StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries – More Office Hours

Episode Date: March 16, 2018

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries about the “God of the gaps” theory, the Big Bang and “vacuum energy,” Pascal’s Wager, gravitational wells; haunted apartments, making math sexy, “the Matrix,” star-gazing, wine, and the meaning of life.NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/cosmic-queries-more-office-hours/Photo Credit: Ben Ratner. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk. Chuck Nice, my co-host, right here. This is an Office Hours edition of StarTalk. That's right. The whole thing is just Q&A with cosmic queries. That's right.

Front to back. Front to back, up and down, top to bottom, cosmic queries. Let's do this. So what do you have? All right. Well, you know, we get them from everywhere, no matter where they are. We normally start with a Patreon patron because we're whores. Because they pay.

That's right. That's right. You don't get to do this with us for nothing. You still get to do it. You just don't have it happen first. That's all. That's right. Okay.

Like your third. Your third. Right. So here we go. This is John. And if I don't know the answer, I'll just say I don't know the answer. You move on to the next question. I have yet to see that happen.

No, I might have an answer, even if it's not the answer. I might have something to say. Right. But if I don't know the answer, I'll just say I don't know. Well, sometimes the answer is science doesn't know yet, right? Right. That is not right. So either I don't know or I know that science doesn't know. Right.'s that that is not right so either i don't know or i know that science doesn't know right those are two different levels of ignorance right yes exactly

which uh which by the way i was telling somebody about uh okay you'll have to explain this because i'm not explaining it correctly but all right you were talking about how what we don't know we attribute to God. Basically, I'm paraphrasing you. So I'm not saying it correctly. But when we don't know something, we attribute it to God. Then we find out it's science and we no longer attribute that to God. And then we move up a level and we're like, well, now we don't know this. So it's God. And then we find that out. We're like, well, no we don't know this, so it's God. And then we find that out, and we're like, well, no, that's because of this.

And then it keeps going. So that was the conversation I was having with my friend. I was trying to explain that the way you explain it, but it didn't quite work out. You get it mostly right. So if you look at the history of science and the history of religion, what you'll find is often as science sort of started figuring out how the world worked. Right. You were more likely to find someone to assert the presence of God where science had yet

to tread than where science had tread. I'll give you an example. There's a brilliant sort of polymath from three centuries ago. It's Christian Huygens is his name. Christian Huygens. Christian. You got one of those two A's in the Christian. Yes, Christian Huygens.

Huygens. Sounds like a Simpsons character. Huygens. Huygens. Christian Huygens. Huygens. He wrote a book called Cosmotheros, a brilliant little book,

where he imagined life on different planets. Oh. This is back like late 1600s. This was great. This was a beautiful exercise in thinking, using the little bit of information you have, what can you derive from that knowledge? Okay. And in it, he talks about that a rock has less God in it than life does.

Okay. Okay? And he talks about the orbits of planets, which Newton had already figured out in his publication of Principia. Okay? So Newton had already figured that out. Okay.

And so he is not saying that the planets are moving according to God, because we already had those answers. In this book, every place he invokes God is where we knew the least about the natural world. That's a very common thing that people have done. It goes back. Ptolemy, he bent on the wrong horse,

but he was a big proponent of the Earth in the center of the universe, the heliocentric, I mean the geocentric universe. And if you think Earth is in the middle, what is the universe doing to you? You look up into the sky and you see planets moving and then they go backwards. This is where you get the word retrograde from.

You think the planet is actually going backwards. That's why they called it retrograde because you're in the middle. If it's going forward and then backwards, it's going backwards. Because you're in the center of everything. You see it, there it is. And no one really understood this, and neither did he. He had a mathematical system to describe it, but he was still enchanted by it. And so he, in the margin of one of his greatest work, the Almagest, he writes,

when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia. Wow. He was feeling God. He certainly was. In his place of ignorance.

He was writing R&B music to God. I don't know what tone voice he had, if he would have said. He might have had a pipsqueak voice. I don't know. But his God was there making this happen. Oh, Zeus, baby. You know I love you, Zeus. Barry White singing Zeus.

So he appealed to his religion to account for where he did not yet know. Right. Okay? If you look at, for example, all what was written about people who were having an epileptic fit. Right. Okay? Right. But you go back.

Well, that was a demonic. It was exactly what you would expect given anything you read about the devil. This would be, of course, in Christianity, not in Judaism, because they don't have a devil in Judaism. So in Christianity, it was like this person is possessed. And so now the priests come, back when all of Christianity was Catholicism. The priests would come and perform an exorcism. And then the symptoms would subside and the person would come back to normal. As is the normal course of course of most epileptic seizures.

Right. They have an end. They have an end. Right, right, right, right. So now that we understand it, we can even kind of control it. Yes. And it's the uncontrolled firing of your neurosynapses.

So you don't see people coming to these, you don't see this being accounted for by being possessed by the devil anymore. No, it's no longer. Right. It's a medical condition. A medical condition. It is not a spiritual condition.

It's not a spiritual condition. Right. So there's the history of this. That's all. And the philosophers call it the God of the gaps. The God of the gaps. Right. So if God to you lives in places where science has yet to tread.

