Science Fiction on TV, with Bill Nye

Jefferson's Bourbon Company
Every memorable gift starts with a wondrous story. Giving a gift with energy helps it last just that bit longer. So imagine a story from the high seas, where Jefferson's ocean bourbon and rye whiskies are aged and transformed by unpredictable and unrelenting elements. They'll taste a journey in every sip, darkened by pounding waves, kissed by ocean breezes, and caramelized by equatorial heat. Give the gift of adventure.

Give Jefferson's ocean bourbon and Jefferson's Ocean bourbon rye. Please sit responsibly. Copyright 2023 Jefferson's Bourbon company, Crestwood, Kentucky. So why do you want to learn a new language? I'll tell you why.

Rosetta Stone
Because Don de esta el Bano can be a very important question at times. You know, Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app. Fast track your language acquisition with immersive lessons designed to teach you to pick up languages in a natural way. I love the fact that I can go from my laptop to my phone to pretty much any, anywhere and learn the language of my choice. Not to mention I'm bringing my communication skills to new heights.

Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a limited time, startalk radio listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership. For 50% off. Visit rosetta stone.com startalk.

That's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of of your life. Redeem your 50% off@rosettastone.com startalk today.

Welcome to Startalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. Startalk begins right now. Greetings, greetings, greetings. Welcome to Startalk radio. I'm your host, Bill Nye, here with Wide World, citizen of the world wide world, Chuck.

Bill Nye
Nice. That's right. And this is a special all star edition. And Chuck, here's the interesting thing. I'm the all star.

Rosetta Stone
You are the all star. I'm starring all wise here. It's good. No, it's really fun. I really appreciate you guys including me.

Bill Nye
Now, this is a cosmic query. Yes, it is. I see you have stacks of quirical queries. Yes, I do. From all over.

Rosetta Stone
The inquiries interwebs. That electric thing. The kids use their electric machines. I hear that thing's catching on. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with that.

Bill Nye
Cool. Thank you all for sending in questions. Chuck, let's read one. Let's get right to it. Okay.

Rosetta Stone
And this is from Dan Gomez Dan says, what exactly is inside of a vacuum, if not matter, than some sort of cosmic energy, the fabric of reality? Well, there's energy passes through a vacuum, right? So we love that. We're talking about light, heat, all these exciting things. Then you ask a good question.

Bill Nye
People talk about spacetime using it as one word, spacetime. And it's generally agreed that not only is the universe expanding, but space itself is expanding. So most of space has what we reckon is no matter, nothing in it. So perhaps any vacuum you have is also expanding along with space, if it's away from a gravity field or away from a local gravity field. Okay, maybe it's expanding and we just can't sense it.

It's one of the rules. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's pretty wild. It is wild.

It really is profound. Yeah. All right. Actually, Dan, very good question. You don't have to sound so surprised.

He's a Star Trek listener. Talk listener. Which brings me to this next thing. These questions are generally about science fiction, right? Yes, that's right.

Star Trek will probably come up. Star Trek is definitely gonna come up, because this is Sci-Fi and scientists on tv. These are the. What the inquiries are about. Let's go to Sam THFC.

All right. I have problems. I don't know what THFC means, but he's coming to us from Twitter Switter. I just made up a whole new social media look for it coming to. A Chuck knights near you.

So give us a tweet from the Twit. Here's what he says. What fictional scientists. That didn't sound right. I apologize.

Give us a tweet from the Twitter. What fictional scientist do you think would, if he or her and his or her science were real, would benefit mankind the most? Do you have somebody that you like as a fictional scientist that you believe if they were real, they would actually be a human? Huge benefit to mankind? The person, the man or woman who invents a way to filter salt water and make it into fresh water.

Rosetta Stone
Oh, wow. And that person may exist right now, but this is a hypothetical thing. Wow. And it may not be one person, maybe a corporation who continually dinks around with materials to make this possible, but that would be great if you could make seawater economically into freshwater. So now what is the big deal?

Not big deal. What is the difficult obstacle for capturing freshwater from saltwater or desalinating energy? It takes energy, right. You either have to boil it often in a partial vacuum, so called partial flash distillation, or you push it through a osmotic filter, a filter that filters molecules and get the fresh water to come out the other side. But it takes a lot of pressure.

Bill Nye
That's what they do on cruise ships and submarines. Oh, really? Yeah. So one can't help but wonder if there isn't some trick to make that easier. Right.

One's hopeful. And is it, is it going to be necessary one day? I mean, are we going to be in a position where we're out of fresh water? Well, yeah, people talk about all the time, but it would enable so much. It just.

It would be so cool if you could take seawater, make it into fresh water along the coast. Most people in the world live along coasts, so it would be really a terrific thing if you could do it economically, especially for the developing world. Nice. I love it. So you.

Rosetta Stone
I mean, what's funny is that they were talking about a character, but you went with an actual scientific thing that some humans, some human can actually do at some point, you know, love it. What happened right now, while we're talking. Star wise, there may be somebody out there doing it as we speak. All right, here we go. Wow, this person.

Bill Nye
Nope, you stumped yourself. It's Kelly Klemenko. Kelly Klemenko. Kelly Klemenko wants to know this. Doc Brown and the DeLorean.

