BẢN CHÉP ÂM THANH 🔗
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This is StarTalk.
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What you're going to hear actually came out of the
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StarTalk All-Stars Leap Into Launch Party, which happened on February 29th,
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a year ago. And I'm sitting here with Dr. Neil
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deGrasse Tyson. That was a leap year.
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Look at you.
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Look at you.
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Am I smart?
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Yeah.
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And a cool thing happened at the end of the party,
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which was, it was you, Mike Massimino, who is another
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good friend of yours, Dr.
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David Grinspoon, who is Dr. Funky Spoon. Funky Spoon on Twitter, yes.
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Funky Spoon on Twitter. And we all sat down. Mike
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Massimino is Astro Mike. Astro Mike on Twitter.
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Yeah.
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And we all sat down, and we were drinking some drinks.
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Yeah.
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And just really talking about pretty much everything.
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Why not?
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, yeah. And it was a cool conversation. We talked
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about everything from what actually makes space travel, which you
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had a very interesting.
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Point of view because most of us just kind of
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go up in the air and then we come back down.
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That's not really space travel.
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No, no, no, no.
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And for me, even just going into Earth orbit is
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not space travel.
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Right.
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You're not really going anywhere.
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Right.
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You're driving around a block. And you know how far
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it is to space, to where the space station is?
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It's about the distance from here to Washington, D.C.
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Really?
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Yep, straight up. It doesn't sound so impressive when you
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say it like that.
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That's what I'm saying.
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That's what I'm saying.
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Yeah.
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And so now you can look at a schoolroom globe
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and ask how high above a schoolroom globe is it?
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It's about three-eighths of an inch.
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So if you took three-eighths of an inch and you
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hovered a little model right above a schoolroom globe.
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That would be space, according to NASA and everybody's state
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of mind.
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Right.
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Wow, so we're barely even in the water on the beach.
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We're the kids. On the shores of the cosmic ocean.
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We have barely touched the foam. Yeah, so we kind
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of have a toe in the foam, and that's about it.
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Toe in the foam.
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Not even all 10. Damn.
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Right.
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God. This is why I wrote a whole book called, well,
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I wrote a book with the title Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.
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Right.
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Okay?
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Yeah.
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No, no, the title was Failure to Launch. Failure to Launch.
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And then the publisher said, we can't have the word failure.
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Right.
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Don't put that in the title. Right. So they renamed it.
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But in there, I just talk about, here's a reality
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check on everybody's sense of what space is. So they
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renamed it. Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier. So I
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tried to put a reality check on everybody's statement that
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they've made about space.
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Wow. Yeah.
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That's pretty cool. So we talked about that. We talked
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about so many other things that, I mean, we just
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got into it. Basically, we were sitting around getting a
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little toasty. And shooting the crap. Chewing space fat. Chewing
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space fat. And so now some of you may have
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already seen this on StarTalkAllAccess.com. For those of you who
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are unfamiliar with StarTalkAllAccess.com, it is a subscription service that
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allows you to see everything that we do commercial free.
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It also allows you to see what you're going to
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listen to right now, which is exclusive original content that
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you won't find anywhere else. And you can also, once
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you subscribe, watch everything that we do on
Load full transcript
Roku, Amazon Fire,
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and Apple TV. So it's a very cool service. Startalkallaccess.com.
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You should subscribe and check it out. So if you
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want to know what it feels like to sit down
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and have a drink with an astronaut, an astrobiologist, and
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an astrophysicist who just happens to be the world's foremost
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science educator, and also some other dude, then this.
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Is for you. And a comedian. Yeah, and a comedian.
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And some comedian. This is for you. So with that,
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Let's do this. Let's do this.
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All right, so we are here at the StarTalk All-Stars party,
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and I'm sitting right now with the actual all-star of all-stars,
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which is our progenitor, and that would be Dr. Neil
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deGrasse Tyson.
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Are you not?
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Thanks, Dad.
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Are you not? Are you not the progenitor of StarTalk, please?
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It sounds so antiseptic.
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Well, you know what? I don't want to call you Dad.
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I got father issues. No, here's the deal. So, you know,
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I thought it would be great to... First of all,
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and with some entertainment, and that's why we have Dr.
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Funky Spoon here.
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Okay.
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That's his Twitter handle. That's his Dr.
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Funky Spoon.
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This is David Grinspoon.
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Dr.
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David Grinspoon. Speeding as Dr. Funky Spoon. Yes.
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Okay. And so, you know, one of the people that
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helped make the party good because they gave us some
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free alcohol. And that was the.
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Is that how that goes? Is that how we roll?
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So here's the deal. Here's what I thought would be
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a great way to end. So we have Nankasi Brewing Company,
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Ground Control, which is an imperial stout that they actually
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donated to us. And the great thing about this beer,
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maybe it's great, maybe it's not, I'm not sure. They
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took strains of yeast to outer space. They grew those
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strains of yeast in outer space, brought them back to earth,
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and then brewed beer. Wait, wait, wait.
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So, Mike, was that on your mission?
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Did you brew beer?
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Is that why the Hubble telescope got messed up on
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your mission?
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Neil, you'd be really pissed at us if we were
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fooling around making beer.
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That is so right. No, we did not do that. Okay,
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let the record show. That your mission did not brew beer.
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We were busy helping out the astronomy world.
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Fixing the Hubble. So one of the cool things. Where
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did this come from, man?
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What flight was it on? Where's their proof?
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You want some documentation. Because you.
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I like the way Chuck says it. You want documentation?
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No. So here's the deal. The reason why I have
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you here is because allegedly there are only two things
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in this room that have been to outer space. This
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beer and you. All right.
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And we can't drink you.
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So that's why this is here. It's good beer, too.
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Okay. It's very dense. It's got like a Guinness kind
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of density and viscosity to it.
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It tastes good and it works.
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And it's got a sustained bubbly head on top. as
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a Guinness would. This is a little sweeter than Guinness.
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It has the bitter backdrop, but on the front end,
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there's a sweetness that cuts the bitterness in the way
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you might drop a touch of sugar into coffee.
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I don't know why, but I want to have sex
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with this beer now. I'm not sure what the hell
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Neil is talking about, but I want to date this beer.
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These are my tasting notes. That's all.
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Actually, everything you said was actually spot on. And in
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addition to the fact that, of course, you being an astrophysicist,
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you being an astronaut, Dr. David Grinspoon is an astrobiologist.
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And so all you call him doctor and not as doctor.
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You know, because, you know,
he's Dr. Funky Spoon.
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It's in his moniker.
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That's right.
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He's got a point.
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He's got a point.
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If I go Dr. Degrass, then you'd be calling me Dr.
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Degrass.
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Dr.
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Degrass.
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But it's not.
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It's just Neil Degrass.
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So I thought it would be very cool if, you know,
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the fact that all three of you tie into this,
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that we were all here to close out our StarTalk
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All-Stars party.
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Mm-hmm.
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And David's going to sing a little song that kind
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of ties us all in, which is the Astrobiologist Blues.
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Astrobiology Blues.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Blues is my favorite musical genre. Really?
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Hopefully it still will be after the song.
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I know.
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I was going to say, like, I hate to disappoint.
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You.
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The beer might help.
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By the way, just to get some of his resume
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on the table, he cut his teeth thinking about and
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writing about Venus. He's got a book. You can buy
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a book about Venus that he wrote.
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Yes.
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And Venus is like 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Yes, it is.
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Ain't no life on Venus.
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Yes.
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So I don't know how he got from Venus to astrobiology.
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How did that happen? Well, it's a long story. Okay, stop.
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Never mind then.
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You know, Venus started out as just a fine planet
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like the rest of them, and something went wrong.
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Something went bad on Venus.
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Astrobiologists really want to figure that one out. Yeah, yeah, okay.
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Don't let this happen to your planet. Okay.
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Wow. Wow.
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Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect.
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Yes.
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Can I tell you something quick about Venus?
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Go ahead.
