-host - Gary]

Dawn, day and dusk. So there's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And day is the ruler.

[Co-host - Gary]

Day is the ruler.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

Dusk is the wisdom.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wisdom. And dawn is learning.

[Co-host - Gary]

And dawn is learning.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Co-host - Gary]

And they are in that constant cyclical state of replacing one another.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Co-host - Gary]

And at a certain time, they have to be destroyed and move on. It's pretty wild. But anyway, he says this. When I was a child in the 50s, my dad's popular Science magazine depicted the idea of a space elevator, which they have in foundation. Trantor is the planet on which the rulers live. And the way you get to Trantor is from a space elevator. So, anyway, my question is. Oh. He says, is the Trantor Star Bridge or any type of space elevator technically conceivable? Jeff Seitz in Gallatin, Tennessee.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Co-host - Gary]

Or Gallatin, Tennessee.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The answer is yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But. So some things to take note of.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The motivation for a space elevator is you can get to an orbit without ever firing a rocket.

[Co-host - Gary]

There you go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You just. All right.

[Co-host - Gary]

Just get on the elevator.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Get on the elevator.

[Co-host - Gary]

Third floor, women's lingerie.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And where are you going, sir?

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And is that still a joke? Lingerie? That was the big.

[Co-host - Gary]

I got it from Bugs Bunny.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. The real question is, what is an entire floor doing of just lingerie?

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Nobody's asking that question. So I have a friend who composes space music, and she created an album called Space Elevator Music.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's funny. Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. On Earth, a space elevator would take you to the geosynchronous orbit because that's the only orbit that hovers. Appears to hover over Earth.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Its corresponding spot on Earth. Any orbit that's closer, it will speed up ahead of the orbit of the Earth.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. So to have an elevator go from a position on Earth's surface to a position in orbit, it has to go to geosynchronous. And on Earth, that's 23,000 miles. So you'd be sitting in an elevator going 23,000 miles.

[Co-host - Gary]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If your elevator were going 1,000 miles an hour, how long would it take you to get?

[Co-host - Gary]

23,000 hours. No, no, I mean 1,000 miles an hour.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

23 hours.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's a full day.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's still a full day.

[Co-host - Gary]

It took you one day to get. And we already get to space quicker than that. Yeah, I know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's right. Okay. So the idea was getting to space must be so hard with all these rocket engines and things that we need another way. But access to space now is routine and the price continues to drop, especially because of Innovations in SpaceX. Elon Musk. It was a big mission statement of his with regard to SpaceX. You hardly hear talk of a space elevator anymore.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was a solution to a non problem. And you know what fuel we're using. Hydrogen and oxygen, right? There's some solid rockered boosters, but the main tank is hydrogen, twice as big as the oxygen tank and it's liquefied. You put them together, they will combine in H2 and okay, so the exhaust is what, drinkable? Yeah, the exhaust is just water, but it's highly exothermic. So space Television is a cool technological achievement, but I don't see it highly impractical. I don't see it happening.

[Co-host - Gary]

All right, well there you go. That's but also though, that series is it starts off boring as hell, but then it really gets great. So.

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[Host - Chuck Nice]

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[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Howdy, partner.

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[Co-host - Gary]

Hello, I'm Vinky Marque Allen, and I support Star Talk on Patreon. This is Star Talk with Nailed Grass Tyson. All right, this is Raphael who says hello. Raphael Vigood in Toronto, Ontario. If a super intelligent extraterrestrial offered to grant you the answer to one specific question, what would you ask? Now, don't think too long because you have to give your immediate response. And we're only here for a few more minutes before their next interstellar train leap.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, there's a question I have every night.

[Co-host - Gary]

Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is the human brain sufficiently smart to figure out the entire universe?

[Co-host - Gary]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's a question I want answered. Because if it's not, then I'll buffer my expectations.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But if it is, then on would we march from there. Right.

[Co-host - Gary]

The whole the. The universe is your oyster.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right?

[Co-host - Gary]

At that point. That's a really interesting question because basically, are we too stupid?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, that's. I ask that every night.