Yes, Doc Brown. The good, the bad. And what do you think a flux capacitor really is? Or could be? Let's start with the following thing we just did.

For those of you who watched our talk onto tv, we just did a time travel bit where I was in one of the DeLoreans that was used in the movie. There's a company in New Jersey that maintains these movie cars, batmobiles and green Hornet cars. So I was in it, and I threw a switch, and it was funny and charming. So the flux capacitor, you may recall, was running on banana peels and stuff. Right?

And then as far as we know, you can't travel through time. But science fiction writers love that. Yes. And can you go back in time? The big question is, can you go back in time and change history?

Would you just get the castle Titanic to slow down, man? Right. Gee whiz. See, the thing is, he would slow down and somehow the Titanic would still sink. Well, that's if your interpretation of time travel.

But, you know, on what is generally regarded as the very best of the original Star Trek series, City on the edge of forever, they go back in time, and somehow Hitler takes over the world because the pacifism from Edith Keogh keeps the United States from entering the. Wars because Kirk actually saves her from getting hit by a car. So you're familiar. And then they changed and then changes everything. More modern viewers, young people, may wonder if you can send an emissary back in time to have sex with a waitress who then turns out to be your own mother.

Rosetta Stone
Right. Can you do that the way that we did in. That's the Terminator. That's the intention. You pull that off.

That's the Terminator. But traveling in time is quite difficult, unless, like Chuck and myself, you are happy with traveling just one way. Right? Forward, older, closer to death. Yeah.

Bill Nye
And that's where we're going right now.

Rosetta Stone
I started off laughing and ended up crying. Chuck's an artist. He's an artist. But it is this troubling thing. After you reach adulthood, you're adulthood?

Bill Nye
Heavens, Bill. Yes. After you reach adulthood, your head is headed toward death. Yes. Very troubling.

But nevertheless, apparently true fact as opposed to a false fact. Well, this question took a decidedly morbid turn. Well. Or either that or deal. Okay.

We're only going one way. You can't go back in time. So play the hand you're dealt. All right, let's go with it. Quit pining for something that's not possible.

Rosetta Stone
Yes. You're never going back to win that big game at state. Okay? Take that as a learning experience for your next big game. And then also, furthermore, to continue, there is a very.

Bill Nye
Which I say for comedic effect. There's a very reasonable theory in physics that you could build a time machine, but you could only go back to when the machine was built. Couldn't go any further. No. And furthermore, further back in time.

More. You can only. You have to travel at relativistic speeds to get there, which would be akin to falling into a black hole, which would tear you apart from its own gravity. So it's just not that easy. God.

So, everybody, I don't mean to be dismissive of time travel, but don't count on it to solve your problems. Let's say you live on a planet that is where a certain species is burning so much ancient fuel that they're accelerating the rate of warming by about a factor of a million. Let's just say. Let's just say you can't pine for the day. You can't even imagine what kind of planet this is.

You can't pine for the day when you could have done something about it at the turn of a couple centuries ago. You got to play the hand we're dealt right now and address climate change. Right, right. Which, you know, I'd like to believe it's going to happen. Yes.

Rosetta Stone
But I also believe that people are stupid. And none of you listening. No, no. Other than hearing our voices right now. But there are other people who are quite frankly, stupid and they don't believe anything you just said.

As a matter of fact, one of them is a senator. His name is Inhofe. And he actually wrote a book called the biggest hoax ever or something like that. Yeah, you're digressing a bit, Chuck, but I appreciate it. He's a senator, Bill.

Bill Nye
I know. He gets reelected all the time. He represents. There's only two of them for his state. I know.

Rosetta Stone
He represents half of a state. I know. And he sends it to hoax guys like you who do this so they can get money. Cause that's what happens when you say. That the Chuck, you're going kind of Bill Cosby on me there.

I would like to invite you over for some cappuccino, Bill. Thank you, Doctor Huckleberry. All right. But this said, chuck, your digression is worthy. It's just something to think about.

Bill Nye
You know, we. Time travel is a cool idea in science fiction, but let's keep our eye on the prize. We almost certainly cannot travel through time. We cannot go back in time and fix things. So we gotta play the hand we're dealt.

Rosetta Stone
There you go. Read on. There you go. Let's move on to another query and keep those very grave words in mind. Oh, they're also empowering.

Bill Nye
They're also empowering. They are empowering. Constraints are empowering. Absolutely. You gotta solve this problem.

Let's go. Okay, here we go. Jonathan Beast at Beckomest. I like that from Twitter. Says if you could interview any fictional scientist.

Fictional scientist. Fictional scientist. Somebody from the movies or a book or anything like that, who would it be and why? And he's coming to us from Indiana. It's fictional.

Rosetta Stone
Fictional. So, like, is there any fictional character that you. Mire. Whatever they embody, the character embodies certain value. Your first cut is, you'd say Mister Spock, right?

Bill Nye
Would you like to chat it up with Mister Spock? I have to tell you that I've often fantasized about that. But then fictional scientist, the guy who invents the time machine in the HG wells. The time machine. Right.

That might be. How did you do that? Yeah, that's a pretty. Yeah. Especially how did you do it?

Rosetta Stone
Out of bubble gum and a pinwheel or whatever. It was a fan on it. The oil something and he's able to try. Yeah, that would be a good couple of questions. But I will say, as charming as all that is, there are some real people I'd love to interview.