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I once calculated how long it would take to cook
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a 16 inch pepperoni pizza, just sticking it out on
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the windowsill on Venus. And I got nine seconds. Right,
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because of how high the temperature is and how dense
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the atmosphere is.
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That almost seems long.
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Well, so here's what I'm saying. So here's what I'm saying.
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That's what I'm saying. So at 100 times the atmospheric pressure,
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nearly 100 times, the molecules would be imparting heat to
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the pizza faster than they would on Earth just because
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of the air pressure.
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Forget the temperature.
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Just because of the air pressure. Add the higher temperature,
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900 degrees, it's like hotter than a pizza oven. This
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would cook the pizza just putting it on the windowsill.
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Nine seconds? I'm all proud of this. So I tweeted
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nine seconds. Okay. Then Nathan Myhrvold. called me out. This
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is a physicist turned chef. He took all the laboratory
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equipment that is in a chemist and physicist's lab and
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brought it into his kitchen. And so now when he
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cools food, he brings it down to like liquid nitrogen temperature.
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When he cuts food, he'll cut one, he'll use a microtome,
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which cuts one cell layered thick food that it evaporates
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on your tongue when it tastes.
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I'm not going to lie. He sounds like a dick.
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So he's got a whole.
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You're not running to that restaurant?
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Yeah, I'm just sorry. I'm not going to that restaurant.
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I'm not trying to eat at his place.
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You're endorsing the beer, not the microtome.
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Here's what I'm saying. So I thought I was badass
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coming up with the nine seconds. He said, you left
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out a factor in your calculation, and that is the radiative...
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the radiative effect of the atmosphere itself. Because the atmosphere
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is at a temperature, so it's not simply
the movement
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of the molecules of the air, it is radiating infrared
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photons at the pizza. In addition to the molecules hitting.
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This is why when someone walks between you and a fire,
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You instantly feel cooler.
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You're right, you're cooler.
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It's not that the air changed temperature in a fraction
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of a second, but photons, infrared photons, are getting blocked
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by the person who walked between you and the fire. Okay,
254
00:10:52.450 --> 00:10:54.889
so if you add that in, it takes two seconds
255
00:10:54.970 --> 00:10:55.570
to cook the pizza.
256
00:10:55.629 --> 00:10:57.690
All right, so now here's what I'm going to say.
257
00:10:57.809 --> 00:10:59.049
I was way off.
258
00:10:59.149 --> 00:11:00.169
I'm just going to say this.
259
00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:02.120
I was way off. I'm going to say this.
260
00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:03.399
Nine seconds is a piece of charcoal.
261
00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:06.960
All I'm going to say is your entire story just
262
00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:08.700
confirmed that He's a dick.
263
00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:10.179
What?
264
00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:12.659
No, no, what he did was.
265
00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.559
No, I'm sorry. No, I think that's actually fascinating.
266
00:11:16.019 --> 00:11:19.320
What he did was, I mean, what's fun, I love
267
00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:21.019
being corrected by more science.
268
00:11:21.899 --> 00:11:22.720
Oh, yo, that's nice.
269
00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:25.960
That is just, because I'll put in everything I know. Right.
270
00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.240
And obviously, I want what I did to be correct,
271
00:11:29.500 --> 00:11:32.139
even if it's incomplete. So my calculation is correct, but
272
00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:34.600
it's missing this other part that he put in, and
273
00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:35.340
so I was wrong.
274
00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:38.889
Well, see, that's what makes you a scientist and not
275
00:11:39.190 --> 00:11:39.830
a Republican.
276
00:11:40.429 --> 00:11:40.669
Sorry.
277
00:11:41.409 --> 00:11:43.690
And not a chef. I'm sorry. And not a dick.
278
00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:44.000
Right.
279
00:11:44.049 --> 00:11:44.840
And not a dick.
280
00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:47.480
And not a dick.
281
00:11:47.500 --> 00:11:47.600
Okay.
282
00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:51.799
All right, so listen. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. The
283
00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:52.960
first Republican president.
284
00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:53.340
Just FYI.
285
00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:55.179
Oh, they switched out.
286
00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.179
Exactly. I was going to say that.
287
00:11:57.220 --> 00:11:59.940
There's a history there, but I'm not going to go there.
288
00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:03.700
I'm not even going to go there. What does it matter, sir, Mr.
289
00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:07.340
Astronaut Dude, the only man who's like, been weightless orbiting
290
00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:07.879
the Earth.
291
00:12:08.059 --> 00:12:09.460
One of 547 people. We were talking about this earlier.
292
00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:11.240
Only 547 people have actually been to outer space. We're
293
00:12:11.259 --> 00:12:22.820
not talking about the pilots who get in the atmosphere.
294
00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:25.340
They're still in the atmosphere. You're talking about orbiting Earth.
295
00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:25.639
Orbiting Earth.
296
00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:26.820
Is it orbiting or is it just going to space?
297
00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:28.080
Well, no, going to space.
298
00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:28.960
X-15 guys.
299
00:12:29.379 --> 00:12:31.289
Well, the X-15 guys, no, they're part of it.
300
00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.419
And Scott Carpenter. Scott Carpenter. Suborbital.
301
00:12:35.730 --> 00:12:36.879
And even Alan Shepard.
302
00:12:37.590 --> 00:12:39.490
So those guys are part of it because they're out
303
00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:42.830
of the atmosphere. Out of the atmosphere, you've been in space.
304
00:12:42.850 --> 00:12:44.730
Yeah, but if Earth had no atmosphere... Wait, wait, wait.
305
00:12:44.889 --> 00:12:47.110
If you want to say being in space is simply being...
306
00:12:47.049 --> 00:12:49.110
We'll get back to you in a minute. Okay, if
307
00:12:49.149 --> 00:12:51.370
you want... You want to say that being in space
308
00:12:51.429 --> 00:12:52.769
means you left Earth's atmosphere.
309
00:12:52.789 --> 00:12:53.210
Okay.
310
00:12:53.850 --> 00:12:56.429
Defined as 100 kilometers up, 62 miles.
311
00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:56.830
Okay.
312
00:12:57.309 --> 00:12:59.909
In principle, I don't have a problem with that, except
313
00:13:00.590 --> 00:13:04.820
if the atmosphere were thinner, then being in space would
314
00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:06.779
be a little closer to Earth. If we had half
315
00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.000
the atmospheric pressure we do, then being in space would
316
00:13:09.019 --> 00:13:11.120
be at 50 kilometers, or just 30 miles up. If
317
00:13:11.179 --> 00:13:14.700
it had a tenth, then it would be six miles up.
318
00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:19.330
If we had a hundredth, it would be... Six tenths
319
00:13:19.389 --> 00:13:21.090
of one mile up. Did I do the math on that?
320
00:13:21.129 --> 00:13:21.269
Yeah.
321
00:13:21.289 --> 00:13:21.990
Close enough.
322
00:13:22.169 --> 00:13:25.230
Close enough. If we had no atmosphere... We'd be here
323
00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:28.529
right now. We'd all be astronauts.
324
00:13:28.750 --> 00:13:30.769
And if I had a million dollars and I was
325
00:13:30.809 --> 00:13:36.730
a better lover, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. Okay.
326
00:13:37.210 --> 00:13:38.429
Sounds like another show.
327
00:13:38.850 --> 00:13:40.750
Yeah, we reserve that.
328
00:13:40.769 --> 00:13:44.200
We need to
go there.
329
00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:48.539
Not right now. Not right now. So that's why I
330
00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:55.350
want to think of space as... those who have achieved orbit. Okay,
331
00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:59.649
do me a favor. Wait, wait, wait. Which is a
332
00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:03.230
definition independent of the atmospheric pressure here on this planet.
333
00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:07.090
Okay, that's actually a very good, that's a qualifying statement,
334
00:14:07.169 --> 00:14:07.720
and I like it.
335
00:14:08.509 --> 00:14:10.629
Do we have a minimum altitude to retain orbit?
