Uhm, for those of you who may not know the Academy forum while the program

is a program that is organized and funded by PAMKA. Uh, it is to is free of charge

bring it's not clear expectations
to campus outstanding speakers who will engage our students and for how we will conduct ourselves as an audience
our faculty I have a couple things I'd like to ask of you
and our families and it is also our pleasure to be able to open it up Please, there's to be no
to electronic recording
the larger community. So we welcome you all. We're really audio or video
delighted that you've please don't hold your phones up to take pictures
braved the elements to join us tonight mostly because it distracts the people behind you
Before we get going, uh, with our program tonight there are just a and we'd really like to focus on our very special guests this evening
couple people that i want to thank it's my privilege to introduce our guests
for making it possible for us. Uh, first Amy South. Amy, where are i think they're well known to all of you
you? but I do want to say a couple things about them
Amy's around somewhere. Amy is our community vice president Doctor Tyson
There she is, in the back has been a frequent guest on the Colbert report
she is uh, ultimately, responsible for, uh, the entire event tonight but, uh, or "Report" I guess is the proper
Next is Lucy [Botsick??]. Lucy is in the doorway up there. Lucy has pronunciation
executed every single detail for tonight. We're delighted that he's here
We have Trish Perlmutter and we are also delighted and, uh
Trish has sheparded this program from the very beginning um... very grateful
And last but not least, that mr stephen colbert has agreed to interview him
Judy Polonofsky and Debbie Kozak who make absolutely everything for our benefit
happen for us here at MKA So thank you very much Stephen Colbert
So now, without further ado it's my pleasure to introduce comedian, author
the headmaster of the Montclair Kimberly Academy, Tom Nammack and host of the Colbert Report
Good evening, and welcome. I'm delighted to welcome you to the is both one of the funniest
Monclair Kimberly Academy and possibly the bravest comedians of our time
And I want to also thank again our parents' association. I want you to consider his performance
They have made this evening possible for us at the national press club dinner in 2007
as he, uh, as he stood just a few feet from the President of the They also share a common strategy
United States They often look to the stars
known the rest of us as the most powerful man in the world human or heavenly
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson for evidence of how things work
astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium though Stephen Colbert is far tougher
author of nine books, teacher, lecturer on the objects caught in his gaze
host of Nova's four-part series "Origins" Whereas Dr. Tyson is only known
and member of two presidential commissions to have obliterated Pluto.
on United States aerospace industry they share methods in their respective fields, whether it is the
and the future of our country's space exploration search
Dr. Tyson has a gift for working successfully for evidence that makes sense of the world and the universe
within the realms of research, or the creative construction of questions and tests
education, and policy formation by which the truth and significance of who
i owe you all an explanation about our theater tonight or what is before them are evaluated
what you see on stage Perhaps then,
is the beginning of a set they both have something in common with william shakespeare
for a seventh-grade production of "Romeo and Juliet" the desire to provide their audience with a lens
this year's selection to see the world
for what is as i said an annual performance from the previously unconsidered
and I think it's fitting that Dr tyson is going to warmup the stage point of view
for the two most famous star-crossed lovers in all of American and not just as others would have us see it
literature So while the stars may be dazzling
it occurred to me that there are few things training and instinct appear to have taught each of them
that stephen colbert to look away from celestial bodies
and Neil Tyson have in common i'm really sorry i had to get that bad cliche in there somewhere
and I wanted to comment on them and to consider the effects
both of them that those celestial bodies have on everything
share and everyone around them
an over-arching purpose In addition to the challenge of questions
to make sense of the world that each of them
make us confront, their work Yeah that ... I missed that one Yeah you missed that news story
has given the world a little more of that very rare To go on his show
and gem-like substance it's like the hardest interview ever
known as the truth I have to, like, I'm laden with current events just
Or in Stephen Colbert's case: "truthiness" to mix with my science cause I don't know where he's gonna come
and we are very grateful. ladies and gentlemen at me
Mr. Stephen Colbert and I gotta be, like, ready with seven tennis rackets
and Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson to hit it back
"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo" And on set with that one news story remember with that guy, was it
Uh, I don't know south carolina guy
Neil, thanks so much for coming Yeah ... thank you. who remembers
Mr/Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson is He goes to Argentina and becomes well-known for having done so
he's been on my show six times and you ask me straight-out
and often when I come out should scientists
to brief the audience before I do my show visit Argentina more often to become better known
they ask me "who's your favorite guest of all time?" and it just went.. I just
and I say, not just for volume, but it's Neil DeGrasse Tyson you aced me on that one (You're welcome)
but because not only uh... do I love what neil knows Now, Neil, we've got a lot of talk about tonight (yeah) a lot of
but uh, I love subjects science is a big thing but i want to start off with
that he loves what he doesn't know this is not a bribe (that's alright)
always interested in the next thing to learn (Oh yeah) and always I want to start off with .. with these chairs I feel myself sliding
rolled to whatever No, no
idiocy my character wants to throw on him This stage is not level
I think the only time i ever surprised you as you told me a oh welcome to the barn raising
a little while ago Didn't realize we were speaking before the Omish tonight
uh was i asked you should uh... should scientists go to Argentina or That's gonna
hike make it tought to talk about science and technology
the Appalachian trail All right, Neil
If they want people to talk about them i want to start uh...