And wears really cool skinny jeans. If that. That he got cool skinny jeans. If that... Betty got at the gap. If that is where... The gap. That was a long way to go for that joke. I'm telling you. I walked around the block, didn't I?

You went on the off-ramp. Yes. You did the cold relief. Sold some oranges on the freeway. Just to hit that joke. And let me tell you something. I am ashamed of myself and proud of myself at the same time. Go ahead.

God of the gaps. Yeah, so God of the gaps. So if God to you is this entity that lives where science has yet to tread, then that's precarious. Just understand that. Because as science continues to progress... Your God must get smaller and smaller. Yeah, your God gets smaller and smaller and so uh now i think deeply religious

people that's not how they think of god right but uh if if there are people who are prone to think of god they come up to me said it's dark matter dark energy is that the spirit of god right i say i i don't know but if you think that and the day we figure out what this is, are you still thinking that? That's what I'm going to ask him. That's a great way to put it, yeah. Yeah, so that's the longer discussion of what it is, the conversation you were having with your friend. Cool.

That's all. All right. Well, let's get into it. Here's John Donahue. Again, this is StarTalk Office Hours. Office Hours. Office Hours, yeah, we go. John Donahue says this.

Oh, God. He says- God ain't going to help you pronounce these words. You just go. Don't say, oh, God, because you can't pronounce a name. Help me, Lord. Help me. Help me, Lord.

Oh. Go practice the damn thing. And then come back. Hey, John, don't blame God. How about preparation? But yeah, that. Oh, man. Here we go.

All right. He says, how is there anything at all? Speaking of God. Mm-hmm. Which came first? Space or the Big Bang? I got to tell you, that's a damn good question, man. No, space as we know it was birthed in the Big Bang.

So the Big Bang started it. It birthed all the laws of physics, the existence of matter, the vacuum energy. The existence of space, which is the nothingness where the matter exists. In which the matter exists. And that nothingness actually has an energy associated with it. It's called a vacuum energy, if you want to get specific about it. So it's not as empty as- Even nothing.

It's empty of matter, but it's not empty of energy. And there's what we call a vacuum energy that permeates all of space. That's amazing. Yeah, so it's birthed into existence. That's right. So true- You're going to ask me what was before the Big Bang? Yes, true. I have no space. That's amazing. Yeah, so it's birthed into existence. That's right. So, so, so true. Now, you're going to ask me what was before the big bang? Yes, true, true.

I have no idea. There you go. I don't know. You can say, well, God. Right. Okay, keep thinking that until we got this one figured out. Until we find out what it is. Right, right.

Okay, cool. I'm going with God. Okay, that's fine. You're taking a safe route. I'm taking a safe route. Because you know I can't damn you to hell. Right, you can't. Right.

I don't have that power. That's it. All you can do is tell me to prepare better and pronounce words. I mean, names. But it's a famous thing called Pascal's Wager. Have you ever heard of this? I don't know Pascal's Wager. Yeah, Pascal, famous Pascal.

Okay. He said every thinking person should be religious. Okay? Right. And his argument, I'm going to botch it a little bit. I'll get the most of it right. Okay. The argument was, it's better to be religious on the possibility that you're right than

to not be religious and then risk the chance of eternal damnation in hell. Hey, guess what? I kind of like what he's saying there. So it's Pascal's Wager. You can be not religious and then risk going to hell forever on death. Right. Or you can just be religious, and if you're wrong, if there is no God- It doesn't make a difference.

You're good either way, and if there is a God, then you're good. Right. Exactly. It's called Pascal's Wager. It's the hedge fund of religion. Exactly. Pascal's Wager. The hedge fund of religion.

You hedge your bet. Hedge your bet, baby. Pascal's Wager. Nice. Hey, man, that was a great, great question and, of course, a great answer. Okay. Lisa Peering. And here's why I'm saying her.

Lisa goes like this. Hey, Chuck, it's pronounced peer-ing. Oh, she knows. Phonetically, she hooked me up. She knows. Hooked me up phonetically. People are phoneticizing and helping you out. Chuck Nice, hooked on phonics.

Chuck Nice got here on the short bus today. He don't know how to pronounce words. So let's help him out. Help a brother out. Okay, here we go. So how's her name pronounced. People. Help a brother out. Okay. Here we go. So how's her name pronounced? Did she help you?

She did. Peer-ing. Peering. As in peer. That's my peer. Peer reviewed. In. Peering.

Nice. Yeah. So she says, if a black hole is pulling in matter from a neighboring star does the gravitational well end up as big as both by the time it has pulled in the entire neighbor yes plus she used a nice technical phrase there a gravitational well yeah so it's perfectly legitimate to think of it that way. Yeah. So if I drop you into a well, it takes energy to get back out of that well. All right? Unless I'm that girl from The Ring. What was that?

That's a horror film where a girl came out the well, and then your TV started dripping water, and then she'd be in your house, and then you couldn't see her. Her hair was in front of her face. Do you actually watch horror movies? No, I'm too scared. Couldn't see her. Her hair was in front of her face. Do you actually watch horror movies?