336
00:14:11.850 --> 00:14:15.470
Well, you don't want, otherwise the atmosphere messes with it.
337
00:14:15.769 --> 00:14:17.929
So in principle, I don't know why you can't do
338
00:14:18.009 --> 00:14:19.059
orbit 100 miles up.
339
00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:19.750
What's that?
340
00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:22.009
Ooh!
341
00:14:22.580 --> 00:14:26.340
Ah, there's Carter Emmert. Carter Emmert letting us know the
342
00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:29.580
real deal. We're all in space. All the time.
343
00:14:29.659 --> 00:14:32.440
It might be the lowest altitude orbit we've had with
344
00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:34.179
the shuttle. It could be sustained.
345
00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:35.159
It's pretty low.
346
00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.159
So you are one of 533 people who have actually
347
00:14:37.220 --> 00:14:43.320
been in space, according to Neil deGrasse Tyson. One in 500.
348
00:14:43.299 --> 00:14:44.259
By my definition of space.
349
00:14:44.330 --> 00:14:46.210
It's an interesting definition. You're going to cut out a
350
00:14:46.230 --> 00:14:46.690
few people.
351
00:14:46.809 --> 00:14:48.389
I understand that, but it's tough. It's tough.
352
00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:49.009
Okay.
353
00:14:49.470 --> 00:14:52.769
So here's my point. So let me ask you, if
354
00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:56.789
you breed yeast in space, it's just breeding at zero G.
355
00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:00.860
Is there anything that you think would be different in space?
356
00:15:00.899 --> 00:15:02.120
Is there higher radiation?
357
00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:05.580
Yeah, but probably if they, it'd be interesting to see
358
00:15:05.620 --> 00:15:09.840
how they did this. If it was exposed, it probably
359
00:15:09.860 --> 00:15:11.940
was not outside. I don't know. I'm guessing it might
360
00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:13.899
have been on a space station flight. I don't know
361
00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:17.240
where they got this. So I don't know enough about yeast.
362
00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:20.429
Does yeast grow like a plant? Because I know we've
363
00:15:20.450 --> 00:15:22.049
grown plants. What the heck is yeast?
364
00:15:22.389 --> 00:15:24.169
Okay, so what is, you have no idea what you're
365
00:15:24.190 --> 00:15:24.669
talking about.
366
00:15:24.710 --> 00:15:26.330
No idea what I'm talking about.
367
00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:27.809
When you grow yeast, how do you grow yeast? It's
368
00:15:27.830 --> 00:15:28.169
like a.
369
00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:29.629
Well, let me ask you a different question.
370
00:15:29.649 --> 00:15:31.080
It's not a growing plant, is it?
371
00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:34.820
Well, you're the astrobiologist. Is it? It's a plant.
372
00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:37.019
Okay, so for plants, for example... We have 40% of
373
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.179
our DNA identical with that of yeast, don't we?
374
00:15:39.539 --> 00:15:40.220
But it grows.
375
00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:41.750
Is that for real? Yeah, yeah.
376
00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:43.730
So if it grows, what would be interesting is that...
377
00:15:43.629 --> 00:15:46.210
That's why yeast grows on our bodies. Does it have
378
00:15:46.250 --> 00:15:47.289
a heavy stalk or anything?
379
00:15:47.889 --> 00:15:49.850
No, it's physically very simple.
380
00:15:50.110 --> 00:15:52.429
Okay, so, but it grows. You'll see, what do you see?
381
00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:54.090
You see like a plant? Help me out here.
382
00:15:54.110 --> 00:15:56.029
It's just cells. It's just a mass of cells.
383
00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:57.649
So it's not really like a sunflower.
384
00:15:57.669 --> 00:15:58.990
Very little structure, no. Okay, right.
385
00:15:59.029 --> 00:15:59.990
So that's just simple.
386
00:16:00.230 --> 00:16:03.750
It's simple. So I don't think it would grow much differently.
387
00:16:03.789 --> 00:16:04.730
Yeast consumes sugar.
388
00:16:04.870 --> 00:16:08.009
It makes bread rise and women very uncomfortable.
389
00:16:08.169 --> 00:16:13.320
Yes. Somebody had to go there. You know what?
390
00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:16.659
You can boo me all you want, but I didn't
391
00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.460
say anything and you got exactly what I was talking about.
392
00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:22.259
So I would think it grows, I think it sounds
393
00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:24.419
like a little experiment that would grow the same way.
394
00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:27.870
If it was a plant, like growing a plant, like
395
00:16:27.889 --> 00:16:30.409
a sunflower. Sunflowers have been grown in space. So a
396
00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:33.169
sunflower on the earth has a big stalk. It's really,
397
00:16:33.350 --> 00:16:36.230
really large. It doesn't need all that strength in space.
398
00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:38.529
It doesn't need that to hold itself up. So it
399
00:16:38.549 --> 00:16:40.750
grows with a very thin stalk and it kind of
400
00:16:40.789 --> 00:16:44.009
winds itself around. It's very interesting. but I'm thinking the
401
00:16:44.029 --> 00:16:45.769
yeast is probably not much different.
402
00:16:45.889 --> 00:16:47.700
So it might be kind of a gimmick, but it's
403
00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:48.159
good beer.
404
00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:51.899
It's good beer.
405
00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:54.179
It would get more radiation. A little more radiation. So
406
00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.929
these are yeast that are... The yeast in here have
407
00:16:57.950 -->
00:17:01.360
their lives traceable to yeast... That were created in space.
408
00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:01.799
Yes.
409
00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:03.600
From yeast that was originally from Earth.
410
00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:05.519
Right. I think it's a novelty.
411
00:17:05.539 --> 00:17:07.200
It's a novelty. But it's not going to change it.
412
00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:08.779
Give it to them as a novelty, for sure. It's
413
00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:09.259
pretty cool.
414
00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:09.680
Yeah.
415
00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:11.829
I think they actually admit that it was a novelty
416
00:17:11.869 --> 00:17:14.970
because they say that the reason why they did the
417
00:17:16.210 --> 00:17:20.069
entire novelty, the experiment, whatever you want to call it,
418
00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:24.700
is because they want to show people that they're about exploration. Okay.
419
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:26.339
It's all about exploration.
420
00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:27.000
That's a good thing.
421
00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:30.339
So that was the entire marketing goal.
422
00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:32.240
Who are these guys? Are these friends of yours or something?
423
00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:33.430
No, I don't know them at all.
424
00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:33.900
Really?
425
00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:35.180
They just gave us free beer.
426
00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:36.119
Is that all it is?
427
00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.009
We're easy. We're in the street. We're really easy. We're
428
00:17:39.089 --> 00:17:39.950
free beer, man.
429
00:17:40.009 --> 00:17:40.250
Right.
430
00:17:40.369 --> 00:17:41.630
Free beer.
431
00:17:41.650 --> 00:17:44.450
We'll do a whole freaking show about your product. I
432
00:17:44.470 --> 00:17:47.829
just murdered my mother. He said, hey, drink this and
433
00:17:47.849 --> 00:17:49.009
you'll be in space, man.
434
00:17:53.009 --> 00:17:54.339
So this is the world premiere of.
435
00:17:56.289 --> 00:17:59.970
Of the Astrobiologist Blues, written by Chuck Nicewit.
436
00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:02.920
No one was supposed to know that part. Well, but I.
437
00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.240
Co-wrote it to some degree.
438
00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:05.740
Okay, good.
439
00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:06.769
So you messed around with it?
440
00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:07.099
That's great.
441
00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.480
I messed around with it, but really the inspiration is.
442
00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:10.740
Messed around by?
443
00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:13.559
Messed around by Dr. Funky Spoon.
444
00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:14.619
What's the name of this again?
445
00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:16.140
It's the Astrobiologist Blues.
446
00:18:16.180 --> 00:18:17.380
All right, let's do it.
447
00:18:17.569 --> 00:18:18.529
It's going to be interesting.