I was about to go there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was about to say. Yeah, I wouldn't like to talk to. Would you now?

Would you rather speak to Rosalind Franklin or. Franklin or Albert Einstein? Oh, man. Yeah, buddy. I'd like to talk to Rosalind because you don't hear that much about her.

Okay. People write books now, but I would like to know what her life was like. Sweet. Sweet. She had to play.

Bill Nye
She had a tough road. Ho, there. She was the only woman on the thing. I was going to say, when you're a female, I mean, back in the 1950s, it's not going to be those. Of you who are down.

Not hip, not down. She took the picture that enabled Watson and crick to envision DNA. Right, the spiral, the double helix. But did she envision it first? Because she looked at the picture and then the men took credit.

Rosetta Stone
Right. Arguments have ensued. Aha. There have been whole radio shows devoted to this argument. I can't resolve it right now, but.

It is intriguing and clearly still having ramifications to this day. We are probably one of the most important discoveries ever. Yeah. By the way, Darwin and Russell discovered evolution without any knowledge of DNA. That's amazing.

That is amazing. It is amazing. Yes. Talk about discipline, scientific methods, just straight observations, observing and thinking. Exactly.

Sweet. So don't forget, if you ever read origin of species, Darwin did all kinds of very diligent naturalist experiments. He's a really impressive guy. I mean, I know everybody says that, but he really was quite the experimentalist as well as the observationalist naturalist. Right.

All right, cool. Lead on. So there you go. There you go. There you go.

Good question. I like that. All right, let me move on to another query. This is Dennard Springle coming to. I like that name.

Coming to us from Google. He says, how much more interesting would lost in space have been if they'd elaborated more on Doctor Maureen Robinson's biochemical background instead of having her be the typical housewife in space, preparing meals, tending to the garden, etcetera, etcetera. Well, it sounds like from your point of view, Mister and Miss Springle would have been better. And notice that. Compare and contrast the contemporary show lost in space with Star Trek.

Bill Nye
Right, Star Trek. The women were empowered. Yes. There was a lot of legs. Yes, there were a lot of mini skirts, a lot of nice uniforms, but ultimately green women.

Green women who were strangely hot. Yes. But ultimately, right there in the middle of the whole thing was Lieutenant Yora, who was an empowered woman, ran things. And then you'd come across your woman, Romulan, who was in charge of a ship, and so on. Right.

Rosetta Stone
And so then you go forward into the Star Trek series you have. Oh, I'm sorry. Go. No, bring. No, Chuck, take it.

Of course, there's Captain Janeway right there. Running the whole freaking starship. Starship. Who became Admiral Janeway. That's right.

Bill Nye
And notice. But that shows that, like, the woman's movement, at least here in the United States, was reflected in science fiction. Right, right. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?

So I can't hear you. I don't know why I would say such a thing. But you see that the evolution right there. And by the way, Nichelle Nichols came to the 35th anniversary of the planetary society, October 2015, and she told the story again, Chuck. She's told the story countless Times.

She was very gracious about it. About what Martin Luther King called her. Yes. Apparently on the phone, I have a dream. Yeah.

And he said, you can't quit this job. She was gonna quit. She wanted to go back to Broadway or whatever she was as a big time actress, not pretending to be in the 23rd century. And he said, she can't quit this job. He saw the value in her being on the bridge of a starship in the future as a ranking officer, a.

Lieutenant who was responsible for all kinds of important things. Right. And so it was really a moving moment for me. It was just a few months ago. And he said, wow.

Rosetta Stone
You know what's funny about Lieutenant Ohura is a lot of people said, well, she was the. She was none but an operator. You know, she was the. And the truth of the matter was she was the first contact for anyone. That's right.

Bill Nye
She was Capcom. That's right. But really, Capcom's a big job. No, she was a big deal, and she made decisions, and she had to remain calm in some pretty stressful situations, albeit fictional ones. But it was to the point where Martin Luther King himself says, my friend, miss Nichols, you can't quit this gig.

Cause you're a role model for african american people and women especially. I do believe you are future. It was really. It was. Well, it makes sense.

Greatest story that she told, I gotta say. I was completely unaware of that story. And that's a great. But she's told it a lot of times. But she was very nice about it.

Rosetta Stone
Nice. Very cool. That's very cool. Then it kind of goes to show you the importance of television. Television.

Science fiction. Science fiction. And by the way, the thing about Star Trek as a Trekkie, yes. It's an optimistic view of the future through science. It is not an apocalyptic view of the future.

Bill Nye
It is not science is bad and leads to disaster. It's science is good and leaves to all material needs being taken care of. And any conflict we have is when we encounter new cultures who are not totally hip to. Right. They don't get it the way we do.

Well, they haven't had a chance. There you go. All right. Super cool.

D
You and your grandma may not speak the same language, but if you did, what would you tell her? Would you tell her how much you love going window shopping with her? Or how you love that she's always down for McDonald's run? Or how she's the sweetest, strongest woman you know? Whatever you'd say, McDonald's wants to help you put it in words that she understands.

Go to sweetconnections AI to record your own video message for grandma and have it translated to her native language using AI. And come to McDonald's to treat yourself to the grandma McFlurry. Today available for a limited time at participating, McDonald's select language is available.