No, I'm too scared. By the way, didn't finish The Ring. I don't even know what happens at the end. No, I was jealous because I grew up in the city. Uh-huh. And there were always haunted houses, but never haunted apartments. Never. But then, there are two movies that have haunted apartments.

Okay. We got two movies out there. Please tell me. Only two. Go ahead. Rosemary's Baby. Yes. Totally haunted apartment. New York haunted apartment. In New York City. Satan lived in that have haunted apartments. Okay. We've got two movies out there. Please tell me. Only two. Go ahead. Rosemary's Baby. Yes. Totally haunted apartment. New York haunted apartment.

In New York City. Satan lived in that apartment. Totally. Yes. And that apartment building is- And he ran the co-op board, by the way. Always voted against you. Always voted against you.

So that building is the Dakota. Right. Which is where very famous- John Lennon. John Lennon lived and died across the street from it. Yeah. And if you look at the railing around the Dakota, there's like a devil-looking creature with his hands.

Gargoyles. It's like gargoyly, but it's in the wrought iron around the base of the building. Sweet. It's very devil. So that's haunted house number one. And you can remember the other one. Let me see.

I'll give you five seconds. Medea's Boo 2. Medea's Boo 2. I. Madea's Boo 2. I don't think those count for anything in any data. There's an exclusionary rule. Thou shalt not include Madea movies in any movie statistics. All right. What's the second one?

So it was the guys that trap ghosts. Oh, Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters. That's right. A haunted apartment. Yep. That's right. Sigourney Weaver standing at the portal.

I am the gatekeeper. Yes. I am the key master. Oh, you are so hot. Okay. Yeah, so I was always jealous, and then I figured, okay, I got my two movies, and we're good. Well, that was a delightful digression. Why are we talking about haunted anything?

Because if you throw somebody in a well- Oh, sorry, sorry. I'm going to answer this. There was a question that started this. I'm sorry, that was a delightful digression. Why are we talking about haunting anything? Because if you throw somebody in a well- Oh, sorry. I'm going to answer this. There was a question that started this. I'm sorry. That was a terrible- I don't care. That was a version-

So you're thrown in a well. You want to get out. It takes energy. If the well gets deeper, it takes more energy. The deeper the well is, the more energy it takes to climb out. It is the same when you are on a planet. All right? The higher is the gravity of the planet, the more energy your rocket needs to escape forever.

Right. All right? And so it takes less energy to escape the moon than it does Earth, than it does Jupiter, than it does the sun. Right. Black Hole has a certain depth of its well, and there is a star next to it that got a little too close.

It begins to flay the star layer by layer. It's got to be uncomfortable for the host star. It's skinning a star alive. Alive. And that material spirals around in what we call an accretion disk where the material accretes and gets fed down the hole, never to be seen again.

When it eats the entire star eventually, then it will have the gravitational strength of the original When it eats the entire star eventually, then it will have the gravitational strength of the original black hole plus the entire star. And so the black hole grew. Wow. Its event horizon is just that much bigger. Wow. Oh, yeah.

Okay, that is fascinating. And Lisa, that was an amazing question. And thank you for helping Chuck out. Yes. Like I said, he came in a short bus today. All right. This is Spencer Rogers. And Spencer says this.

How do you make math sexy? I feel like popular scientists do a good job making science cool. But math, not so much. And you know what? Spencer's got a great point. Because science is cool now. But still, people will tell you they hate math in a second. No matter what. No matter what.

No matter what. Even if you're a good teacher, they'll say, okay, I enjoyed the class, but I still hate the math. In general. So it's one of the most hated subjects out there. And so I have a cop-out answer for you. Here it is. I would

say that you demonstrate something else that required math, and that something else is so amazing, you want to figure out how it got figured out. Got you. And then you're forced to then embrace the math that's behind it. Okay. So I attempted that back when, was it the Bengals? Who were they playing in the

football? And it was when it's overtime. You tweeted about the field goal. The field goal. So the field goal gets kicked and it hits off the left upright. This is an overtime, so it's a sudden death score. Right. And it hits off the left upright and careens in for the win. Correct. And I looked at the, quickly, oh, wait a minute, looked at the orientation of the stadium. It was mostly north-south. I did a quick calculation, and then I tweeted that the winning field goal was aided by a third of an inch deflection

to the right from Earth's rotation. Right. And the people said, mind blown, oh my gosh. It was made on ESPN and all. Everybody was talking about it. I remember it. So my sense is, if you love football football and you love sudden death field goals and you know

that Earth is rotating, you might say, one day I want to figure out how that works. And you're going to need math. You're going to need math. And then you will see the power of math. And because you have a separate goal in mind, that's what takes you through the math, the gut slogging that may be necessary. That's my cop-out answer, but I think you can get a lot of people to embrace math when it empowers them to do other things.

Got to be relatable. That's cool. Hey, since you brought that up, I'm sorry. I have to say that you can hear more of that kind of science sports mashup on a little show called Playing with Science with former professional footballer Gary O'Reilly and yours truly, Chuck Nice. Footballer, that would be the UK, which means it was soccer.

Soccer player. Yeah, yeah. He's a professional soccer player. Professional soccer player. That's right. Oh, yeah. Sports, yes. We got a whole place to put our sports.