[Co-host - Gary]

Like, we might just be like the whole quantum thing and we're like, quantum. Like maybe we're just dumb.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And it wouldn't be mysterious if we weren't so dumb.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But yeah, it's obvious.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

For these reasons. But we can't even understand the reasons. So, yeah, So I want to know. Inquiring minds want to know.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's a good question. I mean, that's. I like it, me. I would like to know, are there cheaper eggs somewhere in the universe than where I buy mine right now? Because they are hugely expensive.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's. That's really. That's your question, my son. You've been asking any question in the universe, right? I need some cheaper eggs.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. No, what would I ask? If I really wanted to know anything, mine would be what happened before the Big Bang. Really? Yeah. Okay, like. And I don't mean what happened. I mean, like, because we know what happened before the Big Bang. Who. Who. You know, the Big Bang happened. So what caused it to happen? What was there before? Give me the lay of land before the Big Bang. That'd be kind of cool to know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's an origins problem.

[Co-host - Gary]

An origins.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. And origins questions are always the most challenging in science because you don't have other examples to compare it with. And until you do, you're kind of making stuff up.

[Co-host - Gary]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. I mean, what's the origin of the Earth? No one knew until we saw planetary systems getting formed. Then we could say, oh, it takes this long that time frame. At this distance from the host star, you can formulate questions that have value. But.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, but it'd be kind of cool if the aliens were. Or the terrestrials were just extraterrestrials or just like. Yeah, you know. Yeah. This. Your. Your universe is just one of 15 million that we've been to thus far. You know, and before you're. This is what happens. Two other universes got together after a night of drinking and bang. Your. Your universe was born. So anyway.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Can't believe you included alcohol. Reference to that.

[Co-host - Gary]

This is Marcus Munslinger. And Marcus Munslinger says hello from Germany. Or should I say. Never mind. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Did you ever think in my accent pronounced sink, about the alien and alien not needing any digestive organs since its blood is acid, so all human flesh it eats is directly dissolved into molecules. So the alien doesn't need to produce poop since it can use 100% of its food? Or did you ever see the alien take a poop? Love yourself.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Who knows about digestive tracts? I mean, we played with Superman's digestive tract and he was an alien.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, right. That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We solved that one, I think.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, we did.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes. It's super digestive tract.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's a super digestive tract. That means everything about it is super.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Including the gaseous effluences.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Plant based alien, however, wouldn't have any such waste products where its waste product would be oxygen. That's pretty good. Right, Right, right, right, right. So I don't, you know, I'm cool with it.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't make a difference.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, right.

[Co-host - Gary]

A poopless alien is totally fine.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's right.

[Co-host - Gary]

You know, I mean, there's nothing wrong with a poopless alien, you know, but.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Then they have to rewrite that, that book, that kid's book.

[Co-host - Gary]

Which one? Everybody Poops.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Everybody Poops. That was originally in Italian. Did you know that?

[Co-host - Gary]

I did not.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's funny.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Speaking of Italian, there's an old bad dad joke.

[Co-host - Gary]

Go ahead.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What Italians call suppositories.

[Co-host - Gary]

No, I don't know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In a un though.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, no, no, please, no.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, that's good. You know it's good.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, man. All right, here we go. This is Matthew Landreth who says Greetings. Start talk. My name is Matt, a Globe trucking teacher who has lived and taught around the world.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Teacher in the house.

[Co-host - Gary]

There you go. Through these experiences, I have seen how much learning depends on human connection. Dr. Tyson is a fellow teacher and science communicator. You know how ideas ignite in others. Science fiction imagines AI tutors or digital replicas guiding future generations. If an AI could replicate a teacher's knowledge, style and personality, would that truly be teaching? Or is the human connection scientifically essential for learning?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I love that. So a couple of things. If you are teaching today with methods, tools and tactics, and then I clone that. I'm not given any reason to think that your clone would not be as effective as you are in those situations.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

However, you have a life experience, a training where if someone whose profile doesn't fit that of other students, you will readjust and repackage what you know works so that you have a new pathway to reach the intellectual curiosity of that student. I don't know that AI can do that just now.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

AI can ape your style, it can dig up some content, but it can't.