it's the universe talking there the universe [??] i want to start, in a broad way
are you Tweeting now, or are you actually trying to interview me? yes, and uh... personality for sure
no, i'm just looking at ... and if we learn something
i'm just looking at photos of myself that does not jive with how we think about the world
get a little work done I need a little freshen up won't we have to reexamine who we are? Yeah, it could mess you
let me ask you a very basic question: science up
from Once again I'll go back to Oedipus
"scientia", Latin, meaning knowledge He plucked his eyes out rather than know any more
I didn't take Latin but I'll take your word for it Yeah, well, you know people back then you know, they did stuff like
is it better that
to know Yeah, people back then
or not to know not people today
i think so i think
well my blunt answer is it's better to know (alright) but i think there are people who would not know
that is debatable though who would rather ... remember the old days
well I said "my" answer. Someone else might have a different I don't know if it still happens where a doctor would find out you
answer had cancer, they wouldn't tell you
for instance, Oedipus might have a different answer They wouldn't tell you (give it to me straight doc) Yeah and
Yeah, I mean I think why would even have to say
is .. is knowledge always a good thing? give it to me straight unless there was a day when they didn't give it
I have to say yes to you straight?
why? If I have five years left I wanna know I have five years left
because it empowers you Cause I wanna, like
to react do something different in those five years if (Neil?) yeah?
and possibly even to do something about it I have some terrible news
if something about it needs to be done so there are some people who don't
ok, but who we are there are some people who don't value science
is what we know, right? and if they don't value science
Part of who we are is what we know are they valuing ignorance? Yes, and.. but I will not pass judgment
and our identity on them
is often based on how we see the world what I will say is
if they have are at maximal comfort in their ignorance.. fine he said
except that they will not be the participants on the frontier of because people said "Have you ursurped the power of God?"
of cosmic discovery and he said
they will be disenfranchised If God didn't want this power to be there he shouldn't have put it in
Hello .. hello the atom in the first place
I'm sorry I've got a phone call... hello? kind of an interesting point, I think
I'm sorry I have to take .. I have to take this.. Hello? What he was saying that the world is accessible to us
My mic.. my mic isn't working? so would you say
Hello? "Don't smelt the ore and make iron
that's better Now who's in control? and make a sword out of it because you could cut yourself"?
So they won't be in control of the next.. they won't be participants back then that's what you would .. that's the counterpart
in the next cosmic discovery statement
No they won't they won't from the Iron Age.
not only will they not And if you were around back then you'd be sitting in this chair
be on that frontier making any discoveries saying
they're not in a position to enhance their life for having access to "Don't make the sword,
those because you will unleash evil on the world"
discoveries themselves OK, I'll step back from don't make the sword how about
Can knowledge "don't lick flag pole in February"
ever be a bad thing? Yeah, that
i don't think so You will learn something
what about actions that you will learn something but at a price, Neil
knowledge takes us to? You think that Oppenheimer that'd be data.. it's a data cost
when the bomb went off and he said That is a data cost for that, isn't it? Yeah
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds" Also: Adam and Eve...
do you think he perhaps questioned for a moment They ate of the tree of knowledge (of knowledge)
whether the knowledge they achieved that led to the creation of good and evil (Yeah) and they paid a price (yeah)
of the bomb perhaps should have been left undiscovered? so god does put things into atoms he doesn't want us to know about
Do you know what he said in response to those kinds of questions? Yeah, I ..
Yes? However, I think
Yes? yes okay
I don't want to blame the knowledge So i think
I want to blame we as a society
the behavior of people in the presence of the knowledge so maybe as a .. as a
we need better knowledge management democracy
do you think that scientists .. you can applaud him.. he's the hero what we should do is
Well how about this: do you think that scientists should be allowed come to some
to do with anything understanding of what the prevailing social mores are
they can and know science should not cross those barriers and not and by
I heard a big "No" over here the way
someone just said "no" scientists are often ones
you know, uh, people made fun of him for doing this but to try to prevent that
uh... during one of President Bush's Einstein among them for example he didn't want to make the bomb
State of the Union speeches .. Bush 1 or 2? after he first told Roosevelt he should make the bomb, he changed
Bush 2 his mind
Uhm, he said because his conscience, his moral conscious descended upon him
uh... we have to .. he spoke about ... he warned against man-animal scientists are not without moral code here
hybrids so as a culture and as a society we decide what
And a lot of people like me should be the prevailing cultural mores and i think we should all be
made fun of that beholden to those. What do you think of the portrayal of scientists
by showing pictures of like senator alligator man going uh... in movies?