Yes, we do. Does your mama know you're playing with science? I gotta ask that every single time. I love it. We're gonna take a quick break and we will be back on Facebook Live in just a moment. We're back. Star Talk. Office Hours Edition.

I got Chuck Nice here tweeting a Chuck Nice comic. That's right, sir. Thank you very much for that. Love your tweets. Thank you. Thank you. Love your tweets too, but you know,

you just... You only say that after I ever tell you that I love your tweets. I don't I ever tell you that I love your tweets. I don't have to tell you that I love your tweets because 7 million people freaking love your tweets along with me. It's 9.7. But that's alright.

See, he doesn't really pay attention. I'm just saying. I don't know. Dude, that was awesome, by the way. That's the way you do it. That's a crazy number too. I keep thinking do they know, like I'm an astrophys don't know. Dude, that was awesome. By the way, that's the way you do it. That's a crazy number, too. I keep thinking, do they know I'm an astrophysicist? There's still time to unfollow, you know? Well, no. Is this like a mistake?

That's great, man. Nine million people. I don't know. And you're exciting. It's an awesome responsibility. It is. You're exciting nine million people to get excited about science. Well, because I get excited about science.

There's a whole thing. Every tweet is. I've tried to. You catch my tweet today? Did you catch it? I did not. I haven't been on social media today. See, more evidence. I have not been on social media today. Okay? Okay, I'll paraphrase it. I feel like my son right now. I'm just like, son, is your homework done? What are you talking? I just got home. What are you talking about? You're falling behind. I'm not going to remember it exactly

because the tweets are carefully worded. Something like, if the world were ever going to end cosmically, I would give you plenty of notice to do nothing about it. That's all. Yeah, there it is right there. Did I get it right?

If the world were really going to end cosmically, I'd let you all know, and with plenty of time, to do nothing about it. That's a great tweet. That's a literal tweet right there. Yeah, because guess what? Some things that don't make a difference.

They don't make a difference. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's right. Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. No, his voice is deeper than that. Mr. Anderson. Oh, that was pretty good.

That is the sound of inevitability. Not bad. Okay, I like it. My name is Neo. Don't get me quoting The Matrix, because I'm on every- I forgot that's one of your favorite movies. It is my, not one of, the favorite, my single favorite movie. Matrix 1, not 2 and 3.

No, well, 2 and 3, come on. Then you would lose all credibility. Forget about it. Right, right, right. Matrix 1 is like such a great movie. I'm all there. Don't get me in it. And philosophically, it's so great.

We will never stop. Oh, okay. Do you know, just one day we'll do, don't, don't, don't, just don't. Okay, let's do a Star Talk, The Matrix. Matrix edition. No, no, no. Because this is office hours. But on another time, I will tell you.

I'll give you one example of what's going on there. All right. Do you know that in a Catholic church, there are the Stations of the Cross? It's basically before there were movies. You would follow a sequence of drawings that portrayed a sequence of events. And in a Catholic church, it sounds like you've never been in a Catholic portrayed a sequence of events. Okay. And in a Catholic church, it sounds like you've never been in a Catholic church.

You're right. Okay, just check one out. They're interesting, okay? So there are these, every Catholic church has the Stations of the Cross. There's like 14 or 15 of them, okay? Around it starts, and it's everything related to the key events in Jesus' life.

Okay, where he's carrying the cross. He gets nailed on the cross. Okay. He dies on the cross. Right. He's pulled down from the cross. Okay. Okay, where he's carrying the cross. He gets nailed on the cross. Okay. He dies on the cross. Right. He's pulled down from the cross. Right. Okay, all of this.

Stabbed on the cross. It's basically, it's a movie. Right. It's basically a movie. Okay. Okay, before we had movies. Well, when Neo dies. Okay.

When Neo dies. Okay. Okay, how does he die? Well, 14 bullets are shot into him. And only after that does he rise from the dead. Ooh. And Neo is an anagram of one. He's the one.

He's the one. The one. Which is a very, is an archetype of a savior, or the savior. That was kind of my whole point of what I just said. Well, you ain't got to make me feel stupid about it. Come on. I'm figuring some stuff out, man. God.

And also, when he's awoken, awakened, when he's by the knocking on the door, and this is when he follows the white rabbit by the woman with the tattoo on her arm, when he hands them the code that he had broken, whatever, and the exchange for the money, what does the guy say to him? They said, oh, you're my savior,

you're my regular Jesus Christ. He does say that. Yes, he does. So all these references are throughout the movie. Nice. The movie goes, it's deep. Okay. We're gonna have to do a StarTalk Matrix.

That's, I would love that. Matrix edition, all right. Okay. We're going to have to do a StarTalk Matrix. I would love that. Matrix edition. All right. Okay, here we go. Let's go back to our cosmic queries of the universe from Facebook Live. We have Warren McDonald who says, Does the night sky look clearer on cold nights than warm nights? Is there a warm air distortion?

Now, I have heard that cold nights give you the crisp, clear view of the sky. Now, I don't know if it's true or not. Yeah, so it's mostly true, but maybe not for the reasons you're thinking. Okay. All right, so where are the warmer places in the world? The desert gets warm. Yes. Okay, but at night, deserts get very cold.