Jefferson's Bourbon Company
This podcast is supported by FedEx. Dear small and medium businesses, no one wants happy customers more than you do. So you need a business partner just like you like FedEx, who understands your passion for serving your customers because they have the same commitment towards you. That's why FedEx offers you picture proof of delivery. Packageless and paperless returns, as well as weekend home delivery to 98% of the US on Saturday and 50% on Sunday.

See the FedEx Service Guide for delivery information. What's more, FedEx Ground is faster to more locations than UPS ground. Trust FedEx for timely deliveries. See what FedEx can do for your business. Absolutely, positively.

Fedex. Whether you're a family vacation traveler, business tripper, or long weekend adventurer, Choice Hotels has a stay for NEU. And that's good because there are a lot of me's. Choice Hotels has over 7400 locations and 22 brands, including including comfort hotels. Radisson Hotels and Cambria hotels get the best value for your money when you book with choice hotels.

Rosetta Stone
Cambria Hotels feature locally inspired hotel bars with specialty cocktails and downtown locations in the center of it all. Hey, that's me. Radisson hotels have flexible workspaces to get the most of your business travel and on site restaurants. That's me too. And at comfort hotels, you'll enjoy free hot breakfast with fresh waffles, great pools for the entire family, and spacious rooms.

Hey, that's me, too. I guess I'm just gonna have to stay at all of em. Choice Hotels has a stay for any you book direct@choicehotels.com. where travel comes true.

I'm Jasmine Wilson, and I support startalk on Patreon. This is startalk with Neil degrasse Tyson.

All right, here we go. This is Corre Killabitch. Oh, heavens, Chuck, you gotta edit before. You read Correy Kilobitsch, who said on Instagram, how far are we from force fields and inertial dampers? So let me just say, in the biggest picture, you live in a force field.

Bill Nye
Gravity is a force field. It can be thought of as a field. And recently it was proven that it also apparently travels in waves. Gravity does. And so this was predicted or very reasonable to physicists.

And now we had an instrument that measured that. But I think I know at which you drive. Plus, we also have dampers, inertial dampers. The british term was dampener, but in American English, that middle syllable got dropped. And this is a shock absorber in a car.

And a damper generally means something that goes at the rate. The faster you move the car axle, the more damping you get. The more damping, retarding force you get. Right. It's a little bit out of your mathematical experience for most people, but it's out of your every.

It is out of your everyday experience. And you know this. When you. When you try to bounce a car up and down, which you can do, you can make that with the cars in park, everybody, perfectly safe, push it up and down. You'll find the faster you try to make it go, the more difficult it is.

Now, with that set, just flip your. Switch on your lowrider. That's all. Oh, yeah. For our lowrider listeners, the many.

Start talking, lowrider listeners that are out there, I'm sure there are a few of you. Thank you for your good work. That's right. But I think what she's driving at is a tractor beam. You know it.

In fact, I heard a pundit, I believe, on meet the press use the term tractor beam, talking about the current presidential election. Yeah, a tractor beam is so far not a real thing. Of course, wouldn't it be great, instead of a tugboat having to throw a line out to the barge, its towing, you could just do it with some sort of electromagnetic beam with the accompanying sound effect that would bring the barge up the river or through deep space easily. So it's a cool idea. I don't know.

I think we're pretty far away from that. Okay, so I think we're pretty far away. Pretty far away. We do have force fields. We do have force fields.

We're living in one. You may rub your hair in a balloon and feel your hair stand on end on your forearm, and then you also get a beam of light that pushes the spacecraft through space. Ah, I wonder. Planetary society, for example. Hmm, sounds vaguely familiar to me.

Planetary.org, consider joining. Yes. So you were saying, light sailing. Give me another query. Novel idea.

Rosetta Stone
Light sailing it is. Cool. It was really good. And we're going to fly again. This was scheduled for September, but it will probably ship, ship slip to November via ride on the falcon heavy.

Bill Nye
Oh, SpaceX rocket with 27 engines instead of nine. Nice. Cool. All right, man. Well, good luck.

Rosetta Stone
Good luck for the next flight. Here we go. Walter Vinci wants to know this. In Sci-Fi if one were to have a laser gun capable of producing a visible shot, what would the effects on the shooter, the target, and those in the vicinity? B.

So he's basically talking about a phaser or. Well, there are laser weapons. We had a laser weapon flying around on a 747. And the idea is the momentum, which you're talking like the recoil from a conventional bullet type gun, shotgun, whatever, is very small with a laser, because all you're doing is reacting the photon pressure. But the deal is, is you're sending heat at the target, and so the heat can damage a target in a new way.

Bill Nye
That's not momentum. It's not recoil. It's burning stuff up. Burning stuff up. And then if you tune it, you can have a maser, a microwave beam that messes up the enemy's radar.

Rosetta Stone
Right. That's not that anybody would spend tax dollars doing that in our. Oh, sure enough, peaceful way of life. But I've heard of it. And would it make the pew sound?

I mean, would it? Hope so. We ever make a little sound, we. Produce that pew sound. They got a guy wire.

Bill Nye
You know what I mean? A real long wire that holds up an antenna. Right. And tapped it. Okay.