"Boooo boooo" because often often
"Yay man-animal hybrids" for instance the scientists who make, uh
but if scientists could make man-animal hybrids, wouldn't they? the terminator
there are scientists who want to make man-animal hybrids they're the bad guys
should we make man-animal hybrids I ask you senator tyson scientist leads to the terminator or they create the super bug that
Or should there be any limits like that? i think there's some creepy wipes out
things about the world
that and i've met some scientists who or or they enrage the monster at the bottom of the sea
who would think that would be an intriguing to do When you part the curtains and
at the bottom of all that I mean unless it's, you know
there's a politician funding that research can they grow my hair back? Yeah right
Is this working again? It is? No.. science.. or do other things to your anatomy yes, exactly .. exactly
He says yes, you say no science.. I've gotten those emails
we're getting we're getting bad data science
we're good .. That was good That's good? oooh yeah science is sometimes distrusted because it is it is more complex than
So scientists don't the average
lead marching armies person can understand. I think that is the core of it
scientists don't invade other nations the distrust is not because of what it can do but because of what it
scientists because people don't understand how it does what it can do. And
yes we have scientists who invented that .. that
the bomb absence of understanding or misunderstanding
yes but somebody had to pay for the bomb and that was taxpayers of the power of science
that was war bonds is what makes people afraid of it
there was a political action that called for it and so
so everyone blames the scientist. We are collectively part of the i remember back when they first split the atom you know "shouldn't
society split the atom" or
that is passing.. that is or shouldn't .. you hear this at every discovery that happens in
that is science
that is there's a mystery to it
using are not using for example irradiated foods in France they call it "frakenfood",
to it's benefit or to it's detriment alright
the discoveries made by science which is kind of a cute word when you think about but it makes food
and at the end of the day last longer and your
a discovery healthier for it, you don't get sick from it
itself is not moral, it's our application of it and so.. from it turning bad, in fact
the takes that .. that has to pass that test Nasa does it all the time.
would you agree that there's a .. there's a distrust of science on a Nasa can make a slab of meat you wouldn't necessarily
certain level put this in your refrigerator but Nasa can make a slab of meat that
in our country will last thirty years
I tasted it and? delicious? evolution and creation science comes
you know there's some rest.. it reminded some restaurants food is that the
reminds me of what complexity of evolution
that tasted like but i'm just saying that is so grand
just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's bad for you that it is hard to conceive
go figure out how it works. of how the incremental changes come and once something
That's why we need a scientifically literate electorate so that when becomes so complex
we go to the polls that I can't understand it
you can make an informed judgement there's nothing between that
and you can draw your own conclusions, rather than turning to a and God saying "Let it be"
particular TV station Well one of the beauties of evolution is that
to have your conclusions handed to you. that complexity does not come about from complex ideas
Now you know Arthur C. Clarke .. Comedy Central excepted (exactly) the ideas are actually quite simple
Arthur C. Clarke's famous dictum about sufficiently advanced and you can show on a computer how those simple forces
technology. can generate complexity given enough time and enough variation in
Yes, it is .. Arthur C. Clarke had several, uhm environment
uh, laws of which is just what the history of the Earth supplies
culture and the world one of which was so so science literacy is an important part of what it is to be an
any sufficiently advanced technology informed
is indistinguishable from magic. citizen of society
So.. let's get away from our understanding of science, or lack thereof
if something gets too complex for the average person to understand and get to science itself ok ok I'm with you
it's magic .. and you have powers that i don't trust here's a transition from talking about
because I don't know what you're going to do with it next us mixing science and religion
whereas if you understood how it worked and getting back to science
you'd say "Hey, give me one of those" I mean, that's how that would "God is truth", people think
work ok, some believe God is truth
That's how.. that's how that plays out Truth is beauty
do you think that's where the debate over is there anything in science
i think that's where the debate over uh... to you that is beautiful or rather what is the most beautiful thing
that you know of in science light coming from that bulb would all of a sudden pop into
E=mc squared a particle, and the particle would come by and it would pop back
Really? Oh it's awesome, it is into light again
so that equation doesn't just have a great publicist, it's actually.. Would it hurt?
because everybody knows it, everybody knows it but also, It can, yeah It can? Yeah it would sterlize you, yeah
everybody knows Coke, you know The kinds of particles that would do that
it's like the Coca-cola of science they would sterilize you, yeah that'd be bad
You learn E=mc^2 before you even know what any of those symbols I've had my kids
mean It goes on in the center of the sun it went on at the Big Bang
you hear it in elementary school it goes on throughout the universe
oh, it's a gorgeous thing wherever it's hot and heavy
it's .. what is beautiful about E=mc^2 first of all But what is beautiful about it to you? It's simple
tell everybody what all the pieces mean It's simple, yet it accounts
Well "E" stands for "energy" for hugely complex things and for me
"m" is "mass" that is where the beauty lies in the truth
"c"-squared is just the speed of light squared, that's just Now if i had to give you a complex
ignore that for the moment. The thrust of that equation is that theory to understand a complex phenomenon
energy and mass You know, send me home
are equivalent to each other because what's the point?