[Co-host - Gary]

Intuit something different that might be happening in a student and make an adjustment.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And make an adjustment. Especially if students change, they mature or they regress. Right, right. So I think that frontier, at least from my foreseeable future, that is the future that I can foresee, remains in the realm of the inventive, creative teacher.

[Co-host - Gary]

Interesting. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Very cool. The human condition is still very important part of teaching.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, no, it's the ever changing human.

[Co-host - Gary]

Ever changing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, because otherwise I can memorize everything in that moment and then that's watching it go forward in time and be nimble enough to navigate that. That's the real test.

[Co-host - Gary]

There you go. All right. This is DJ Sipe, he says. This is DJ from Maine. I've been curious about the properties of space time and gravity. We know that gravity is the result of objects with mass bending spacetime. To me this implies that spacetime is naturally flat, but doesn't explain why. Is there some force or property of space time that acts to restore its natural flat state once an object and its gravitational field move away? Perhaps some form of gravitational entropy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I like that idea.

[Co-host - Gary]

The idea of gravitational entropy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

So he's looking at this whole rubber sheet type.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah. So I mean all we can say is, by the way, it's not just matter that will bend spaces energy as well, because matter and energy are equivalent through equals MC squared. So just be brought be more complete addressing it that way. So if since the curvature of space and time is the manifestation of matter and energy, if you remove the matter and energy, there's no reason for the space time to be curved at all. I'm given no reason to think that space would have any shape other than flat after you remove the items that would curve it. Right. Keep in mind, however, the expanding or contracting universe itself has a shape unrelated to the gravity of objects it contains.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And this is why we talked about is an open universe, a closed universe or a flat universe. And those are large scale properties that are not related to just one galaxy or another.

[Co-host - Gary]

There you go. Very cool man. That's a great question. Detail these people are thinking. I love it. This is Keith Johnson from NorCal and Keith says can we think of a universal now based on the point of view of of an observer? In other words, my now can we analyze a particular star in the night sky and determine its probable lifespan and then say that this particular star does not in all probability exist anymore? In my now, its ghost is seen as a shadow of light arriving billions of light years after its demise.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So what's the question in there?

[Co-host - Gary]

So I guess he's saying is that the case? Like when we look up, are we seeing stuff that's not there?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We see things not as they are, but as they once were. We're not worried if they're no longer there because that's not a real thing we can interact with. We're interacting With a light that is currently reaching us. And when that light was emitted, it was alive, whatever it was. Right, so.

[Co-host - Gary]

So we're looking back in time, but we're looking at that time. So it doesn't make a difference because we're looking at that time.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct, Correct. It doesn't make difference.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So might as well speak of it in the present. Right? The star exploded last night. No, it was 1700 years ago. But what do you gain by that, right? Other than like a nerdy kid saying you got it wrong. It's not really in the now. So the fun part would be find a galaxy 33 light years away. Sorry? Find a galaxy 33 million light years away.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And then if they all held up mirrors and you looked at those mirrors, you would see the dinosaurs going extinct.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because it's 33 light years there and 33 light years, that's 66 years into the past.

[Co-host - Gary]

Look at that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's fun to think that way, right? Our speeds are not high enough to generate significant relativistic phenomena.

[Co-host - Gary]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

All right, well, there you have it. Still a fun question though. Thanks for the fun question, buddy. All right, that was Keith. And this is Anthony Calamani. Calamane.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Tony Calamari.

[Co-host - Gary]

Tony Calamane.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Everyone with Italian voice does not come from Brooklyn.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Just.

[Co-host - Gary]

They do in my world. All right, this is, this is Anthony and he says. Greetings from Seattle, Dr. Tyson Lord. Nice. My 11 year old son and I were discussing the pitfalls of fictional time travel within the space time, continuing understanding that you have pointed out on many occasions that one would have to calculate not only the space time location on the target on Earth as it rotates on its axis, revolves around the sun and the trajectory of our solar system moving through space, but also as our galaxy moves through the universe. Well, he covered it all. Look at you, man. Well, this was the way to go. Our question is, would one have to know the center or origin point of the universe to guarantee an accurate spacetime coordinate or would relative distance distances be enough even if the universe is. Even if the universe isn't expanding in uniform fashion? So he's taken into account the expansion of the universe in the time travel equation as well.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, but I don't. I'm trying to figure out what he's getting at. So.