448
00:18:18.569 --> 00:18:19.920
We're going to do an astrobiology, I bet.
449
00:18:19.930 --> 00:18:21.230
It goes something like this.
450
00:18:34.779 --> 00:18:38.240
Everywhere that I go, it's dark.
451
00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:41.619
What do you do? Well, I look for life in
452
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:47.359
the cosmos. Maybe that life's looking for you. Are we alone?
453
00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.180
Maybe, but not for long.
454
00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:02.140
Well, I got those astrobiologist blues.
455
00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:03.559
That's why.
456
00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:17.369
When the aliens come Will they come in peace.
457
00:19:18.450 --> 00:19:21.670
Or will they make us their pets And put.
458
00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:25.460
Us all on a leash Oh, are we alone Maybe,
459
00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:26.519
but not for long.
460
00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:40.019
And that's why I sing this song.
461
00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:53.259
Gotta take care of this planet. Yes, sir. Cause it's
462
00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:54.920
all we got. Yes, sir.
463
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:55.480
Talk to me.
464
00:19:56.140 --> 00:19:57.549
No, we can't move to Venus.
465
00:19:57.849 --> 00:20:03.230
Because you know it's too damn hot. Why are we alone?
466
00:20:03.250 --> 00:20:04.849
Good piece of the old piece.
467
00:20:05.589 --> 00:20:08.130
I can't tell you without a doubt.
468
00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:13.950
How are you going to tell me?
469
00:20:13.990 --> 00:20:19.829
Well, I don't know, but I'll tell you how we're
470
00:20:19.869 --> 00:20:21.190
going to find out.
471
00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:24.599
Tell you how we're going to find out.
472
00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:28.849
Well, we've got to explore all the potentially habitable planets
473
00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:30.410
in the solar system, anywhere where there.
474
00:20:30.349 --> 00:20:33.029
Is or was liquid water, energy, organic molecules.
475
00:20:33.309 --> 00:20:35.890
This includes the clouds of Venus, the subsurface of Mars,
476
00:20:35.910 --> 00:20:38.990
the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's moon Titan and Enceladus,
477
00:20:39.329 --> 00:20:41.519
and even a possible interior ocean of Pluto.
478
00:20:42.230 --> 00:20:44.579
Meanwhile, we need to search.
479
00:20:45.460 --> 00:20:45.539
A.
480
00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:48.640
Hundred billion exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy for science
481
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.640
of life. In order to do this, we need to
482
00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:54.180
develop the next generation of space telescopes and spectrometers so
483
00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:57.109
we can examine those alien atmospheres and search for the
484
00:20:57.130 --> 00:21:00.130
chemistry produced by life forms interacting with their environments.
485
00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:01.990
These new instruments will not.
486
00:21:01.849 --> 00:21:05.210
Be inexpensive, but they may allow us to finally answer
487
00:21:05.509 --> 00:21:09.299
the age-old haunting question, are we alone? So in short, kids,
488
00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:11.019
if you want to know if there are any aliens,
489
00:21:11.059 --> 00:21:13.420
write to your congressperson and tell them to increase funding
490
00:21:13.460 --> 00:21:14.500
for
astrobiology.
491
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:18.000
Thank you. Dang.
492
00:21:18.059 --> 00:21:25.089
That was great, man. Oh, yeah, man. That was awesome.
493
00:21:25.190 --> 00:21:30.609
You wrote all that. No, let me tell you something.
494
00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:31.470
Who wrote that thing?
495
00:21:31.630 --> 00:21:34.369
I am pretty sure that everyone can tell exactly which
496
00:21:34.430 --> 00:21:39.240
part I wrote. And which part I didn't.
497
00:21:39.259 --> 00:21:40.579
That was awesome.
498
00:21:40.619 --> 00:21:42.559
You've been rehearsing a lot or what?
499
00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:43.079
Oh, yeah.
500
00:21:43.180 --> 00:21:43.660
Come on.
501
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:46.799
That's a funky spoon!
502
00:21:46.839 --> 00:21:48.400
That's a funky spoon!
503
00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:49.140
And Chuck Nice.
504
00:21:49.380 --> 00:21:50.539
Yo, good shit, man.
505
00:21:50.579 --> 00:21:51.440
That's awesome.
506
00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:53.259
My man, that was fantastic.
507
00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:55.380
This is a lot of fun.
508
00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:58.579
You know what this one does? All Stars is all about.
509
00:21:58.599 --> 00:21:59.740
A lot of fun.
510
00:21:59.829 --> 00:22:01.420
And Mike, thanks for coming over. You were at the
511
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:02.089
Intrepid earlier.
512
00:22:02.109 --> 00:22:02.930
I was. I had an event.
513
00:22:02.970 --> 00:22:04.450
We have to share you with your job.
514
00:22:04.849 --> 00:22:05.990
Every once in a while, you got to do something else.
515
00:22:06.009 --> 00:22:07.529
But I'm really glad I got to be here.
516
00:22:08.029 --> 00:22:11.549
Intrepid, the World War II aircraft carrier, parked. On the
517
00:22:11.589 --> 00:22:13.430
side of Manhattan that has the Enterprise.
518
00:22:13.450 --> 00:22:16.269
The Enterprise shuttle is there. A lot of great other
519
00:22:16.329 --> 00:22:19.680
things going on. I was over there early, but really
520
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:21.480
happy I got a chance to be here and see
521
00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:21.859
you guys.
522
00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:22.680
Thanks for coming over.
523
00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:23.680
Thanks for having me.
524
00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:26.460
And just so people remember, you were the first person
525
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:27.180
to tweet from space.
526
00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:28.990
I was. Yeah. I was.
527
00:22:30.109 --> 00:22:33.390
And so in 1969, Neil Armstrong said one small step
528
00:22:33.410 --> 00:22:35.730
for man. And your first tweet from space was what?
529
00:22:35.930 --> 00:22:36.450
Not as good.
530
00:22:36.470 --> 00:22:42.549
They actually made fun of me on Saturday Night Live.
531
00:22:42.630 --> 00:22:43.069
Oh, really?
532
00:22:43.109 --> 00:22:47.059
Because I said launch was awesome. That's what you said?
533
00:22:47.259 --> 00:22:49.000
I said launch, and I said some other things too,
534
00:22:49.019 --> 00:22:51.140
but on Saturday Night Live, that weekend while I was
535
00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:51.680
in space.
536
00:22:51.900 --> 00:22:52.559
Wait, wait, wait.
537
00:22:52.619 --> 00:22:55.859
You're on a $ 300 million spaceship in orbit that taxpayers
538
00:22:55.900 --> 00:22:57.400
put you up there, and you pull out a... That's
539
00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:58.160
what it cost?
540
00:22:59.220 --> 00:22:59.420
Jesus.
541
00:22:59.819 --> 00:23:01.640
The first ever historic tweet.
542
00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:06.730
I just needed a ride. I just needed a ride.
543
00:23:06.769 --> 00:23:09.730
So you said the launch was awesome. I said launch
544
00:23:09.769 --> 00:23:14.160
was awesome. I'm feeling great. the adventure of a lifetime
545
00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:16.119
has begun. I wanted the people of Earth to know
546
00:23:16.140 --> 00:23:16.880
I was feeling great.
547
00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:19.460
By the way, that is not a bad tweet. That's
548
00:23:19.500 --> 00:23:19.690
not bad.
549
00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:20.750
It wasn't bad, but they made fun of it.
550
00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:22.460
It was good. They made fun of it. They go,
551
00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:26.099
in 40 years, it was his 40th anniversary, you hosted
552
00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:28.359
the celebration we had in Washington.
553
00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:28.819
Yes, yes.
554
00:23:28.839 --> 00:23:29.440
That was awesome.
555
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:31.240
And all those guys were alive back then. It's the
556
00:23:31.259 --> 00:23:33.759
Good War Hazy Center. No, actually, I'm thinking of the
557
00:23:33.779 --> 00:23:34.789
one at the main museum.