Very cold. All right, now, why does that happen? Because water vapor is a greenhouse gas. Water is a greenhouse gas. So if you have a moist air on a hot day and it stays moist at night,

the heat, the ground that heated during the day cannot radiate back to space and it stays that way. Okay? Wow. Well, you just,

that's, yo, that's climate change right there, people. Well, except there's a fixed amount of water. Of course. You can add to this by evaporating more ocean, and that exacerbates the greenhouse effect. But I'm saying, so it's why in deserts the temperature drops so precipitously. Right. Because nothing gets trapped.

It all just escapes. Gotcha. All the heat escapes. Yeah, yeah. So now, so deserts, we put all of our telescopes in deserts because it hardly ever rains. And so you don't want clouds in the way. Right. Because rain comes out of clouds.

Yeah. Okay. It's kind of hard to see through clouds. Right. Now you go to the tropics where it's kind of hard to see through clouds. Right. Now you go to the tropics where it's sort of moist and hot and moist, the moisture in the air actually interferes with your observing.

So you could have a hot, dry climate and your observing would be just as fine as if it were cold, dry climate. Okay. But when it's not dry, that's where you're looking through water vapor and things, and it's never good. Gotcha.

It's never good. There you go, man. Oh, yeah. So that's why your view of the night sky on a shoreline is generally not as good as if you were on a mountaintop or in a desert. That's why. People say, let's go to the beach and see the sky.

Right. If you can go inland, go inland. Right. Otherwise, you'll get, like, sea mist and this sort of thing yeah that'll just interfere with your view gotcha yeah all right so william uh what else happened sorry good i'm still going in now and what often happens is if it's stormy and then the storm blows away right and it goes off to some other place where it peters out typically it does so because a high pressure system comes in. And a high pressure system doesn't have moisture. Right.

And then it's a crisp blue sky. Yeah. And you get beautiful weather. And people love themselves some high pressure systems. Because you don't think of them that way. You just think of it as a sunny cloudless day. Right. But that's exactly what they are.

Perfect for viewing the cosmos. And it's a high pressure, which means if you're a cloud, you go in the opposite direction of the high pressure. Right. Because you're responding to which direction the pressure points you. Okay? Exactly. So it's a high pressure place that is pushing against you towards the low pressure place. And all the clouds gather at the low pressure place.

Because they're pussies. This is why you get storms. It is why hurricanes are deep, low-pressure places. Exactly. It's a cloud jamboree. Yeah. They got pushed there by the surrounding high pressure. And that's so funny you say that because when you get these really lingering storms, it's often a high-pressure system that's keeping them in place.

Yes, yes. And then eventually you hope it'll push it out. But yeah, generally a high pressure system wins over a low pressure system. Yeah, you generally don't have a high pressure system overrun by a low pressure system generally. Cool. All right.

So let's go to William Vissell, who wants to know this. A lot of us laymen don't know, and we are baffled by science. Okay? But he says, what baffles or is hard for you to grasp? Oh, okay. Good question.

So first of all, you're not as baffled as you think because science is everywhere you you spoke of science like it's some edifice like it's some thing some place where if you step inside then you got to learn science and you step outside then you can ignore it no science is everywhere it is where you walk it is where you sleep it is where you're awake i have a very specific set of skills i I am science. I will find you. It'll find you. I will find you. So, so,

and it's one of the things we try to do on StarTalk, especially playing with science, Chuck and Gary's show, is to demonstrate all the places that science touches us. Right.

And influences how you should think about your next decision and the like. So, show me on the doll where the science touched you. Where did that come from? I don't know.

I don't know. I have a problem. I was touched by science. So for me, to the scientist, we are baffled by things that baffle all scientists, the things that are not yet answered. Because anything else in principle, it's my duty to then learn. If I don't know it yet, but it is known, I got to learn that. Right.

All right. As a PhD scientist, your task is not to wander in the forest of what is known, is to find the edge between what is known and unknown and stick a foot out into that zone. Nice. But consider that as the area of your knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of your ignorance. Yes. Oh.

That's great. So the scientists will go to that edge. And for me, my top three. Top three mysteries are I want to know what dark matter is. It accounts for 85% of the gravity of the universe, and we don't know where it's coming from. It's not black holes. It's not comets. It's not planets, stars, gas clouds, galaxies.

We don't know where it's coming from. Mystery number one. Mystery number two. The universe is accelerating in its expansion by some mysterious pressure operating in the vacuum of space. We can measure it. We don't know where that's coming from either. That's two.

Wow. Okay. So the first mystery dates from the 1930s. The second mystery dates from the 1990s. Okay. And there's a third mystery that's been with us forever. I want to know how we went from organic molecules to self-replicating life in early Earth.

That's awesome. Yeah. And so these are baffling mysteries on the frontier. That would be the kind of meaning of life, wouldn't it? It would be the origin of life. I don't know if it would be the meaning of life. I guess so. Yeah, you're right.

Because one is philosophical. The other is more technical and biological. Yeah, plus meaning. I think meaning, we create meaning in our lives. There are people who search for it like it's behind a tree or under a rock. Right. And I'm looking for the meaning in life.