[Co-host - Gary]

So he's saying I'm going to go and come back. That's what he left out. So I got to go back and then I got to come back to my time.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So is He Going into the past.

[Co-host - Gary]

Into the past. So my coordinate. Okay, what am I going to need? Can I accurately predict with not only rotation of the Earth, but the solar system and the galaxy moving and also the expansion of the universe? Can I actually accurately predict the point where I got to go back and be back in time? I traveled at the speed of light and. Or faster than the speed of light, went back in time, and then come back to that same point where I left. Can I do that?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Rich Gott, I think, would say you can.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Using sort of mathematical trajectories in the vicinity of black holes. I have to trust him on that, because I can't duplicate those calculations. Okay. He studied this stuff, like, professionally.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, in fact, he wrote a book, time Travel in Einstein's Universe. All right, so, in principle, yes. But is there a no disruption conjecture where you're not allowed to prevent your parents from meeting, thereby preventing you from being born, thereby preventing you from coming back to try to rectify things, so.

[Co-host - Gary]

Hey, Marvin, I think I got that sound you were looking for. Marvin. No, it's me, your cousin.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So, Marvin.

[Co-host - Gary]

No, that's right. He was calling Chuck Berry. He's Marvin.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He's Marvin.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's me, your cousin.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Mom. Chuck, it's me. You're coming, Joy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chuck Berry. Marvin Berry. Marvin Barry. Yeah. From Back to the Future, Living under a rock. So. And by the way, I think we talked about this on another episode about Djinn Particles.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, we did. Which I love.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so that's a Djinn song.

[Co-host - Gary]

No, we didn't explain it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Explain it. So that'd be a gin song.

[Co-host - Gary]

That would be a gin song.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A gin song.

[Co-host - Gary]

Because it didn't exist until Marvin Barry put the phone out and let Chuck Berry hear Johnny B. Goode.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The song that he wrote. He wrote, he wrote. And then Marty picks it up later.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right, right. So Marty gets it in the future, but Chuck gets it in the past. Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so that song was never actually written.

[Co-host - Gary]

Never actually written.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. It just lives in a time in a time loop.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

Love that whole gin particle thing, man. That's a gin. The gin stuff.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Gin song.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. So what was the other movie we did that?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, it was somewhere.

[Co-host - Gary]

A woman with a. Yeah. Somewhere in jewelry or something.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Somewhere in time.

[Co-host - Gary]

Somewhere in time. That's the name of it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay, cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's a. It's a romantic story.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh. That's why I don't like it. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So anyway, I would say rom com, but it's not a comm.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Just a rom.

[Co-host - Gary]

Just a rom.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But it had. It had Christopher Reeve in it.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, Superman. All right, After Superman, after he did it. All right, well, he's a handsome guy, you know.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. I mean, listen, they can't all be winners. So anyway, Rich Gott says that this can happen.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah. So I don't, I can't follow his math.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But I mean, I follow it, but I couldn't derive it. Right. He's in it.

[Co-host - Gary]

You gotta repeat.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. He does it.

[Co-host - Gary]

He does.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

He figures it out. So I just recommend that book of his.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Time travel, Einstein's Universe.

[Co-host - Gary]

Universe, Very cool. Great question then. And I just like the fact that you're Talking to your 11 year old about the universe and time travel and such specificity, which is fantastic. All right, this is Todd Chambers who says hello, Dr. Tyson, the Todd Chambers here from Yuba City, California.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What kind of city?

[Co-host - Gary]

Yuba.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yuba.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's right next to Yabba dabba Duba.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, what's that, 1210 from Yuba or what's that, the train?

[Co-host - Gary]

I don't know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, Yuma. 12 Yuma. Yuma, not Yuba.

[Co-host - Gary]

310 to Yuma.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

310 to Yabba Dabba Duma. Okay, go on.

[Co-host - Gary]

So he says, I'm a retired naval officer and earth science teacher.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Nice. That's a nice combo right there.