558
00:23:34.809 --> 00:23:35.490
Wait a minute.
559
00:23:35.509 --> 00:23:37.549
It was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo.
560
00:23:37.690 --> 00:23:40.170
I was like MC of that event. It was awesome.
561
00:23:40.549 --> 00:23:42.869
We had just come back. They said for 40 years
562
00:23:42.890 --> 00:23:45.259
we've gone from, we got to stop? Are we recording anymore?
563
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:47.039
No, we're still recording.
564
00:23:47.059 --> 00:23:49.339
We've gone from one small step from man to one
565
00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:50.589
giant leap from mankind. And this was Leap Day.
566
00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:54.960
By the way so it's like a giant leap right
567
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.579
now where we're changing and we've gone in 40 years
568
00:23:57.619 --> 00:23:59.940
ago from that to launch was awesome if this guy
569
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.940
ever meets aliens this is how we'll find out about
570
00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:06.599
it geez dudes look aliens they made fun.
571
00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:09.940
Of me so anyway but here's my kids started paying
572
00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:11.480
attention to the flight so it was good no it
573
00:24:11.509 --> 00:24:12.190
wasn't bad.
574
00:24:12.029 --> 00:24:14.140
So now here's what I want to know because you
575
00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:18.170
are in this club of people who are part of
576
00:24:18.190 --> 00:24:18.509
this we're.
577
00:24:18.529 --> 00:24:22.410
Very fortunate people we're very fortunate people a very esoteric
578
00:24:22.609 --> 00:24:29.740
group That quote, one small step for man, one giant
579
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:35.119
leap for mankind, was that indeed pre-written?
580
00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:38.200
I asked him that. I asked him that. I asked
581
00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.980
the man that. I just want to know. I asked him.
582
00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:42.880
What's that? Neil Armstrong.
583
00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:43.180
The man.
584
00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:45.539
The first man on the moon. And he came and
585
00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:48.279
spoke to our astronaut class our first week at NASA.
586
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:48.640
Yes.
587
00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:52.079
And it just so happened around the little buffet thing
588
00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:54.980
we had there, he's standing next to me, my big hero.
589
00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:55.740
By accident.
590
00:24:55.779 --> 00:24:56.339
Yeah, right.
591
00:24:56.359 --> 00:24:56.900
By accident.
592
00:24:56.920 --> 00:24:57.500
Yeah.
593
00:24:57.720 --> 00:24:59.279
But he's standing next to me. And I asked him
594
00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:01.700
about that. When did you think? Because I thought, did
595
00:25:02.029 --> 00:25:03.839
you hire a publicist? When did you come up? He
596
00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:06.519
said he didn't think about it until after the landing
597
00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:09.069
because he wasn't sure if they were going to make it.
598
00:25:09.500 --> 00:25:13.069
And he didn't want to think about anything before the landing.
599
00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:15.569
And he worried about that. He thought about that. after
600
00:25:15.630 --> 00:25:18.049
they landed. Think about that. Those guys were not sure
601
00:25:18.069 --> 00:25:19.190
they were going to make it. In fact, the first
602
00:25:19.210 --> 00:25:21.759
three Apollos, right, Neil? The first three were all the
603
00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:23.720
same flight because they didn't know if the first guys
604
00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:25.700
were going to make it. So once they made it,
605
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:27.339
then Apollo 12, they came up with a different.
606
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:28.799
So he came up with that after they landed before
607
00:25:28.819 --> 00:25:29.740
he stepped out. On the moon.
608
00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:31.319
On the moon, he came up with that. He wasn't
609
00:25:31.339 --> 00:25:34.329
going to think about anything except for the landing.
610
00:25:34.369 --> 00:25:34.960
That's badass.
611
00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:35.950
That is badass.
612
00:25:35.990 --> 00:25:38.589
That's badass. I'm impressed. I mean, they barely made it
613
00:25:38.650 --> 00:25:39.210
as it was, right?
614
00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:41.269
One of the most amazing guys ever. He really is.
615
00:25:41.309 --> 00:25:44.500
Just an amazing pilot. Amazing person.
616
00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:47.220
Anyway, so did you ask me that? Did I tell
617
00:25:47.299 --> 00:25:49.160
you that? Did you know him?
618
00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:53.220
I mean, maybe we were like that. You did their
619
00:25:53.259 --> 00:25:54.509
big 40th celebration.
620
00:25:54.529 --> 00:25:57.150
Yeah, yeah. Not that long after. Not that long after.
621
00:25:57.490 --> 00:26:00.029
I first met him in 1973.
622
00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:00.430
Wow.
623
00:26:00.470 --> 00:26:01.369
Where were you?
624
00:26:01.390 --> 00:26:04.359
You were what? Now you're in high school, man. Now
625
00:26:04.410 --> 00:26:05.160
you want to know.
626
00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:09.910
You were like a little kid. He's the man. Neil Armstrong,
627
00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:10.869
Neil deGrasse Tyson.
628
00:26:11.289 --> 00:26:14.650
I met him. My name's Neil, too. I met him
629
00:26:14.789 --> 00:26:21.329
at the bar of the SS Canberra, the fourth largest
630
00:26:21.450 --> 00:26:26.410
ocean liner in the world, which was retooled to become
631
00:26:26.529 --> 00:26:31.410
a floating science laboratory to go from New York to
632
00:26:31.430 --> 00:26:34.279
the coast of Northwest Africa to observe on June 30th
633
00:26:35.470 --> 00:26:37.849
A seven-minute long total solar eclipse.
634
00:26:38.150 --> 00:26:38.609
Wow.
635
00:26:38.829 --> 00:26:46.579
I was on that ship at age 43. I was 14.
636
00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:48.859
I lied and told everyone I was 16. And I
637
00:26:48.900 --> 00:26:51.380
had my own telescope. By yourself? By myself. Well, there
638
00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:53.359
was 1,800 other people. But not your parents. No, my
639
00:26:53.420 --> 00:26:53.799
parents were there.
640
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:54.319
I was alone.
641
00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:55.420
Wow. I was alone.
642
00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:58.720
And I had my own telescope. And during the eclipse,
643
00:26:58.819 --> 00:27:02.049
it is a forest of telescope tripods. on the deck
644
00:27:02.329 --> 00:27:04.849
after they'd taken off all the shuffle boards and everything,
645
00:27:05.190 --> 00:27:07.930
and the lawn chairs and everything, or whatever, the deck chairs.
646
00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:11.339
And so he was one of the sort of celebrities
647
00:27:11.380 --> 00:27:14.460
who got onto the ship. And I hadn't fully appreciated,
648
00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:18.140
he had just frickin', like the Apollo thing had just
649
00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:21.799
ended in 1972. And so, but he was there, no
650
00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:24.299
one was hounding him or anything. And I got him
651
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:28.369
to sign my little, you know, the brochure for the trip.
652
00:27:28.950 --> 00:27:29.769
And so that's what it was.
653
00:27:30.450 --> 00:27:31.190
Yeah, that's so cool.
654
00:27:31.210 --> 00:27:32.009
Amazing, amazing person.
655
00:27:32.029 --> 00:27:34.690
And so it turns out his son, who's my age,
656
00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:36.170
was on the ship at the time.
657
00:27:36.190 --> 00:27:36.569
Oh, cool.
658
00:27:36.609 -->
00:27:39.759
Now I'm friends with his son. So yeah, so I
659
00:27:39.799 --> 00:27:42.099
had a few, I mean, we met a few times.
660
00:27:42.180 --> 00:27:44.940
I mean, so... I'm exaggerating when I say we were
661
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:45.920
like that. We were really like that.
662
00:27:45.980 --> 00:27:48.359
No, but still, I mean, getting an encounter with him
663
00:27:48.380 --> 00:27:49.619
at that sort of age.
664
00:27:49.740 --> 00:27:49.839
Yeah.
665
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:51.940
And did that inspire you in some way? No, I
666
00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:52.400
was already.