Rosetta Stone
And that's the. So it's a conventional mechanical resonance, just like a violin or guitar string. Exactly. It has a certain tightness. Very cool.

Nice. All right. We all know that's the sound of blasters. That's a blaster. Gotta say.

Bill Nye
Saw the new Star wars movie. Speaking of. Yeah, the stormtrooper armor. Yes. It's not very good.

Rosetta Stone
No, it isn't. People burn right through it. Well, yeah, you know, I don't know why they. You would think it would be somewhat protective, but every stormtrooper that gets hit by a blaster goes down and goes down pretty easily too. Yeah, yeah, it's bad.

All right, here we go. Another fiction problem that I can't really. No one, I wasn't consulted. Okay, do you think. Okay, this is from a u t a u a u t k d.

Do you think something such as the death of the planet Krypton could ever happen to Earth? No. Right. Any other questions? Just exploding planets don't happen.

Bill Nye
With that said, the Earth's moon apparently was created by a pretty big thing hitting the proto Earth. The Earth. In its early days, Earth wasn't fully. Formed the way it is right now. So it did destroy a planet, but maybe it formed a new planet and a moon, but that's not the same as the way it's depicted in Superman, where stuff just blows up.

Rosetta Stone
Yes, it just. And that's it. And completely falls apart. Yeah. So I don't see any way for that to happen.

Bill Nye
Stars? Ah, they do that well, supernova, they do both, right. Novi, they blow up and they implode. Right. Yeah, they do all that, but this, we're talking about a planet, and so if you like to worry about things, that's.

I wouldn't put that up high. Right. I'd put climate change way up higher than Krypton. Like death. Yes.

Rosetta Stone
Yeah. Yes. Okay, gotcha. So no need to put any kids inside of a little escape pod, or probably not, you know, send them off to a much better. To improve the environment we have.

Bill Nye
Much better make an incluso pod. There you go. So I guess there's an inclusive pod. Rather than, pardon me, stay on Earth pod. Yeah.

Rosetta Stone
Which is called Earth. Yes, we should probably take care of this place. Here we go. Yes, this is Scott. That's his title.

Bill Nye
That's pretty good. Yes, this is Scott. Yes, this is Scott. What's your query? Here's what.

Rosetta Stone
Yes, this is. Scott wants to know thoughts on our country's education system, particularly as it pertains to the scientific ignorance of the average us citizen. Could I have some of that from you, Mister Nye? Well, we have a big concern. So for example, I was at the science teacher convention, okay.

Bill Nye
And one of the fights that the Science Teachers association fights is this current opposition to common core standards. Yes, I hear that's a big, big deal. College core. You wouldn't think it would be, why not have a set of ideas that we agree everybody should know? Everybody should learn the Alphabet, for example, it'd be hard to read and conduct your life without memorizing the order of the letters.

Yeah, yeah. So along that line, there's some other things we want people to know about certain plays and certain poems and certain pieces of art. We also want people to know certain facts and discoveries in the process of science. And the process of science. But right now.

So the educators around the US got together and came up with this common core of standards. Right, core of standards. But then it came to be opposed by certain states who don't want to teach evolution. That's what went on. Okay, now see, this is being, this is a common core is being opposed in the name of states rights, but it's being opposed really by people who are not aware of the fundamental idea in all of biology.

Rosetta Stone
See, I have to tell you that they're quite insidious the way they make their argument, because they never let you know that there's an actual opposition to something so specific as evolution. Say it. States rights. Yeah, states rights. They never broached the issue of evolution in the fight for common core.

And I've always. The fight against common core. And I've always wondered, why is it that it's just, you know, one particular group of people who are always decrying common core? And then I thought, first everybody thought. It was a great idea, conservatives and progressives.

Bill Nye
But then when people realized that if you had science teachers, including the basic idea in all of life science, evolution, they started to, like, totally freak. And so there's a basic idea in geology play, tectonics. Right, right. There's a basic idea in physics. Energy can either be created or destroyed.

Okay? And so we love that. So there's a basic idea in life science that things change as they reproduce, which we call the process of evolution. Evolution, right. My goodness, people.

Rosetta Stone
Wow. You know what? This is why I love co hosting these shows, because certain things just pop up on these shows. Oh, yes. Never realize this is it, man.

Bill Nye
This is why we answer these queries. Exactly. And this is super cool because that's the real deal. The real deal is it's evolution. They don't want it.

The problem is evolution because they're afraid of it. There's some people who are empower, Neil Tyson, myself, you, I presume. Yes, are excited and empowered by the idea that we don't have all the answers. Exactly. Other people are deeply troubled, never understood all the answers.

Everything spelled out right now. We want to know everything there is to know about the universe right now. And when you challenge that, they get. They get unsettled. Yeah.

And that's. I consider that entirely my fault as a science educator. Instead of getting people excited about it, they just grow up afraid of it. Don't blame yourself. That's.

Rosetta Stone
Wow. So there you have it. Hey, listen, this is. Yes, this is Scott. Thank you for that question.

That was. That was a lightning. It's really good. Yeah. All right, let's move on.

Let's get to Spenny 46 wants to know this in order to achieve warp speed. Oh, yeah. Like in Star Trek way you do. Yeah. You know, the way you do in Star Trek.