[Co-host - Gary]

Great combo. Yeah. He says, does light ever do any work? Well, it. Does light work? No. He says, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I had to do it. He says, does light ever do any work?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It does do windows.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right. And what would that look like to an observation observer of the night sky?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, so there's something called a solar sail.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Where you have a big sort of Mylar, low mass, high reflective. Mylar is like what they wrap around the.

[Co-host - Gary]

The balloons.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Balloons. Mylar balloons, yeah. And I think Mylar might be what they wrap around the marathon runners. There might be some Mylar variant.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Flexible, shiny, highly reflective. So it keeps your radiant heat in.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it can be warm without it being a blanket.

[Co-host - Gary]

Like rare.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, right. Because that's all a good blanket does, is prevent your heat from getting out.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We did a whole explainer on that. On blankets, on blankets a hundred years ago. Blanket. I love you, blanket. Right. Many people think if you put a blanket on something, you'll make it warm.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

But no. This has actually been built by funds of membership of the Planetary Society.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A good friend of StarTalk is Bill Nye, who who is the CEO of the Planetary Society. They funded, built and launched a solar sail. And the way it worked is because it was a test prototype. So it's orbiting the Earth. And if you want to see if light can do work, you open up the solar sail, angle it in ways to your advantage, and see if sunlight can press on that solar sail and increase your orbit around the Earth. And it did.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, snap.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So the light is doing work.

[Co-host - Gary]

Light is doing work.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And reflection as propulsion. Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's amazing. Yes, that's amazing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

Reflection as propulsion.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And there's a. There's something called the breakthrough initiative, which is a chunk of money. Some billionaires participated in this, where it gives awards for new, new inventions that we think we need, but it just takes some innovative people to do it. Someone wanted, when are we gonna have a tricorder?

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Just a portable thing. And then you have all the meeting. Okay, that's a useful thing. Why not?

[Co-host - Gary]

So cool.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, so. So one of them is a. It's called these nano sails, these nanoprobes. So nano means a billionth of. So people abuse the word.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They just use it for anything small.

[Co-host - Gary]

Well, that's because Apple came out with the nano. And that was the end.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That was the end. Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

There you go. That was it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They have these nano sails. So they're like, they fit in your palm. They're like the size of a postage stamp. Attached to it is a huge mylar sail. Okay. They get deployed in a rocket launch. Then you have ground based gigawatt lasers.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, that is amazing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Beaming these things in the direction you want them to go.

[Co-host - Gary]

And that propels them forward.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct. And the goal is to send these to Alpha Centauri and you can accelerate it up to like 20% the speed of light.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yes, because like there's nothing to impede it because you're in the vacuum space. So the laser is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the thing doesn't weigh very much, and the sail is huge and the laser is powerful.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's awesome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. And you can pack a lot on a poster stamp chip.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Like, you know, temperature and radiation field and magnetic field, they can do. So that's the goal. And so let's see how good you are at math.

[Co-host - Gary]

I'm not. Let's not.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If it reaches 20% the speed of light and Alpha Centauri is four light years away.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How long does it take to get there?

[Co-host - Gary]

It'll take 20. Wait, it's four light years away and it's at 20%. So one light year would be one year. So that's four times that right. Now five times that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Is that your final answer?

[Co-host - Gary]

Right, so it's 20. 20 years. Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, now I'm okay. Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

20 years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes.

[Co-host - Gary]

Now you know how this craziness works, okay. Because that's how I do math.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We just expose the wiring of your brain in that moment. I'm sorry, you see how freaking nuts.

[Co-host - Gary]

It is up in there. But I come out to the right side stuff. But anyway, 20 years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. If you go one fifth the speed of light and four light years, it'll be five times four is 20. So 20 years, that's within people's lifetime who are funding the thing. And so that was the goal. However it gets there now, it's to send a signal back.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, well, that's crazy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, that's at the speed of light.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So when do you know what it found there? After how much time?

[Co-host - Gary]

24 years.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

Chuck. Yeah.

[Co-host - Gary]

Super give you an honorary degree just.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Just being on the show.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, I was gonna say yes. Well, you can. You got like 30 of them up there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, 27.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay. Nobody's counting.