which means you can transmute one into the other Now there's no tablet in the sky that said
and back it had to be simple to end up being complex
would make's it extraordinary is that that hardly ever happens in it's just a remarkable fact about the universe
our everyday lives so why not celebrate it?
yet it's going on all the time in the rest of the universe The fact that pi ...
and so.. so pi ...
so we're in this little pocket where "E=mc^2" that ... pi right?
never happens (is not visible) it's not visible it's not happening in our Let's say the numbers together
lives 3 point 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 ..
no, no we got a few geeks over here looks like we got a geek thing going on
but if it did the world would be really different over there
not bad, not bad authors just died like two days ago
The fact that you take a circle of any size Geoff Burbidge.. Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle
a circle the size of the universe itself one of the most famous research papers that no one ever heard of
and divide it by its own radius you know why? i think
and you get that number because it had 4 authors, not just one and it took a decade to figure
that's beautiful out
i have to pause, and I get misty and it wasn't just somebody burning the midnight oil so it doesn't
Thinking of [???] lend itself to poetry or screenplays because it's a collaboration so
I'm sorry that's just .. nobody wrote
another one about it
.. another one that the atoms and molecules in your body but we knew that we are star stuff
are traceable to the crucibles in the centers of stars we knew that we are stardust at the middle of the twentieth
that manufactured these elements century
over its lifespan that connects us to be universe like no other fact
went unstable that's beautiful
on death sounds like you have written poetry about it
exploding its enriched guts across the galaxy Well, once it gets in you have you know
scattering it into gas clouds that would ultimately collapse the only way it comes out is poetically .. no
and make a star You write poety, you write sonnets
and have the right ingredients to make planets I don't know if they're sonnets but occassionally a word rhymes in it
and people and I don't know what to call it
which means, we are part of this universe but sometimes if if you feel deeply
as i've said many times and this goes back not only are we in the about something
universe i think the greatest poetry
the universe is in us not that I'm.. I'm an astrophysicist alright, that's my disclaimer
that is a profound concept but some of the greatest poetry
and it was ... i think it's the greatest gift that astrophysics gave is revealing to the reader
culture the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for
in the twentieth century granted
it was a research paper in 1957 and i say that because one of the that i think is the job of the poet
and so you know
the simplicity of the universe which started this That can't be real, that's
part of our conversation i'll enjoy it while there, but they think there's that many stars up
i think there
if it doesn't drive you to poetry it drives you to what kinda.. they're pulling my leg
bask in and a couple years later i go out to pennsylvania
the majesty of the cosmos in another trip we took
so what drew you.. you said that .. and I look up at the night sky and what
the beauty of astrophysics or the gift that astrophysics gave us in persists to this day
the twentieth century and what is an embarrassingly
what drew you urban thought
to astrophysics? Take us i look up at the night sky from the finest mountaintops in the world
to Neil deGrasse Tyson and i look up and I say
before "it reminds me of the Hayden plantetarium" I mean,
he's an astrophysicist take us to who you are now it's embarassing
I'm living in the Bronx I beg forgiveness wow
which in the vernacular would be "da Bronx" So strong was that imprint
and I'm in a building ... not a lot of stars that i'm certain
no There's like a dozen or so in the night sky that i had no choice in the matter that in fact
so you do not have a relationship the universe called me
with the night sky and i wondered that if I'd grown up on a farm
as a city dweller and the universe and the sky was just always there
and i wonder if that would just have become wallpaper to me
my parents .. I have a brother and a sister ... they would take us and I wouldn't have then been struck by it as I was at age nine
to.. each weekend we'd go to visit museums and other sort-of i'd never known anything of it
cultural things in the city and then it just slaps you in the face
and one of those weekends we went to the Hayden plantetarium and from then on I was hooked
the local plantetarium the one right there in Manhattan it took two years for me to figure out you can do that as a career
and I.. you sit in the chair, the lights dim, the stars come out but starting at age eleven you ask me
and I said "well that's a nice hoax" you know that annoying question that adults ask kids
"what do you want to be when you grow up?" a thing
I heard a comedian say "You know why they ask?" or is it a way to look at the world
"because they're looking for ideas!" Is it a verb, or is it a noun?
Paula Poundstone said that It is .. both.
So, if you had asked me from age eleven the world is not just "is it this or that?"
What do you want to be when you grow up "Is it a planet or not a planet?" It's sometimes
i would have told you a flat-out: astrophysics you must choose!
astrophysicist It's fuzzier than that
and my whole life aligned to that got a telescope, got a camera, sometimes.. so if i know .. if I have a lot of facts in my head if i can
photographed it absorb
all my science fair projects .. one was getting the spectrum of the a lot of facts, am I a scientist? Facts? no
sun and analyzing No, you're a ... fact memorizer
features in the spectra In fact... I'll accept that as a compliment
I ... our academic system rewards people who know a lot of stuff
built the spectroscope and generally we call those people smart
so i was like Nerd Kid. card-carrying but at the end of day
But I was bigger than other kids so who do you want: the person who can figure stuff out that they've
I was insulated from a lot of what might otherwise happen to nerd never seen before,
kids or the person who can rattle off a bunch of facts?