Right. You know, sure. Number one, engage. That's how you achieve it. By the way, Spenny, number one, engage.

What would the ship have to be made out of? So. Well, it generally agreed that you'd start with some sort of unobtanium and build out from there. Keep in mind, there is no evidence that you can actually travel at warp speed. It's a science fiction device to enable interactions between people.

Bill Nye
You know, what makes any good story is what's happening between people. Yes. There can be Andorians and Romulans and Klingons. There can be Zenonians and so on, but really, any science fiction story has to do with us humans interacting. And, yeah, there's some issues about what's possible technologically in the future or the past, but it's really about what people are doing to each other.

So there's no evidence that there really is a warp drive. And I don't know what the ship would be made of. Yeah. Okay, there you have really strong. It would be because you're warping space to travel through it, which means whatever it is is getting stretched out through space.

Sure. It is. Showing up someplace else. There's artificial gravity. Everybody speaks English.

When you get there.

That's key. Big time. That's awesome. Yes. How did that happen?

Rosetta Stone
Here we are, halfway across the galaxy, but yet somehow these guys speak English. It's crazy. Unexpected. It's a remarkable example of Hodgkin's laws of parallel planetary development. Boy, I am a old geek.

Love it. Take it, take it. Love it. Here we go. Here we go.

Oh, my God.

Here we go. From Ethan bottoms. Ethan says, bill, what's your favorite Sci-Fi technology? And what would be its real life equivalent? Two things.

Bill Nye
First of all, I'd love to have a transporter. Oh, God, so would I. But people have done analysis on the information theory involved and taking a few trillion cells and putting them back together, reassembling them. It's a huge amount of energy required. But the other one that we'd all like is subspace radio.

Rosetta Stone
Right? Where no matter where the other person is, no matter how fast he or she is traveling, no matter what's going on, you can talk to him or her. Yes, we've almost got it for real. I mean, you had to take out your mobile phone. You can talk to pretty much anybody in the world.

Bill Nye
Once in a while, the transmission is not as good as it might be. Once in a while it's breaking up. Once in a while you have to move near the window. Once in a while, apartment for no reason. Yes, your data costs more than your voice and so on, but we're getting close.

Where you can talk to anybody, anywhere, anytime. Now you can fly on planes 6 miles above the earth and be on the Internet communicating, taking care of things. It's not going to be long before people will be able to talk routinely. I'm sure there'll be phone booths on planes again, if you remember the radio phones that were $10 a minute or something, no airplanes. But this will come back around.

We'll have the equivalent of subspace radio. Right. Okay, so subspace radio. That's what I'd like. Be nice, man.

Be nice like you, Chuck. I like that. I like that. I like what we did there. It's brilliant.

Rosetta Stone
It's very cool. No one's ever thought of it.

There are over 75 million monthly tubi viewers. That's more people than there are influencers on the Internet. Which means tubi is more popular than sponsored posts for digestive enzymes and high coverage foundation. More popular than soft launching your boyfriend. More popular than making boomers explode with rage when you tell them how much you make on a single post.

Tubi. It's more popular than influencers. See you in there. National outlet Shopping Day is back. Join us June 8 9th at Simon Premium outlets nationwide.

Score thousands of can't miss deals from brands you love all weekend long. They've got up to 65% off every day. And the national outlet shopping day deals are even better. Visit premiumoutlets.com nosd to find a premium outlet near you. That's premiumoutlets.com nosd.

E
Is there such a thing as a traveler, not a delta? Because we know on one flight, Mike, NHC prefers reality tv to reality. So we provide more than 1000 hours of in flight entertainment while on the flight. After eight c is occupied by Jen, whose favorite snack is t? That's why we provide fast, free Delta sync Wi fi available for Sky Miles members.

Because at Delta we know refill. Everyone flies their own way. Delta, keep climbing. Free wi Fi available on most domestic flights. Terms of use apply.

Rosetta Stone
Here. Kayleigh. Kaylee. Who else could say Kayleigh except you, besides you. Who else could butcher the name?

Bill Nye
Yeah. Take it better than you, Chuck. Here we go. Kaylee Bush wants to know this. In many science fiction movies, hypersleep is used by astronauts.

Hypersleep. Hypersleep is used by astronauts on long voyages to make their trips seem shorter. Is hypersleep possible? If so, would it be a valid method to keep future astronauts sane during long trips in space? A couple things about that.

You may have met a bear or squirrels. These kids hibernate. They do a little something called hibernation. Yeah. And so it's very reasonable.

They're mammals. We are mammals. It's very reasonable that you could figure out how they do it. Right. And then you'd enable astronauts to do that.

It's not, I don't think it's too entertained to keep astronauts from going crazy so much as to keep astronauts from aging too much. Right. You go on these long trips and then it seems reasonable to do that. However, with that said Mark Kelly. Yes.

Just finished almost a year in space, 340 days in space. And he remarked, you know, you could go two years. I could go two years. Astronauts are anything but bored. Right.

They have, if anything, too much to do. Yeah. That's what he keeps the things going. Yeah. That's one of the things he said is that there's so much to do.

Rosetta Stone
There's so many things all day long that he's doing that he doesn't think. About it like that. He doesn't run out of mental stuff to do. So that's a great question. But very reasonable to enable astronauts to make this long journey without having to eat as much and process the waste as much.