When you actually have the power to create meaning within you. You can create meaning by lessening the suffering of others or by learning something today that you didn't know yesterday. These things are what add value. Maybe that's a value judgment for me to even assert that. But for me, it adds value to my life. And it is from that value that I derive meaning. Man, this is a super, super philosophical show today.

I love it. And by the way, that is a great statement in terms of what creates meaning in life because a lot of people, when you say you search for that meaning, when they search for it externally, then they have to find something to tell them what the value is. Right, or the meaning is. Or the meaning is. And maybe that works for people, but most people who even pose the question

are in the act of searching for meaning themselves. And I would claim that once you realize the power you have over your own life or the power you have over the lives of others, positive power, let's think of it that way okay then you stop looking for meaning and you begin to create it nice all right good stuff and william that was uh first of all a great question so i love the answer too and let me let me speak for bill gates even though i who why should i do i even have the right to? Let me tell you something. Of the two of you,

I'd rather you speak for him all the time, to be honest. I don't know if you've spent any time with this guy, but he is not the most exciting speaker. Okay? He's the patron saint of the geekosphere, right? He really is. So what he decided to do with his gazillions

was find problems in the world that are solvable. Right. And if they can be solved with money, and then solve them. And you put a that are solvable. Right. And if they can be solved with money and then solve them. And you put a check in that box. Right. Okay. Done. Done.

Done. President Carter had the same mission. There is a disease called the guinea worm. The guinea worm. There's a parasite. Yes, it is. Called the guinea worm that only attacks human beings. Yes.

No other mammal in the world does this thing attack. Okay? And it gets in your bloodstream. Yeah. And it, ooh, it's, ooh. It's nasty. It's nasty. And it grows to a pretty significant length.

Right, correct, correct. And then it exits your body through your foot. Right, ooh, yeah, no, it's, ooh, sores. There's sores in your foot. Right, and in fact, it is suspected that the, is it the caduceus? The thing with the- Yes, with the twirling of the stick

around the serpent and the snake. The serpent twirling around the staff is by some accounts of history a representation of the guinea worm because the way you would remove the guinea worm, it would show its head through a sore, and then you sort of wrap it around a stick and just keep doing it gently don't tug on it hard because you don't want to break you don't want a broken guinea worm

oh man so you keep tugging on it and you keep wrapping it around until the entire worm is removed so if you can if you can cure that right then you can, and people get it from other people in water holes. So if you can rid the world of the guinea worm, then it will never come back and you're done. So this is a solvable problem. Talk about creating meaning in life, in not only your life for doing good for others, but in the life of others who are the receivers of that goodwill.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. You got it. So go out and do something good, people. That's what we're saying. You know? Find meaning in your life.

Make meaning in your life. That's right. That's right. So we'll take another quick break. When we come back, more of Star Talk Office Hours. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson with Chuck Nice. Come on. of The Grass Dice with Chuck Nice.

Come on. Chuck, we're back. Yes, we are. Star Talk. Star Talk Office Hours. Office Hours. And we've got your queries here. The doctor's in.

Yes, sir. Okay, let's move on to... I don't like calling myself doctor. Did I tell you why? Why? Because it implies that you should believe me because i carry these titles why else would i believe no you might believe me because my argument was sufficiently

compelling that you needn't ask what pedigree i carry with me but see some people make a cogent argument and that is fine and i can understand okay it's like that was convincing. And then other people, I'm like, you know, okay, what I'm really saying is this. A lot of times doctors will make that convincing, compelling argument because they are doctors, because they have done the work and the research. I get that. I'm just saying, just because someone has degrees after their name or before their name does not mean that everything that they will say is true or has make sense like dr phil yeah how's that working out for you

i don't know i don't know how is that working out but you keep doing the same thing over and over again and you're expecting different results all i'm saying is i i by not leading with my degrees it means i have to be more compelling in my arguments because i want my arguments to be what is convincing to you not you to say oh this is true because tyson said so if that's why you think it's true then i failed as an educator that's all i want to say, oh, this is true because Tyson said so. If that's why you think it's true, then I failed as an educator. That's all I want to say. I want you to take ownership of the knowledge that has passed between us. Well, all educators feel that way. I mean, I grew up with a mother who was an English teacher,

and basically her thing was, if you believe it because I tell you, well, then I've done you a disservice. Yes, correct. Go find out for yourself from several different sources. Argument from authority is not how discoveries happen. As a matter of fact, she would go one step further and say, you should be questioning that authority. Yes. Because that's how you get to true discovery is questioning that authority.

But that being said- Oh, the modern version of that is bringing truth to power. Bringing truth to power. That's the modern translation of that. Absolutely. However, with that being said said i will ask you this have you met you because quite frankly you're neil degrasse tyson and when you say something people are going to be like oh yeah right i believe that guy well no but i try to give them

enough information so that they can because here it is it's like if they just listen oh i didn't know that okay i guess that's true that's one kind of reaction. The other one is, whoa, I never thought about it that way. Whoa, yeah. And then you turn around and go tell someone else. Okay, that's enlightenment. That's learning. You just took ownership of that bit of information right there. I agree.