You wrestled, too. I was captain of my high-school wrestling team at the end of the day, I want the person that can figure stuff out.
I've seen you in that wrestling outfit and science say, if you were trapped on an island exactly
You can rock a singlet. well done. now.. exactly
"Singlet" is what you call the one-piece ... well you know the professor on gilligan's island
they know It's a not a matter of how many facts he can recite
So, you became.. you wanted to become an astrophysicist like there's a coconut, and there's a thing and you have a ham radio
that leads me to another question which is OK, you just (seawater) you're stirring the saltwater
you know "Is it better to not know? it's better to know" you hook the wires up to Gilligan's fillings and you listen to his ears
uhm so it's an understanding of the relationships
Can it be beautful? yes, it can be beautiful. While we're on it: Ginger or Mary ann?
Is science Totally Ginger
Ginger, completely maybe it's more subtle than that
That was like .. she came around the wrong time in my life it was and so your tool kit has to be able to morph into what is necessary
like for
Ginger, all the way what it is that you confront at that moment
for sure and so yes there .. you're equipped with
so it is a way ... it is .. methods of mathematical analysis, methods of interpretation
it's a way of approaching the world you know some basic laws of physics so when someone says
it's a way, not only of approaching the world "I have these two crystals if you rub them together you will get
it's a way of equipping yourself healthy"
to interpret what happens in front of you So
i think of science rather than just discount it
the methods and tools that because that's
enable it that's as lazy as accepting it
as kinda like a utility belt that you walk around with both of those are just lazy-brain
you know, and you come upon something .. Are you a superhero? what you should do is inquire?
In your mind, are you Super Science? So do you know how to inquire?
Actually, when I was a kid, I wanted to be Mighty Mouse, when I and every scientist would know how to start that conversation
was a kid start the conversation
really? they would say well "Where'd you get these?"
And I wanted to sing opera as I went to save.. "what kinds of ailments does it cure?" "How does it work?" "What
"Here I am to save the day!" does it cost?"
So it's a tool belt no, it's a .. utility belt "Can you demonstrate that it works"
Utility belt, sorry. And you go through this whole ... and at the end the person's in
because tools.. I'm picturing you in the singlet, with a utility belt tears
A tool belt .. the difference is a tool belt because they weren't prepared
you know if you have a hammer for that level of questioning
as they say "you can hammer in the morning" and, so, science literacy is ..
if i had a hammer, the problem is vaccine
If you start wielding a hammer, then all your problems look like nails against
and maybe they're not charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance
of the forces of nature they needed this drill, which is a very cool kinda .. that was the
Neil, if you don't like the crystals I gave you you can just say it. coolest thing I'd ever seen
and they're not working for you because you don't believe (exactly) a drill that would drill to the center of your planet
Is there any science fiction you admire? and they drop the..
or that you enjoy? i'd say
or do you see the holes in science fiction and go "i can't enjoy that If that would turn a planet into a black hole, from its center
of course it surely would turn into a black hole from its surface
he would know the effects of a neutron star! He doesn't know tidal but.. then what would Kirk and Sulu fight on?
forces?" I know, right, they had to fight on the platform
Do you have that problem? so, I'm OK
I only have the problem I got angry with Jim Cameron about "Titantic"
if the movie is that's how i got angry
marketed for its accuracy Did I ever tell you this story? You did not
number one. Number two .. they gotta get some basic science right. I've never seen you this angry before
after that, I'm OK Hold me back
so for example in the latest star trek movie the had this like .. I can't wait to see what you have to say about "Avatar"
this red you might turn blue with rage go on.. so what was your problem
this liquid .. the red matter ... the red matter thank you with "Titantic"?
release the red matter, and you drop it into the core of a planet There's a colleague of mine who saw "Avatar" and he got home and
and it turns the planet into a black hole? he
I thought that's kinda cool he told his wife he wanted to paint her blue, and that didn't go over
Now what was a little weird was Why didn't it turn the ship into a very well
black hole? is she ten feet tall?
Because they had this special apparatus that surrounded it So "Titantic", you may remember, was marketed as a film of "high
this special device And the apparatus did what? accuracy" because
It's the anti-black-hole apparatus. hold on.. I'm OK with that Cameron had funded this submersible to go down and
See, I was not losing sleep ... check out the state rooms
That didn't bug you? and the wall sconces and the china patterns and so they reproduced
... over what held the black hole I didn't have an issue with that that
Oddly, what I had an issue with was to detail
and so here they recreate the ship for the movie, can you double no reply
check that? Five years later I bump into him he was on a NASA committee
no because he had the submersible. You just have to trust him ok and my sort-of presence with NASA was growing by then
You gotta trust him. So now and I bumped into him in a meeting
the ship sinks (yes) right? and I said Mr. Cameron, I just want to .. I just have to ask
Did I give away the plot to anybody here? you know the sky that .. is not the right.. what? what?