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[Co-host - Gary]

Super cool, man.

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[Co-host - Gary]

This is Dusty Rock. Dusty Rock Creations. And Dusty Rock Creation says hello from Quebec, Canada. Quebec, Quebec. And he says, this is Jean Francois Rock, who says, here from Dusty Rock Creations. Oh, he's. You think he's dropping names? He says, Mr. Tyson, Lord's nice. Let's dive into some fascinating questions if you do say so yourself. He says, we'll be the judge of that. We'll be the judge of that. He says supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies hold the key to understanding how galaxies become come into being.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Maybe. Yes, maybe. Let me tell you why it's a maybe. Because the supermassive black hole has like the big ones, like a billion solar masses. Give them 10 billion, but billions we can Carl Sagan Ify it Billions. Billions, Billions, right. So the mass of a galaxy, however, is hundreds of billions times the mass of the sun. So maybe the black hole nucleated some things to begin with. But the mass of the galaxy swamps the mass of the black hole. So there's a limit to how much you're gonna credit the black hole for the whole damn the kit and the caboodle.

[Co-host - Gary]

Gotcha.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so continue.

[Co-host - Gary]

That's A very good point. He says, is it fair to say that entire galaxies will inevitably end up being swallowed by their own black holes and disappear forever?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No.

[Co-host - Gary]

No. Yep. There you go. Thank you for being my everyday source of wonder. Oh, thank you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I love that.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

Chuck.

[Co-host - Gary]

Did you get my name right? I don't know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, what's the. What's the name?

[Co-host - Gary]

I don't know if I got anybody's name.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

How did.

[Co-host - Gary]

I said his name was Jean Francois Rock, but R, Q, U, E, R, R, O, C, K. Oh, Rock. Yeah, but Jean. G, E, A, N dash, F, R, A, N, C, I, O, S. Francois. Francois.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, right.

[Co-host - Gary]

Rock.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So maybe I got Brock, right?

[Co-host - Gary]

I bet.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I bet it is.

[Co-host - Gary]

Exactly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. You did pretty good. I'll give you a B plus on that.

[Co-host - Gary]

I mean, I did the best I could. But listen, truth is, if I mispronounce your name, I did you a favor, okay? Because now you got an alias. Okay, you gotta start talk alias.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So here's the thing. A black hole is really tiny relative to the gal. They're big. They're like the size the billion solar mass. Black holes are like multiples of the size of the solar system. But that's still tiny in the middle of the galaxy. Okay?

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If it's gonna eat the galaxy, the matter that's orbiting, it has to stop orbiting and fall straight in.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And that's just not gonna happen.

[Co-host - Gary]

No, it's not.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Co-host - Gary]

All right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Maybe stuff nearby. Here's what'll happen. A star will come nearby and tidal forces will stretch it out. And you'll get this wispy stream of gas spiraling in down to the black hole. Then it can make an accretion disk. That's what we call them. This is where. That's the holding place. It's taxiing, ready to go into the black hole. As it's falling towards the black hole, it's slowing down from the friction of all the other material there. And that energy has to go somewhere. And it goes to heating the accretion disk.

[Co-host - Gary]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So hot millions of degrees that it radiates ultraviolet and X ray light. So the X ray telescopes were the first telescopes to discover black holes because we did the math on what that should look like. Point is, you only get these accretion disks from things that are very close. That can be that trip on the matter that'll slow them down. Anybody else doesn't even care that there's.

[Co-host - Gary]

A black hole right there, right? Yeah. It's like when you explain that even if our sun became a Black hole.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct.

[Co-host - Gary]

We would still just be orbiting a black hole. Now is our sun.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It doesn't have extra gravity.

[Co-host - Gary]

Doesn't have. Right, correct. Because the gravity is due to the mass and it does not change. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you turn out it wouldn't happen naturally, but if you magic hands to do it.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. It would just be a black hole. And if it's the same mass, we're just still orbit around that. So now we freeze to death.

[Co-host - Gary]

I got. Yeah, to death. But Jean Francois actually has made me have a question.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Francois.