667
00:27:52.460 --> 00:27:54.130
I'm on a freaking Eclipse cruise.
668
00:27:54.150 --> 00:27:55.589
He's on a freaking cruise with a telescope.
669
00:27:55.609 --> 00:27:57.549
How am I going to be interested in the universe?
670
00:27:57.670 --> 00:27:59.529
I mean, even if I'm on a cruise at 14. Well,
671
00:27:59.549 --> 00:28:00.430
let me ask you then.
672
00:28:00.450 --> 00:28:05.069
When exactly did? I want to know, okay? Because the
673
00:28:05.109 --> 00:28:07.029
way I, you know, you and I did a thing
674
00:28:07.109 --> 00:28:10.029
on CBS this morning, and I said the reason why
675
00:28:10.049 --> 00:28:14.319
I like Neil deGrasse Tyson is because He talks about
676
00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:18.859
the universe the way I talk about sex. And I'm serious.
677
00:28:19.539 --> 00:28:20.299
I'm not even joking.
678
00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:22.900
So what... You have to explain.
679
00:28:23.079 --> 00:28:24.130
You have to explain it.
680
00:28:24.140 --> 00:28:26.589
Because I was once on Jon Stewart, and I was
681
00:28:26.609 --> 00:28:29.150
talking about Mars, and I was talking about at some
682
00:28:29.190 --> 00:28:32.490
time in its past, it was clearly sort of wet
683
00:28:32.529 --> 00:28:34.950
and fertile and might have had life. I'm using these terms.
684
00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:36.819
And then Jon Stewart said, why is it that when
685
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:38.380
you talk about the universe, I get horny?
686
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:38.680
Right.
687
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:42.119
Exactly. Is that what's happening?
688
00:28:42.140 --> 00:28:42.839
Well, I don't know.
689
00:28:42.859 --> 00:28:47.819
If I'm getting horny, then again, honestly, yeah, that's a
690
00:28:47.859 --> 00:28:55.220
good deal. So what exactly was the moment, if you
691
00:28:55.259 --> 00:28:58.140
can actually call it down to a moment?
692
00:28:58.180 --> 00:28:59.339
Oh, yeah.
693
00:28:59.380 --> 00:29:00.779
And I want to know this from each one of you.
694
00:29:01.380 --> 00:29:05.529
What exactly was the moment For you, personally, when you knew,
695
00:29:05.950 --> 00:29:07.410
my God, this is it.
696
00:29:07.609 --> 00:29:13.250
That's not exactly what I said at the time, but yes. Okay.
697
00:29:13.269 --> 00:29:15.609
I was just going to say, my God. We're not
698
00:29:15.650 --> 00:29:16.690
the worst.
699
00:29:16.769 --> 00:29:17.230
I got it.
700
00:29:17.410 --> 00:29:19.490
I was nine years old. What did you say? I
701
00:29:19.509 --> 00:29:22.029
was nine, and I didn't say anything because I was
702
00:29:22.109 --> 00:29:26.099
in the darkened silence of the Hayden Planetarium.
703
00:29:26.759 --> 00:29:27.420
Wow.
704
00:29:27.460 --> 00:29:28.599
The show was unfolding.
705
00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:29.599
Wow.
706
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.460
The lights dimmed. The stars came out. and I thought
707
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:37.380
it was a hoax. I had seen all 12 stars
708
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:39.759
from the Bronx, where I grew up, and there was
709
00:29:39.779 --> 00:29:42.079
way too many stars to match up. It's a nice
710
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:45.519
hoax though, I'll go along with it. And at that moment,
711
00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:50.180
I was star struck. I have no other way to
712
00:29:50.220 --> 00:29:52.900
say it. And I said, is this a thing? One
713
00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:56.980
could do this? And it would take two years? By
714
00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:02.359
age 11! I had an answer to that question that
715
00:30:02.420 --> 00:30:06.250
adults always ask children. That annoying question. What do you
716
00:30:06.289 --> 00:30:07.579
want to be when you grow up?
717
00:30:07.589 --> 00:30:07.910
Oh, yeah.
718
00:30:08.150 --> 00:30:10.349
I said astrophysicist. That kind of shut him up like that.
719
00:30:10.529 --> 00:30:10.670
Right?
720
00:30:10.750 --> 00:30:12.930
Because it's usually, I want to be a doctor. Oh,
721
00:30:12.990 --> 00:30:15.029
Aunt Matilda's a doctor. You know, I say an astrophysicist.
722
00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:17.640
Nobody knows. That was it. That was it. That was
723
00:30:17.660 --> 00:30:22.500
anyone in the family. So, I think the universe chose me.
724
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:31.029
Because I was helpless in the presence of this... silent darkness.
725
00:30:32.210 --> 00:30:37.059
The universe grabbed me and I've known no other pursuit since.
726
00:30:37.690 --> 00:30:39.000
You know what, if I was 11 years old... You're
727
00:30:39.019 --> 00:30:40.920
back there now. All I'm going to say is this.
728
00:30:40.940 --> 00:30:41.400
This is amazing.
729
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:43.660
If I was 11 years old and the universe grabbed me,
730
00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:50.829
I would have called child food. Show me another doll
731
00:30:50.849 --> 00:30:55.450
with a bad universe. That's no good. So now wait.
732
00:30:56.059 --> 00:31:00.299
So now I'm director of the place. It's amazing. It
733
00:31:00.339 --> 00:31:02.440
plays well in small towns. New York people don't care.
734
00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:03.799
That's not true.
735
00:31:03.859 --> 00:31:04.299
I say.
736
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:04.880
I was a kid.
737
00:31:04.920 --> 00:31:05.240
I was there.
738
00:31:05.319 --> 00:31:06.289
Everyone went to New York.
739
00:31:06.329 --> 00:31:07.450
Now you're wrong.
740
00:31:07.490 --> 00:31:07.750
You're wrong.
741
00:31:07.769 -->
00:31:09.390
I don't give a crap. I'm glad I got to
742
00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:10.009
hear the story.
743
00:31:10.029 --> 00:31:12.230
Wait a minute. That's a great story. That is awesome.
744
00:31:12.349 --> 00:31:13.589
All right. So now wait a minute. We've got two
745
00:31:13.609 --> 00:31:15.150
more stories. We've got two more stories. Then we're going
746
00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:17.779
to wrap it up. But seriously, because that was... That
747
00:31:17.819 --> 00:31:20.599
was fantastic. And I think it's really great for people
748
00:31:20.619 --> 00:31:24.519
to hear the fact that, and I believe this, everyone
749
00:31:24.599 --> 00:31:28.980
knows the way you knew. Everyone knows. It's just that
750
00:31:29.299 --> 00:31:32.559
something seminal must happen to push you.
751
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:33.220
In that direction.
752
00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:36.299
But everyone knows. And what normally happens is you tell
753
00:31:36.339 --> 00:31:42.299
somebody and they go, man, you have to.
754
00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:43.839
So now just to put closure on this.
755
00:31:43.880 --> 00:31:44.019
Okay.
756
00:31:46.440 --> 00:31:48.970
Even though my last sentence sounded like closure, I can
757
00:31:49.009 --> 00:31:52.730
close it even better. Okay. To this day, every day
758
00:31:52.750 --> 00:31:57.670
I walk into my office, I have a duty and
759
00:31:57.690 --> 00:32:00.730
an obligation. And it is my honor to have both
760
00:32:00.769 --> 00:32:06.039
of those operating simultaneously to serve the next generation who
761
00:32:06.059 --> 00:32:09.059
walked through those doors, the way the educators and scientists
762
00:32:09.500 --> 00:32:10.000
served me.
763
00:32:10.180 --> 00:32:10.519
Nice.
764
00:32:10.759 --> 00:32:11.200
Oh man.
765
00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:13.779
Yo man, that's, Yeah, that's a nice button to put
766
00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:14.059
on that.
767
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:14.799
That's what I'm saying.