You see the movie yet? I'm sorry, ok and he says "Well actually, that happened in post-production"
so the ship sinks I do, I remember you remember, ok So .. so he's absolving himself of guilt
and there's Kate Winslet on the flow but I wanted him to grovel in front of my feet which he did not do
remember that (yes) wait, wait .. so, I was angrier after that
and she's delirious This isn't the scene where she's naked later on
Oh sorry.. go on Wired magazine honors him
No, she's on the flow.. on the.. whatever, the plank and for "Discoverer of the year" or "Explorer of the year"
she's looking up and they want to hold their party
We know at the Rose Center for Earth and Space
the date, the day, the time, you don't come into MY house and get the sky wrong!
the weather conditions, the longitude, the latitude my microphone working?
we know all of this about the sinking spot of the "Titanic" you're loud enough, you don't need a microphone
There is only one sky she shoulda been looking at Can you hear me now? ok
and it was the wrong sky! So,
Worse, he's in my house
worse than that, worse than that and as a courtesy, they extended me an invitation to have dinner
the left side of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right side of the with a small group of them after this award ceremony
sky So I said "yeah"
So it's not only wrong, it was lazy! And I was ... So, we go to dinner there's six of us at the table
So halfway through they went, "Just flip it, just flip it" the wine is pouring
No one'll know So I said "Jim, I don't know if you remember but I brought this up
and so, I was livid some time ago
I got out my finest stationary about the sky
and i wrote a letter to Jim Cameron and I wouldn't be so upset except that everything else you boasted
was I work
so accurate in post-production
and we can't even check how accurate that is for Jim Cameron
but anybody can spend $50 for a planetarium sky program He is releasing a ten-year director's cut anniversary edition of the
and look at the sky and know that you got the wrong sky Titantic
What gives?" and will be adding new footage
And you know what he said? from the deck and he tells me you have a sky that he can use
he said "last i checked, Not bad (so) Not bad you got your taste, right?
worldwide You got a little taste of that, right?
Titanic has grossed Yeah, it was good.. oh no no I'm a public servant, I don't need it
one point three billion dollars Me too
imagine how much more it would have grossed had I gotten the sky So I don't, you know if you're gonna make
right" if you're gonna claim it's right then I'm gonna hold you to it
Oh If you're not, then I'll just sit back and enjoy it
Oh, I'm so sorry (what is) you know what I don't like? I gotta.. you know what I don't
that ... if i had a tail, it would have been like between my legs, and I like?
would've Is the people you go see a movie with
oh I think you won that conversation who read the book first
No actually I did Get rid of them!
no he retreated into his bank account They don't belong in the movie theater
Here's what happened Alright
but you know that money will all eventually be gone It's like "Oh no the book was better"
and he would still have gotten the sky wrong Well get the hell outta oh excuse me
Oh that's an interesting point that's right the sky will.. Get out of the movie theater
Outlived even James Cameron go back to your book
However, however as dejected as I was Leave me alone
two weeks later i get a phone call Those people I can't stand
forgot the guy's name he calls me up and said "Is this Dr. Tyson?" I Stay home!
said "yeah" we should not go to the movies together
He said, I forgot his name, "Johnny Smith" Now, ok, what is the what is
I got three different things What is the latest discovery on mars
in astrophysics that we should all know about? Methane
Ah, one of my favorite if you have a gas stove and you live in the city, chances are it's
i gotta go back maybe six months for that, eight months? may I? methane
Uhm, okay it's a flammable gas, you say "well so what? who cares?" except that
well we discovered water on the Moon, that's kinda cool methane
because where you're going, you want there to be water. is the byproduct
alright that's a good thing for life it's part of the gaseous effluences
but what struck me the most of anaerobic bacteria which on Earth
Earlier, in .. 2009 operates deep in the intestinal tract of farm animals
we discovered
methane

That's a very scientific way of saying

there are Mars farts

That's what you're saying, right?
I didn't want to say it
You got a "Dr" in front of your name
You can't say stuff like that I can't say stuff like that
but that means that
that is a possibility or is that or is that
"yeah there's life" and no one will come out and say it?
It means
while you can generate methane other ways
Such as?
well it's (sunlight?) it's
it's .. there
a combination of pressure, temperature, and energy source you can manufacture
methane (magic!)
so.. but
chemical magic, yes chemical magic
but it is a natural by-product of
bacteria that
thrive in the absence of oxygen.