[Co-host - Gary]

So when two galaxies collide, do the black holes then actually fall into one to another and become one giant black hole around that galaxy?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They will very likely eventually find each other. Okay, they will probably. You look at the dynamics of colliding galaxies. Galaxies are mostly empty, by the way.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I had in one of my Merlin, one of the questions in the Merlin book, where what are the chances of two stars colliding just in the galaxy? And I said, if there were four bumblebees in the continental United States, the chances are greater that two of them would accidentally bump into each other than two stars collide in our galaxy.

[Starbucks/K18 Advertiser]

Damn.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Did my brother do two bumblebees that hit each other?

[Co-host - Gary]

They had like, you know, little bumblebee hickeys.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, just, you know, bumblebee stunned clouds over their heads. So it's empty. So when the star, when the galaxies collide, they will pass through one another.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It'll be this cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity. And it'll pulse like that as they pass through each other, come back, collide again, and they keep doing this until it settles down because there's energy dissipated each time that happens. And the settling down puts the heavy stuff in the middle, the heavy slow moving stuff in the middle, and the faster, lighter stuff in the outer region. That's when the system is settling.

[Co-host - Gary]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And the black holes, they're the heavy thing in the middle.

[Co-host - Gary]

Of course.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So they'll find each other in the middle. They'll. They'll merge and you'll get a black hole twice the size you had before.

[Co-host - Gary]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. We got time for one more question. Oh, this is a very grab bag. I love it.

[Co-host - Gary]

This was a great one. Yeah, this is patrick. He says Dr. Tyson Lord. Nice. Just another science nerd here from Texas.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Love him.

[Co-host - Gary]

What if space time itself is a super solid lattice where defects create natural time loops that erase paradoxes? And the so called mystery echoes LIGO is hearing are actually the fingerprints of that lattice? Meaning we've already Stumbled onto evidence of a new state of reality and missed it because we were looking through the wrong lens. Wow, Patrick.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I like that. What I like about it is he's thinking of space, the fabric of space, time, as a medium.

[Co-host - Gary]

You're right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And if you think of it as a medium, we sort of already do, but we think of it as sort of fabric rather. Lattice is a stronger entity than just fabric. Right, right. If it's a lattice, then you can think about like crystal lattices. And crystal lattices, things happen within them. You know, you can have like light behaves in certain ways in one direction versus another. Sound goes in different ways because the lattice forces energy to pass through it differently depending on the direction that the energy goes through it. And so we would have to propose a series of experiments to check whether phenomenon that unfolds within the lattice is different when viewed at different angles. That would be, I think, based on my understanding of the geology of a lattice, you know, the rock science of lattice, of what a crystal would be. So I think he's saying without saying it, that maybe the entire fabric of the universe is a crystal. I think he's saying that without saying it.

[Co-host - Gary]

Wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And we invented in our lifetime, liquid crystal.

[Host - Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The wristwatch, I mean, not your computer.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. All your screens.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Liquid crystals, TVs. So this. Yeah, I don't have a good answer to that other than that's intriguing.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, yeah. The universe is a television. There you go.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Back in the day, nobody has. No, they're. They're not.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah. Light emitting diodes, which are better liquid crystal displays.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, right.

[Co-host - Gary]

No more LCD TVs.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. Yeah. So anyhow, I like it.

[Co-host - Gary]

It's very creative. Very creative.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Very creative.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Maybe you can develop it further.

[Co-host - Gary]

Yeah, I doubt that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Why? Why?

[Host - Chuck Nice]

I'm just.

[Co-host - Gary]

I'm just hating.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

If you came up with that question.

[Co-host - Gary]

Of course. No, no, I think it's brilliant what he's came up with.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Then we're gonna find out. He's a 10 year old kid now.

[Co-host - Gary]

That would be impressive. Yeah, no, it's very cool, man.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, so we got to end it there.

[Co-host - Gary]

Oh, man, that was a good one. These people, you people, you're amazing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Chuck, always good to have you, man.

[Co-host - Gary]

Always a pleasure.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Another installment of StarTalk Cosmic Queries. Grab Bag Edition. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, wishing you to keep looking up. Howdy, partner.

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