And that happens to me quite a bit. That's the reason why I do this job. No, I'm dead serious. People often say, dude, I watched you freak out with Neil. And it's because I've learned something, and now what I have to do is go research it because- Go ahead. Right. Because my mother would kill me if I just took your word for it.

That's fine. That's fine. But now you are compelled to want to learn more about it. Absolutely. And then my job is done. I can go home and go to the Bahamas. Now I don't want to learn something. I want to go to the Bahamas.

Okay, here we go. Well, people, this is office hours. Yes, sir. And we are Facebook Live. Yes, sir. Here we go. This is Barbara Brian Boyd. Thank you, Barbara, not only for the alliteration,

but for the simplicity of your name. I have a question that I've wanted to ask you for some time. Since the moon is slowly drifting away, when will it get to the point that is so far away from Earth that it can no longer affect tides? What exactly will happen? Oh, okay. no longer affect tides what exactly will happen oh okay so so first some people might not have known that the moon is spiraling away from earth several inches a year don't leave me come on girl don't leave me you need that disco song don't leave me this way yes who is it gloria gainer yeah okay so So the moon is spiraling away several, about five centimeters a year. So what is it?

Two or three inches. And so every year it's two or three inches farther from Earth than the year before. Okay? Okay. Now, not only that, the moon is trying to slow down Earth's rotation. Okay. And it is succeeding at this. We, instead of redefining the length of a second,

what we do is we add leap seconds whenever necessary. And ever since 1972, when we figured out the moon was slowing down Earth, we've added 25 or so leap seconds since then. Sweet. Yeah, at the end of each year. Sometimes you can add them at the end of June, depending on if you needed two that year or one.

So that's a measurement we make about the rate at which we're slowing down. And we're slowing down primarily, there are many reasons how we can slow down. It includes earthquakes, shifting continental plates. Wow. Changing what's called the rotational moment of inertia of Earth.

Wow. If you shift plates, it's kind of like a skater bringing their arms in or out. That'll just change their rotation rate. That's it. A spinning skater. Right. If you have continental plates abruptly shifting, that's tantamount to moving your arms in and out.

And it can instantly change the rotation rate of the Earth. So you factor all this in. So one of the major drivers is the ocean tides sloshing back and forth on the on the shores right especially on the continental shells so that's slowing down our rotation all right the result of all of this is the moon has slowed down earth such that we only show one face to the moon. Okay. Just as we have already slowed down the rotation of the moon so that it only shows one face to us. Okay.

That's why we always see the same side of the moon. There's a near side and there's a far side. Right. You only ever see the near side. That's it. That's it. There's no dark side, by the way. All sides get light.

A day on the moon lasts a month, so all sides get light. Okay. Not if you knew that. No, I just thought it was- It's taken me decades since- I thought the force was strong with the Earth. That's why. That's why there's no dark side.

So eventually, both Earth and the moon will show the same face to one another, and all tidal forces will cease at that point. Wow. That is the lowest energy state of a two-body system, is when both sides face one another. And if you can calculate that up, that'll take more time than the life expectancy of the sun. Okay, so...

So she has more pressing issues to worry about. Other priorities. Other priorities. Other priorities. But the moon will be significantly farther away when that happens, and gone will be total solar eclipses. So with that in mind, will our sun nova, or will our sun explode or collapse? What kind of sun?

The sun will die not in an explosion, but as a whimpering white dwarf. Right. So what'll happen is it'll enter this phase that we call the red giant phase. Right. Where it becomes red and really big. Right. Red giant phase. The red giant phase.

That's how we call it. I just like the way that you guys make it very plain what you're talking about. We call it as we see it. Right. Like the umpires. So the sun will- So the red, what's the red?

Well, because it cools down. Because the sun's white. Yeah, the sun is white hot. Right. In the future, it will cool down to a lower temperature and become red hot. And red hot is a cooler temperature than white hot. Right.

And even hotter than white hot is blue hot. So that's how that goes. Oh, yo, baby. I like that. So that's astrophysically, right? Right, right. To the artist, it's the opposite. Right.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. You want to be white hot if you're an artist. Or red hot, really. You want to be red hot. Yeah. You want to convey heat in illustrations you do with red. Yeah. You want to be white hot if you're an artist. Or red hot, really. You want to be red hot. Yeah. You want to convey heat in the illustrations you do with red.

And cold, you would use blue. Right. So I wrote a poem about this. Uh-oh. Yo, hold on there. Long ago. Wait, we got to hear this. Okay, ready?

Can you do it like Sonia Sanchez, though? Just like, you know, I am Neil deGrasse Tyson. All right. On canvas with paint in the artist's school, it is red that is hot and blue that is cool. But in science we show as a star grows hotter, it begins to grow red like the coals of a fire. Raise the heat some more.

What is in sight? Behold, the star has turned bright white. But the hottest of all, I say unto you, is neither red nor white when a star has turned blue. Sweet! I like it. It's a good poem. It's a rhyme. It's still a poem.

But it had some lame parts in the middle there. But I get the point. Let me tell you something. It's a hell of a lot better than most rap music today. If you heard this crap, oh my God a lot better than most rap music today. What's all that right now? Have you heard this crap? Oh my God, they don't even speak English anymore. But at least the syllables rhyme with one another. However, I want to get that and put some jazz music under it.