And you don't have oxygen deep in your intestinal tract, neither do any farm animals
and and if you're down under the.. Mars doesn't have oxygen, so
it's tantalizing to think
that maybe there is
there are life reservoirs
in aquifers beneath the martian soils Speak.. as I was saying before about
is it better to know or not to know
and there are things about our own identity that we take from the knowledge
that we have, (yes we do) or the things that
or the things that we don't know
the assumptions of things that are not there to be known
And I .. instead of using the word "identity" I'd say: They have an impact on our ego
(yes) because the more we learn about the universe, the smaller we get
in time, and space, in size and so if you go .. except not the way you just described it
the way you described it
you're a supernova
(well I) that makes you bigger
well i think if you know about what's going on
then it's not mysterious and you're a participant in the
unfolding cosmos
otherwise
you are consumed by it
and you fear it and you shun it
and you say "I don't want to know that I live on a speck called Earth
orbiting an undistinguished star, in the corner of an ordinary galaxy
in an expanding void of the cosmos
There are some happy thoughts in there, like
like understanding how that worked
recognizing that the human brain figured that out that's kinda cool
There's a lot we still don't know
but what we do know, I think we can sit proudly
and celebrate
what we know about the universe
maybe not everyone of us figured.. it took a few key people like Newton and Einstein
but we learn what they taught us and each of them stands on the shoulders of giants
that came before them
just as the quote goes
but celebrate
not fear it
but if we found out
that there was life
someplace other than Earth
what do you think that would do
to our identity
or our ego
It may
signal a change in the human condition that we cannot foresee or imagine
i think it would
now, i think the issue would be not if we find bacterial life
which is kinda what we're looking for now
bacterial life there's no question about
whether in our minds eye we
reign supreme over bacteria although it can win
bacteria
do you know in one linear centimeter of your lower colon
lives and works
more bacteria
than the number of people who have ever been born in the history of the world?
so in fact we are just hosts
for bacteria to lead their lives so from the point of view of a bacteria
we're just a place to live
a dark, warm, place to live
but we're a planet
and they don't believe there's bacteria in any of the other planets
that'd be another that'd be interesting sci-fi
so the real issue is, if we find life on another planet
that's smarter than we are
that would totally mess with our ego
That'd be the last, like, nail in the coffin of our ego
that used to be, well, we're humans and we're on Earth and Earth is small
and the Sun, sun is insignificant
that'd be the last one and I don't know how we'd be able to handle that
do you think that there have been discoveries that have happened.. for instance
I have heard
discoveries that have changed our point of view about the universe that we are not aware of
that they've changed; in other words the change has been so gradual
we don't realize we see the world differently
Has E=mc^2, because
that's .. coming up on a hundred years
I'll tell you, yes it is actually well, no, we passed it
Last year was a hundred?
No, 1905, so, 2005 (OK)
So, I got one for you
in the 1920s,
which was a watershed decade in the history of science
in that decade
we discovered that
not only our galaxy, the milky way, is not the only
existence of anything in the universe that there are other
milky ways out there
that recently
1920s ... Was it just the optics didn't exist for that?
We needed a big enough telescope and Edwin Hubble
wielded all the glass that was necessary to accomplish that
back in the 1920s. He's ..
Hubble, before the telescope, was a man and
had his own telescope, the biggest of its day
and he made that discovery
that there were these spiral fuzzy things in the night sky
we thought they were just local to us
They were whole other
systems of stars
hundred billion stars unto itself
outside of our system
not only was that discovered in 1926 1929 he discovers that the
universe is expanding
which means
it may have had a (back then) it may have had a beginning
if it's expanding that meant it was little-er in the past
well there must have been a day when it was all together in the same place
thus was born
the Big Bang
okay so now
also in that decade
quantum
quantum mechanics quantum physics
was discovered that is the science of the small
the science of electrons, protons,
neutrons, particles, nuclei
at the time you'd say
this is just the this is just physicists
burning tax money
cause who cares about the atom
I got my horse to feed, I got
kids, I got.. you know you got issues in society
yet it's quantum mechanics
that is the entire foundation of our technological revolution
there would be no computers , there would be no
there would be none of what you take for granted
your iPod, your iPhone, cell phones
the space program ... without our understanding of the laws of physics as
they operate on that atomic and molecular and nuclear level
and so
the chemist has no understanding
of the periodic table of elements
without quantum mechanics
to them it's just a list of elements
quantum mechanics tells you why this column is there
and that's there, why this mates with that and why that makes a molecule with that
that's quantum mechanics and it's unheralded
you asked me if there is any discovery that has changed how we live
It is quantum mechanics
and I make.. I make this point because
I'm ready to
today you hear people saying
"why are we spending money up there when we got problems on Earth"
And people don't connect
the time delay between the frontier of scientific research
and how that's going to transform your life later down the line
all they want is a quarterly report that shows the product that comes out of it
that is so shortsighted and that's the beginning of the end of your culture
So it's
so it's better to know
That's a really long answer to my first question. My second question
Let's take some questions do we have time to do that?
Q and A?
you gonna hit me in the head with a rubbed band?