768
00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:15.569
Well, that's a mission.
769
00:32:15.589 --> 00:32:16.109
That's all I'm saying.
770
00:32:16.210 --> 00:32:19.130
So what you're saying is the inspiration drove you to
771
00:32:19.170 --> 00:32:21.490
a mission. I mean, seriously. That's all I'm saying. That's
772
00:32:21.509 --> 00:32:21.910
what happened.
773
00:32:21.970 --> 00:32:22.369
That's amazing.
774
00:32:22.390 --> 00:32:25.630
That's all I'm saying. All right, so now, okay.
775
00:32:25.690 --> 00:32:29.809
By the way, my story is not uncommon among my colleagues. FYI.
776
00:32:29.869 --> 00:32:33.230
We're going to find that out right now. That's why
777
00:32:33.289 --> 00:32:35.859
you have amateur astronomy groups that have kids that are
778
00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:39.119
part of it. Are there amateur lawyer groups? I don't
779
00:32:39.140 --> 00:32:40.539
think so. Amateur neurosurgeons?
780
00:32:40.819 --> 00:32:40.890
No.
781
00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:41.140
No.
782
00:32:42.460 --> 00:32:45.240
Amateur astronomy are like experts in the night sky and
783
00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:47.160
it's all ages and we're all part of it. Am
784
00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:48.759
I lying? I'm not dying.
785
00:32:48.779 --> 00:32:52.099
But this is my point. What you just said right there,
786
00:32:52.339 --> 00:32:56.980
the fact is we're sitting here with, there are four
787
00:32:57.019 --> 00:33:03.559
people here, three of us have extraordinary jobs. And we
788
00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:05.420
know who they are.
789
00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:07.779
Who are you leaving out, man?
790
00:33:07.819 --> 00:33:09.059
Hey, my job's not so bad either.
791
00:33:09.140 --> 00:33:10.240
And we know who you are.
792
00:33:10.259 --> 00:33:11.019
Who are you leaving out?
793
00:33:11.079 --> 00:33:13.529
You're not leaving out you, are you?
794
00:33:13.549 --> 00:33:15.650
Three of us have extraordinary jobs. So now what I
795
00:33:15.640 --> 00:33:15.960
want to know.
796
00:33:16.009 --> 00:33:17.089
Just because I don't live in New York?
797
00:33:17.809 --> 00:33:24.150
So here's my point. So, boom, that's one story. Astronaut, astrobiologist.
798
00:33:24.809 --> 00:33:25.450
How did that happen?
799
00:33:25.470 --> 00:33:28.450
Comedian. I mean, but you followed a dream too, man.
800
00:33:28.809 --> 00:33:29.150
You know what?
801
00:33:29.190 --> 00:33:30.089
It was a little different.
802
00:33:30.210 --> 00:33:32.490
Chuck, I don't want to live in a world, certainly
803
00:33:32.529 --> 00:33:36.890
not a country, where there aren't comedians who have committed
804
00:33:36.910 --> 00:33:38.549
their lives to making others laugh.
805
00:33:39.569 --> 00:33:43.609
That makes one of us. There we go. I'm joking.
806
00:33:44.150 --> 00:33:44.410
Okay.
807
00:33:44.769 --> 00:33:48.069
So, no, I want to know this because it's important. Astronaut,
808
00:33:48.230 --> 00:33:51.750
how did that journey happen?
809
00:33:51.809 --> 00:33:54.339
I was six years old when they walked on the moon.
810
00:33:55.329 --> 00:33:55.890
Almost seven.
811
00:33:56.049 --> 00:33:57.089
There you go.
812
00:33:57.150 --> 00:33:59.589
July 20th, 1969. To build up to that, I can
813
00:33:59.609 --> 00:34:03.690
remember Apollo 10 going down low and not landing on
814
00:34:03.710 --> 00:34:05.519
the moon. But Apollo 11.
815
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:10.519
Watch out. That deserves some statement. Apollo 10 went to
816
00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:11.019
the moon.
817
00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:11.360
Correct.
818
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:17.409
Deployed the lunar module. The lunar module went down towards
819
00:34:17.469 --> 00:34:20.369
the surface, hovered, and then went back up and came
820
00:34:20.389 --> 00:34:20.909
back to Earth.
821
00:34:21.210 --> 00:34:21.349
Right.
822
00:34:21.849 --> 00:34:23.489
And I would have said, you know what I would
823
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:23.739
have done?
824
00:34:24.139 --> 00:34:24.519
Landed.
825
00:34:24.559 --> 00:34:25.699
I said, Houston, I
can't hear you.
826
00:34:26.429 --> 00:34:26.730
Houston.
827
00:34:28.059 --> 00:34:30.119
Houston, okay, we should land, right?
828
00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:30.659
Right.
829
00:34:30.780 --> 00:34:32.199
See, I don't know that I would have been a
830
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:34.280
good law-abiding astronaut.
831
00:34:34.340 --> 00:34:36.300
You think they put fuel in the ascent stage on
832
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:39.179
that one? You guys are stuck there now.
833
00:34:39.380 --> 00:34:41.250
That was a very good astronaut joke.
834
00:34:41.289 --> 00:34:41.849
Yeah, it was.
835
00:34:41.889 --> 00:34:42.929
You know what I mean?
836
00:34:42.969 --> 00:34:46.090
Fuel in the ascent stage. I wish we had time.
837
00:34:46.170 --> 00:34:47.590
You've got to get off the moon.
838
00:34:47.610 --> 00:34:48.809
That was a very good ascent.
839
00:34:48.829 --> 00:34:50.429
This is part of the deal with Neil Armstrong. They
840
00:34:50.469 --> 00:34:53.239
had to come back. They landed. Same thing with Mars.
841
00:34:53.260 --> 00:34:56.199
You've already got to come back. Coming back is another launch.
842
00:34:56.579 --> 00:34:59.139
Something else will go wrong. Engine don't work, you're in trouble.
843
00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:02.500
So anyway, yeah, so Apollo 10 and Apollo 8 when
844
00:35:02.519 --> 00:35:05.099
they first orbited the moon, Apollo 10 when they almost landed.
845
00:35:05.579 --> 00:35:07.099
But there was no plan to do that. And then
846
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:09.579
Apollo 11 was the big mission. And I remember seeing
847
00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:12.409
that on my TV set and looking outside in my
848
00:35:12.469 --> 00:35:14.550
front yard and looking at them. I mean, when you
849
00:35:14.570 --> 00:35:16.769
saw it on TV, Neil, you can remember this. You
850
00:35:16.789 --> 00:35:18.829
guys may be too young for this. But when you
851
00:35:18.889 --> 00:35:20.469
saw that, when you saw that on TV and you
852
00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:21.570
walk outside.
853
00:35:21.590 --> 00:35:22.650
12-inch black and white TV.
854
00:35:22.710 --> 00:35:25.150
Little black and white TV. Black and white TVs, right?
855
00:35:25.170 --> 00:35:27.400
That's what it was. And it was at, I guess
856
00:35:27.679 --> 00:35:31.460
the EVA was probably around 930. It was nighttime, close
857
00:35:31.480 --> 00:35:31.719
to bedtime.
858
00:35:31.739 --> 00:35:33.159
Extra vehicular activity.
859
00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:34.820
The space, the moonwalk.
860
00:35:34.840 --> 00:35:38.329
The moonwalk, thank you. It's the moonwalk that precedes Michael
861
00:35:38.369 --> 00:35:39.190
Jackson's moonwalk.
862
00:35:39.269 --> 00:35:39.489
Right.
863
00:35:39.869 --> 00:35:43.070
And I've seen you do the other moonwalk at that
864
00:35:43.130 --> 00:35:43.710
moon ceremony.
865
00:35:43.730 --> 00:35:45.530
I had 12 moonwalkers in the audience.
866
00:35:45.570 --> 00:35:48.429
It was really good. I had all 12 of them there.