It sounds very jazz-like. On canvas with paint in the artist's school. It is red that is hot and blue that is cool. But in science we show, as the heat goes higher, a star glows red like the coals of a fire. Raise the heat some more, and what is in sight?

Behold, it's turned bright white. But the hottest of all, I say unto you, is neither white nor red when the star has turned blue Just got a double reading of my poem I did it correctly the second time yeah compared to the person but anyhow I'm gonna take them put some music under throw it up on start talking access So now why was we even going there? Well, I forgot the So now why was we even going there?

I forgot the question. Oh, here's what I'm talking about. The death of our sun. The sun will enter a red giant phase where it becomes bloated. Very low density gas and bloated. And it cools down to about 3,000 degrees. We're about 6,000 degrees now. It'll become so large it will engulf the entire orbits of Mercury and Venus and Earth. and Venus and Earth.

And Earth will be a charred ember ready to vaporize as it descends into the star's surface. Wow. Have a nice day. Tell that to the kids tonight. So did I answer the question? What was the question? No, that was my question. What was the woman's question?

Her question was about the tides. Her question was what will exactly happen? Earth will vaporize before we become double tidally locked with the moon. Right. And I used to wrestle, and I wanted to invent a new move called the double tidal lock. The double tidal lock. Yeah, and I had some preliminary- That means you would have first to invent the tidal lock.

No, no, no. Then how did you double it? The double lock is you lock one facing you, and the other one faces you as well. By the way, Pluto and his moon, Charon, are double tidally locked. Oh. They face one another. So they just- In their eternal dance.

Nice. Right, right. So I try- And so what happens is you lock up your arms face to face. Okay. And I spin you down to the mat. So we rotate together while facing one another. While facing one another and you take the guy down.

I take the guy down and then they're pinned. You just broke my arms. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm too small. You were feeling it. I'm outside. I'm too far.

Not my weight class. That's what I'm saying. All right. All right. Let's go to Francis Wolfgang Urban. Go on. Okay. Here we go.

How much time? How much time do we have? Oh. We only have two minutes left in the whole show? Two minutes left. Okay. Go. Okay.gang Urban. Go on. Okay, here we go. How much time do we have? How much time do we have? Oh, crap. We only have two minutes left in the whole show? Two minutes left. Okay, go. Okay, all right. Two minutes, people.

Francis Wolfgang Urban says this. Do you think- I love people named Wolfgang. Yes. Do you think we'll eventually be able to travel via wormhole? Oh, for me, that's the future of getting around the galaxy. Without that, our human physiology is hopelessly mismatched with the time it will take to travel among the stars. The fastest thing we ever launch will take 70,000 years to reach the nearest star.

You are long dead before that happens. And in my field, if we do a science experiment, the first rule is it's got to be done before you die. So we're going to need wormholes if we're going to go anywhere. So that's my next favorite thing I hope somebody invents. Okay, great. Next one. Quick, one more. Go.

Here we go. Let's see. Go. Oh, I love this one. Adrian Gray Marsden says this. Go. Hey, Neil, what's your favorite wine of choice? Oh.

Yeah. Oh. And I'm going to put the computer down now, and I'm going to write down what you say. Lately, I've been leaning Burgundy. Ooh, Burgundy. Burgundy. One day, we'll do a whole show on the science of wine. I'll tell you why.

Because Burgundy figured out how to perfect the middle. In America, if a little bit of something is good, we tend to think more of it is better. Right. But then you learn, as your sense of the world matures, that it takes much more talent to balance all elements in the middle. That takes talent, whereas shoving more into something that was good in small quantities, expecting it to be great in great quantities,

you can blow out what made it great in the first place. So burgundy at its best has perfected the middle. Gotcha. It is very middle. Highly balanced. Imagine going to Starbucks and said, I want very medium. They won't even know

how to reply to that. That's not how our brains are wired here in America. This is America. Give me the biggest possible. We have stuff, we have drinks you bring into your car

that are so large that they don't fit the cup holder. They have to squeeze down the bottom part of the shape to fit in the cup holder. Right.

While the half gallon of liquid is sloshing around. So, all I'm saying, so Eileen Burgundy, Eileen Red Burgundy, the Vaughn Romanet section of Burgundy. Vaughn Romanet. Vaughn Romanet. Vaughn Romanet. The many vineyards there, I'll take them all. Give them to me. All right.

Yeah. And especially recent vintages, 2015, 2009 was beautiful, 2010. Yeah. And 2005 in recent years, if you can find them. They're beautiful. But burgundy is expensive. You got to like-

Okay, you just lost me. Okay. Chuck, we'll try to raise your salary this year so you can- Yeah, because I was going to say, this sounds awesome. And then you were just like, but they're expensive. I'm like, and I hate burgundy. Yeah, they come out high on that list. like, and I hate burgundy. Yeah, they come out high

on that list. Well, we ran out of time. Facebook Live, thanks for joining us. Chuck, nice comic. Always good to have you.

Always a pleasure to be here, man. As my co-host. Absolutely. I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson on Office Hours, Star Talk.

As always, I bid you to keep looking up.