Ok, very quickly before we get to questions here
How many can I ask?
[???] Do we have microphones or are we going around the room?
We can repeat the question if there aren't enough microphones to go around
Uh, let's start right here with just one please, sir.
Is there a brown dwarf star approaching?
okay uh...
dare I suggest that i think i know much more deeply
about what's behind that question
he's asking about
"Planet X" (do share[???])
that would swing by Earth in the year 2012 and tip us on our axis
and have it be the end of civilization as we know it. Is that right sir?
I heard about that.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm digging a subterranean chamber
(yeah) me and my kids are gonna be fine.
Go on, when's it get here?
Uh, it doesn't exist
moving on, next question
Yes no, there is no "Planet X"
All gravity.. all principal sources of gravity in the solar system
are present and accounted for
anything discovered now would be tiny and insignificant, like
Pluto's relatives
What do you have to say about Apophis?
Apophis
Apophis
an asteroid the size of the Rose Bowl
discovered december 2004
headed towards Earth
it's not alone, among asteroids headed towards Earth except that this one
is headed, excuse me
there's a whole set of asteroids that cross Earth's orbit
that alone is not a problem. You cross the street all the time
but at different times than trucks drive by, OK
so the issue is
are you crossing the street, when the truck is driving there at the same moment
that simultaneity is what matters
Apophis when you ran the calculations showed that there was a chance of it hitting us
in the year 2036
with a close approach in the year 2029 on april 13th
a Friday, by the way
but here's what's significant about that.
we've had close approaches before
but none this close
this is the size of the Rose Bowl and on April 13th, 2029
it'll come close enough to Earth to dip below our orbiting communications satellites
Do you think 2.5% is a big number, for that asteroid to come to Earth?
No, right now the best estimates are seven in a million that it will hit us
in 2036
and if it does, it will likely hit the Pacific Ocean
plunge into a depth of three miles
explode, cavitate the ocean send waves of tsunamis
the first one from the impact
the second one because the water splashing back into the cavity
goes high into the air, drops back down and sends another pulse
this will go on about forty times
there will be multiple tsunamis, I was just on the Santa Monica beach
two nights ago, because Santa Monica
is the first city to get hit
because it's
it's the bee-line right up from Santa Monica 600 km into the Pacific
five-story tall tsunami would take out the entire west coast of the United States
but nobody has to die
because we know this well in advance
but i think two people will die
the stupid surfer who wants to surf that tsunami
you know, we know people like this, right? you know, you see them!
And you know who else of course, the
weatherman who wants to bring the camera guy closer
"Can you see the waves hitting the shore?"
OK, take him out too. we don't need either one of them.
That would make a great James Cameron movie.
Ah, yes.
Tonight there's a wolf moon can you explain what that means?
"What's a wolf moon?" OK, each full moon of the year has a name
and there are regional variations among those names
and the wolf moon
it's when it's snowing
and the wolves howl
You can see the wolf
in the light of the moon because the whole landscape is white
and the wolf doesn't.. the wolves don't turn white
so you can see them against this and
so depending on where if you live in a region where there are wolves
that would be what you'd call it other full moon names you've heard of
the harvest moon is one of them
the honey moon is one
that's the moon that's in June. The honeymoon
because that moon actually never gets very high in the sky
and it's amber the entire time it takes on the color of honey
and it's call the honeymoon and you get married in june -- that's where we get the name "honeymoon"
Anyone over here? No?
Yes sir
Uhm, the I think, yeah, in astronomy probably dark energy was sort of a real game changer
about 10 years ago, the discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up
If there's a game changer in the next 20 years
What is it?
The question is dark energy
he said ten years ago was like a game changer -- can I foresee any game changers
on the horizon?
Well, turns out dark energy
was not as much of a game changer as you might think
because that .. we already had a slot for it in Einstein's equations
we already had a placeholder no one had ever measured
it before so we just assumed it was zero and got on with life
the moment it was discovered
we said, hey
now we can stick it in the equation it was like whoa,
its presence in the equation shows that there's this force
there's this pressure operating against the action of gravity making the universe
accelerate in its expansion
and that's extraordinary because it means the day will come
when these galaxies that Hubble discovered
will expand
will move away from us
with such speed
that they will disappear beyond our horizon
and the total known universe at that time
will only be the Milky Way
restoring the state of mind of our universe that existed before 1920
that's a spooky time, we'll have to hand down the annals of cosmology
from previous centuries
to hear about the galaxies that were once
in the night sky
so game changers going forward: if we discover
the dark matter particle
that'd be kinda cool
if we ... if dark energy, and dark matter, cause we don't know what's causing either one
of them but we measured them so
they are real in their action on the universe
we just don't know what it is
as distinct from the ether a hundred years ago we never measured it
we just assumed it was there there was no data, it was just
dark matter, dark energy, we could call it "Fred" and "Wilma"
don't think it's matter or energy we don't know what it is
don't let the name fool you