Bill Nye
Having as much time. Seriously, in sleep cycles. Very reasonable to have people in suspended animation and in science fiction movies, what you generally do is have the people in suspended animation kill each other or. Die or wait, one of the chambers malfunctions. That's right.

Rosetta Stone
And when they get to wherever they're going, it's a corpse. Yeah. Yeah. Dried up corpse. Yeah.

Bill Nye
And he didn't even know it or she because they were, he or she was asleep during this traumatic time. But this is a fine idea in science fiction. But it goes way back because we observe bears hibernate why couldn't we do that with the right hormones or berry and bark diet? Yes, it's a good question. There you go.

Rosetta Stone
Good question. Way to go, Kaylee. Ethan the cool guy Smith. That's quite a claim. What a claim.

Bill Nye
Yes. He says, why does it seem that with every new generation there is a new level of both scientific acceptance and scientific ignorance? Which is a wonderful question, especially when you're thinking about science fiction. I mean, he's absolutely right. When you think back from the time of Galileo till now, Jesus man, the leaps and bounds we've made.

Rosetta Stone
But yet, when you look at where we are right now, you can't believe that people are such idiots that they believe some of the things they believe. For example, give me an example. Like, for example, that human activity maybe be creating climate change that is deleterious to the entire ecosystem of this planet upon which we live. And denying that. And denying that?

Bill Nye
Yes. In the face of evidence or denying that organisms change through the process of evolution. How about that? Yes. Even though we have clear evidence.

Fundamental idea in life, science. So you're asking a great question. I think people, there's an expression, I think, in almost every culture. The good old days. Good old days.

People have a way, I think it's a survival mechanism. We have a way of suppressing the really traumatic times and embracing the happy times. And these are the good old days. And so the ultimate manifestation of that is, if only things were the way they were when I understood everything. Now it gets away from me as these changes around us are happening in technology, culture, the speed of things.

But you got to get over it. It's back to this deal that I talk about all the time. Some people are greatly troubled by change. Yes. Other people accept it as part of the excitement of being alive.

Rosetta Stone
Right. So this is a great question, but we are working very hard here at Startalk to empower the world's citizens to know science and planetary society to know the cosmos and our place within it. Well, that's why we want to know the cosmos and realize that we don't know everything and pursue truth in nature, to find out nature's rules so that we know where we fit in in the great scheme of things. Where did we come from? Are we alone?

Bill Nye
These are deep questions, answers with science. Some people think it's cool. Other people are troubled. And the troubled people are the ones living in the past. There you have it so far.

Rosetta Stone
Hey, I have to say that that was a very cool question. Ethan cool guy Smith. Thank you. Ethan Smith, the cool guy, lead on. Here we go.

BTU 0105. British thermal Unit 010-5105 wants to know this. The professor on Gilligan's island always seemed to be using seawater and coconuts to power gadgets like radios. First of all, is that feasible? Depends if you have enough dissimilar metals, by the classics you might be familiar with, are copper and zinc, and you can make a battery.

Bill Nye
But I don't know that you can power a coconut. I was going to say, but I. Remind you, a lot of the coconut. Was there just for aesthetics. Give it the tropical island.

Rosetta Stone
Yeah, exactly. I remind you, a lot of the stuff the professor did on Gilligan's island was not real. And so this enabled the plot to be advanced. And you'll notice generally in Gilligan's island, he'd get it almost working. Yes.

Bill Nye
For a few seconds and then dog on it. And so with that said, changing the subject to a more recent, more desperate situation on lost. Ah. What I say, as a. I was a pretty good boy scout, right?

Get off the island. What's wrong with you people? Cause all they cared about was what was happening on the island. That's just gotta say, when I watched the. The.

Was it the Blair witch project? Yes. Get out of the woods. What's wrong with you? We lost the map.

Follow the stream, you clowns. There you go. I had no sympathy for those people. Maybe somebody will kill them and we can move on. Yes.

Oh, Bill, Bill, you're so harsh. I'm just telling you, these are through the process of science. You would find a way. You would find a way to get off the. Out of the woods, off the island, especially.

How long was that on? Five years? Yes. Three and a half years. Yeah.

Somebody would get something done, people. All right, there you have it. BTU the professor was a fraud. Not a fraud. He was a fictional character.

Rosetta Stone
I think he never had anything that worked because he was secretly doing something with Ginger. So I don't need to know, Chuck. Yes, but are you Ginger or Mary Ann? You know, I gotta tell the truth. I'm more of a Mary Ann.

Bill Nye
I'm total Mary Ann. I'm a Marianne guy. Yeah. I'm sympathetic to the ginger thing. I'm sympathetic to the ginger, too.

Rosetta Stone
But, you know, that was a little. That looked a little high maintenance and. Did a lot of work. Honestly, a lot of work going in there. Yeah.

And didn't look like it would be worth it. Whereas Marianne, that's it. She's accessible. Yeah. And also felt like when it, you know, when.

When my pursuits were achieved, that I may want to spend some time with Marianne. Yeah. So, everybody, if you're not familiar with these references, a lot of the reason young men watch television is to look at women. And if you look at the COVID of any, I walk by here in New York. You walk by newsstands continually all the time.