867
00:35:48.929 --> 00:35:51.099
I had almost all the living ones were there.
868
00:35:51.179 --> 00:35:51.340
Yeah.
869
00:35:52.210 --> 00:35:56.280
But I remember going outside and looking at the moon
870
00:35:56.440 --> 00:35:57.860
and saying, there are people up there.
871
00:35:58.019 --> 00:35:58.420
Nice.
872
00:35:58.579 --> 00:35:59.880
And I love those guys.
873
00:35:59.900 --> 00:36:00.940
Oh, my God.
874
00:36:00.980 --> 00:36:04.940
Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin and all
875
00:36:04.980 --> 00:36:07.809
those astronauts in that era were my heroes. And I said,
876
00:36:07.849 --> 00:36:09.969
I want to be one of those guys. Nice. So
877
00:36:09.989 --> 00:36:13.889
it's interesting. I remember coming to the Hayden Planetarium as
878
00:36:13.909 --> 00:36:15.989
well when I was a little kid. My parents taking
879
00:36:16.010 --> 00:36:17.840
me there. I grew up in Long Island. But for me,
880
00:36:17.860 --> 00:36:20.219
I wanted to be one of those people. I wanted
881
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:21.659
to be one of those guys. And I had no
882
00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:23.230
idea how that was going to happen. I was just
883
00:36:23.269 --> 00:36:25.650
a little kid on Long Island. No idea. But I
884
00:36:25.690 --> 00:36:26.670
thought they were it.
885
00:36:26.690 --> 00:36:30.829
That's fantastic. All right. This is our last story.
886
00:36:30.969 --> 00:36:31.530
Funky Spoon.
887
00:36:31.829 --> 00:36:34.639
Funky Spoon. Astrobiologist.
888
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:41.780
Yeah, well, similar to what Mike said, actually, my earliest
889
00:36:41.860 --> 00:36:45.550
vivid memory Actually, I mean, I have other early memories,
890
00:36:45.610 --> 00:36:48.389
but my earliest really vivid memory is.
891
00:36:48.349 --> 00:36:49.610
Apollo 11 landing.
892
00:36:49.710 --> 00:36:51.610
And my parents let me stay up real late, which
893
00:36:51.670 --> 00:36:55.030
probably was partly half of what was as exciting. But
894
00:36:56.090 --> 00:36:59.760
the black and white TV and seeing these guys walking
895
00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:02.679
on the moon, that to me was, I think, really
896
00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:05.320
a life changing experience. It was so exciting and it
897
00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:10.480
was real. It wasn't fiction. It was this adventurous, amazing experience.
898
00:37:11.210 --> 00:37:13.909
a groundbreaking journey. And even at that, at that age,
899
00:37:14.170 --> 00:37:16.369
I was in fourth grade, um, I guess. And, and,
900
00:37:16.530 --> 00:37:19.090
and I really just, my mind was blown by that.
901
00:37:19.110 --> 00:37:22.550
I mean, I'm definitely a child of Apollo and that
902
00:37:22.730 --> 00:37:24.909
I think set me on my life course. I became
903
00:37:24.989 --> 00:37:27.889
really caught up in the romance of space exploration. I
904
00:37:28.230 --> 00:37:32.340
was really enthralled by the early planetary missions, the first
905
00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:37.480
missions to Venus, the first
orbiters on Mars, seeing those
906
00:37:37.539 --> 00:37:40.570
pictures come back. Um, Now, I had kind of an
907
00:37:40.630 --> 00:37:45.949
unusual upbringing. Actually, my dad's best friend when I was
908
00:37:45.969 --> 00:37:50.170
a kid was Carl Sagan. And so Uncle Carl... Wait
909
00:37:50.230 --> 00:37:50.530
a minute.
910
00:37:50.769 --> 00:37:50.969
Yeah.
911
00:37:50.989 --> 00:37:52.989
Your dad's best friend was Carl Sagan?
912
00:37:53.090 --> 00:37:55.489
Yeah, they were both Harvard professors.
913
00:37:55.989 --> 00:37:58.800
Wait a minute. You started this story with a moon landing?
914
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:01.639
Well, no, it started from the moon landing.
915
00:38:01.820 --> 00:38:05.300
But then the fact that Uncle Carl was involved in
916
00:38:05.340 --> 00:38:05.760
these really.
917
00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:08.179
This was before he was famous. He was Uncle Carl,
918
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:09.460
this really cool guy, you know?
919
00:38:10.099 --> 00:38:13.900
And he would come over with the latest pictures of
920
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:15.900
Mariner 9.
921
00:38:15.900 --> 00:38:18.920
Billions and billions of nephews. Exactly.
922
00:38:20.090 --> 00:38:23.650
And he was doing this really cool stuff. And then
923
00:38:24.050 --> 00:38:26.070
also I got really into science fiction. And I think
924
00:38:26.110 --> 00:38:28.300
in my young mind, I didn't really differentiate between 2001 and.
925
00:38:30.889 --> 00:38:33.599
You know, the space fiction and the real space stuff.
926
00:38:33.619 --> 00:38:35.940
It was all just exciting, romantic stuff, and it was
927
00:38:35.960 --> 00:38:36.519
the future.
928
00:38:36.519 --> 00:38:37.699
2001, A Space Odyssey, the film.
929
00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:38.340
The film.
930
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:39.960
It was all what we were going to be doing
931
00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:41.739
in the future, and we were going to be, you know,
932
00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:43.199
that was what it was going to be like. And
933
00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:45.920
now here we are in the future, and we're not
934
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:49.289
sending people to Jupiter yet, but I've been able to
935
00:38:49.329 --> 00:38:52.789
be involved in spacecraft exploration of the other planets, and
936
00:38:53.050 --> 00:38:55.550
for me, that feels in a very real way, like
937
00:38:55.570 --> 00:38:57.929
I've been able to, in a sense, go into space.
938
00:38:57.969 --> 00:39:00.429
We were talking about this earlier with Carter Emmert from
939
00:39:00.469 --> 00:39:04.710
the from the museum who does the astrovisualization where even
940
00:39:04.769 --> 00:39:05.590
those of us who haven't.
941
00:39:05.789 --> 00:39:06.710
Has Carter been on here yet?
942
00:39:06.889 --> 00:39:09.329
Yeah, we had Carter on today.
943
00:39:09.610 --> 00:39:14.429
Carter does, for that next generation, what his counterparts did
944
00:39:14.489 --> 00:39:16.989
back when I went. I could sit here with the
945
00:39:17.030 --> 00:39:18.789
title of director, but we've got people who actually make
946
00:39:18.829 --> 00:39:19.070
this stuff.
947
00:39:19.090 --> 00:39:20.809
You're absolutely right. I didn't even realize that.
948
00:39:21.150 --> 00:39:24.170
So those of us who haven't been into space like you,
949
00:39:24.309 --> 00:39:27.090
I feel like we've participated in this way that's becoming
950
00:39:27.159 --> 00:39:29.719
more and more real because we can visualize it in 3D.
951
00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:32.559
We send the machines out. They send back the... Not that...
952
00:39:32.559 --> 00:39:33.920
I mean, I still think there's a role.
953
00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:36.159
I want people to go to Mars and stuff, but
954
00:39:36.179 --> 00:39:38.519
I also think it's really cool that more and more
955
00:39:38.539 --> 00:39:40.599
of us are participating in this way that we're being
956
00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:44.650
able to actually, in some sensory way, experience it. And
957
00:39:44.849 --> 00:39:47.809
to me, that's very real. I do feel like I have,
958
00:39:48.050 --> 00:39:51.139
in a way... been able to participate and go into space.
959
00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:53.920
Part of my brain's been there, even if my body
960
00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:54.420
hasn't been.
961
00:39:54.440 --> 00:39:56.039
Let's hear it for space.
962
00:39:56.099 --> 00:39:57.400
Yeah, let's hear it for space.
963
00:39:58.659 --> 00:40:00.400
This is StarTalk.