Bill Nye
So many of the magazines feature women. Rather than on the COVID Not no. Problem with that, I gotta say. If it ain't broken. So on this show, Gilligan's island, we can all ask ourselves, which of these contrasting personalities would you prefer?

Rosetta Stone
Right? And I think this is a good moment, Chuck, with that important digression resolved to get at last to the lightning round. Yes. And that is where we will speed things up and take as many questions as we can in the remaining time. So let us move on, say, from sebafilms, wants to know this.

Hi, Bill. Are you happy? I am happy because you're sending questions or queries to startalk. There you go. That was simple enough.

We're off to a very good start. This is from Andres Gamma Zero seven. Andres Gamma Zero seven wants to know this. In Star Trek, are you really, when you're teleported to another place, are you really being teleported, or is it a copy of you? Oh, no.

Bill Nye
You're really being teleported, right? I've seen it.

Rosetta Stone
Easy enough. Jay Shipka wants to know this. Is it possible to convert sound waves into an energy source? Energy source? Yes.

Bill Nye
Has to be really loud. Think about how little energy it takes to make a big cymbal crash. I mean, really compared to something else, you know, if you have stereo speakers, they might be 100 watts. You see how loud that gets? So, yeah, we turn electrical energy into sound all the time.

Rosetta Stone
Wow. There you go. Doing it right now. It's a radio podcast. Yes.

There's your answer, Jay Shipka. It's happening right before you. You're soaking. He wants to go the other way. He wants to take.

He wants to take. Sounds like a sonic boom. Moderation. Mm hmm. Okay, here we go.

Alphabetize. Wants to know this. What are the chances of humanity recovering after a catastrophic extinction event? The subject of many, many movies, they're pretty good. Humans are said to be extinction proof.

Bill Nye
That is to say, there's so many of us living on so many continents that even in a. There's going to be a remnant. Somebody will be around, and they'll be doing it. They'll be making more humans. I'm just.

If you like to worry about things that one. I'd set that one aside. Okay, there you go.

Rosetta Stone
Benjamin and Luria. Benjamin and Luria. He wants to know this. Could Rick's portal gun from Rick and Morty ever exist? In other words, could we ever have a means of creating a dimensional portal?

Bill Nye
Oh, yeah, it's easy enough. No, you make you feel better. No, but it's good. It enables the plot.

Rosetta Stone
Okay, DJ purelogic wants to know this. Will humanity survive long enough to achieve a type two or three civilization? We'll see, won't we? If we can live on pure energy and become electrovores, it's not going to happen this weekend, right? Climate change is going to be a problem before then.

Bill Nye
These are great questions, maybe something worth achieving. But bear in mind, the type one, two, and three civilizations are human constructs. Who knows if there are any of them and what they think of us? Very nice. Chris Showadrum.

Last name. Show a drum. Showadrum show drum. Chris Showedrum wants to know this. What did you learn today, Bill?

I learned how Chuck feels about climate change. He's concerned. He's got three kids. Yeah. I have to tell you, I just.

Rosetta Stone
Oh, God. I'm not gonna get back on my little thing here because. Yeah, I'm very concerned. Adam bomb, baby wants to know this. If you could show one thing, be it a photograph, a painting or a piece of music, a book or a movie or something completely different to an intelligent species from somewhere outside of our solar system, what would it be and why?

Bill Nye
That's a great question. That is a great question. And if it's one thing, one thing. That you could show them with it would it be art? Would it be literature?

Rosetta Stone
Would it be a photograph? Would it be, you know, a mathematical equation? I might show him a rocket. I might show him a spacecraft. Okay, but that's a tough one.

That's a tough one. It's a tough one. I think I might. I might show them. I would just give them the Internet and say, have at it.

Bill Nye
Have at it.

Thing. Just one thing. It's the Internet. Here you go. All right, so this is Davy Jones from San Bernardino, California.

Rosetta Stone
Wants to know, what's your opinion on how science is overall depicted in Futurama? And Professor Farnsworth, a great scientist or the greatest scientist on tv, which. It's just fun, you guys, just fun. Don't put too much voracious true facts. There aren't that many facts in Futurama.

Bill Nye
With that said, chuck, we've come to the end of our show. Cosmic queries on startalk my worldwide citizen of the world. Chuck nice yes, and I've been your host, Bill Nye. Please keep looking up.

E
At Delta. We know Mike NHC prefers reality tv to reality, so we provide more than 1000 hours of in fight entertainment on the next flight. Eight C is Mandy a foodie? So we offer all types of food options because at Delta everyone flies their own way. Delta keep climbing.

F
Earning your degree online doesn't mean you have to go about it alone. At Capella University, we're here to support you when you're ready. From enrollment counselors who get to know you and your goals to academic coaches who can help you form a plan to stay on track. We care about your success and are dedicated to helping you pursue your goals. Going back to school is a big step, but having support at every step of your academic journey can make a big difference.

Imagine your future differently at capella.edu.

Science Fiction on TV, with Bill Nye

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Vacuum Energy and Space-Time

2: Time Travel and Its Challenges

3: Desalination and Water Scarcity

4: The Influence of Fictional Scientists

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

People

Guest Name(s):

Content Warnings:

Transcript