StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries – Science in Pop Fiction

Episode Date: August 2, 2019

Neil deGrasse Tyson, comic co-host Chuck Nice, and astrophysicist and StarTalk geek-in-chief Charles Liu answer fan-submitted questions about speed of light communication, Batman, the science of invisibility, the future of spaceships, the quantum realm, and much more!NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/cosmic-queries-science-in-pop-fiction/Photo Credit: StarTalk©Thanks to this week's Patrons for supporting us: Katie Gared, Adam Giacobbe, Sergio Rizzuto, Samir Cope, Jesus Rodriguez, and Ronald Warmerdam Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

From the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and beaming out across all of space and time, this is StarTalk, where science and pop culture collide. This is StarTalk. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And this is a Cosmic Queries edition on science in pop fiction. Ooh, what does that mean? I got my resident geek-in-chief with me, Charles Liu. Charles, welcome back to StarTalk.

What a pleasure to be here. You're like such a regular on this show. Because there's certain categories of expertise that you just plug that hole. And we just sit back and enjoy. I live to serve. Thank you for having me. There he goes. And Chuck Nice.

That's right. As always, dude. That's right. Always a pleasure to be here, man. All right. So, you got, we solicited questions. We have science in pop fiction. In pop fiction.

So, it's movies. Pop fiction's what? Television. You know, maybe comic books. So it could be superheroes. It could be superheroes. It could be just sci-fi. It could be sci-fi.

Sci-fantasy. Right. All of the above. Right. Whoever's putting science in their fiction, we're going to talk about it. That's right. Okay. That's right.

I think of pop fiction as the kind of fiction that you would watch while eating popcorn. Okay. So pretty much anything else. Pop fiction. Pop fiction. Pop corn. Works for me. Okay. All right much anything else. Pop fiction. Pop fiction. Pop corn. Works for me. All right.

So Chuck, what do you have? All right. You can call me Charles if you'd like. And you can call me Chuck. Yeah. Entertangeable. You were Chuck in college, right? Yes.

You were Chuck in college? I'm still Chuck now. By the way, I was Chuck in high school. Awesome. Yes, I was. How were you Chuck in high school? I hung out with a couple of friends who noticed that I was always jovial. Who? Peppermint Yes, I was. How were you Chuck in high school? I hung out with a couple of friends who noticed that I was always jovial. Who, Peppermint

Patty? Pig pen? It was, they noticed that I chuckled a lot. And so they had their own nickname for me that no one else had. And it was Chuck, which was short for chuckles. Oh, how cute. And it ended after high school.

Alright, cool. Not that I didn't stop laughing, but no one really cared. Right. And it ended after high school. All right. Cool. Not that I can stop laughing, but no one really cares. Right. And then you became Dr. Hibbert. So we really have three Chucks. With Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Chuck, Chuck, and Chuck. How much wood could a wood chuck chuck?

All right, here we go. We always start with a Patreon patron because they support us financially and we're whores. So this is from... This is from Mike Walterich on Patreon. And this is what he says. On shows like the Orville and many others, they often communicate with people light years away.

They never explain how they do it. Maybe there's a wire that passes through a tiny wormhole to connect Earth. how they do it. Maybe there's a wire that passes through a tiny wormhole to connect Earth. What I'm wondering, though, is if they were able

to reliably share the same sense of time for the duration of their conversation, would one of them sound like a chipmunk and the other sound like they're

in slow motion? What other weird effects might occur? That's a great question. That's a really great question. Because, you know, we're so distracted by it. Well, that wouldn't make noise in the vacuum great question. That's a really great question. Because, you know, we're so distracted by, well, that wouldn't make noise in the vacuum of space.

And this person's thinking deep. Yes, he is. About conversations. We have this issue with communicating with the Mars rover. Right. The Mars rover. What's the delay on the Mars rover? It's on average about 20 minutes.

So you're, hello. You're just like, watch out for the cliff, and it's too late. So you've got to make sure. Watch out for the cliff. Jesus. That's why the rovers all have some kind of AI on them to know where they're headed and how dangerous it might be, regardless of what command we give them.

Yeah, because it's like having a lousy parent at the playground. You know what I mean? So clearly they're communicating with people much farther away than just Earth to Mars. Right. So I'm thinking it's got to be some wormhole channel. Charles, you got an opinion about that? In Star Trek specifically, there is this construct called subspace. Yeah.

Which transcends regular space and time. And basically anything that happens in subspace, you can just assume, works just as if you and I were next door to anything that happens in subspace, you can just assume, works just as if you and I were next door to each other or in the same room. In real time. Yes.

But that completely doesn't affect the entire rest of space and time. It's really a false, entertaining, convenient construct.

It'd be cool if that were the thing, wouldn't it? Right, it would. And perhaps someday that will be discussed. But if that were the case... Wait, wait, wait, wait. perhaps someday that will be discussed. But if that were the case... Wait, wait, wait, wait.

So Verizon Fios, eat your heart out. Right. The problem, of course, is that if you can have this trans-luminal communication, you really mess up causality. You can really have an issue. Like, let's say I somehow am magically able to tell that Mars rover, watch out for the cliff, in instantaneous time.

And then the rest of the signal, where somebody else is watching that rover, it takes 20 minutes for us to see that that rover avoided the cliff. And so you're really turning into a strange opportunity to twist what's causing what, who's causing things, and all of physics starts to break down under those circumstances. So superluminal communication or faster-than-light communication is approximately as challenging as faster-than-light travel to our ability to understand how physics works. And in fact, this is just the movement of information has tremendous consequences

if not done according to the universe in which we have laid down our laws of physics. Right. But is there a coherent set of laws of physics that will allow superluminal communication and not mess things up? At the moment, no. So let's say for-

We're waiting for someone else to be born. Pretty much. Einstein Jr. Take us to the next step. Einstein Jr. That's right. All right, take us to the next step. Little Einstein. That's right. Right.

Yeah, well, so the comments about whether or not you sound like a chipmunk or you talk really slowly is. At low frequency. Yes. You can speak slowly at a high frequency. That's right. Yeah. You can speak slowly at a high frequency.

Sorry. The idea is... You know, my favorite scene ever was in... What's that Riding Hood movie? Little Red Riding Hood movie? Hoodwinked. Hoodwinked. Hoodwinked.

The chipmunk. No one understood the chipmunk. The chipmunk said... And you just think, oh, it's being a cute little chipmunk. And then the detective says, I think I know what's going on here. He records the chipmunk and then plays it back in slow motion, plays it back, and it says, I was witness to what happened. It's this slow, deliberate, low-frequency voice translating the chipmunk.

Right. So that kind of effect is what we call the Doppler effect. Right. Especially the Doppler effect for sound. And Neil, you and I understand that very well. Just when we're out on the streets in New York and the ambulance goes by or something like that. Well, they go by too slowly to have any Doppler effect at all. Well, in New York they do.

In Russia. It's the one stuck in traffic. No Doppler effect. Every time I see an ambulance in New York, I'm like, that guy's dead. Chuck. I'm just saying. It's like sitting at a light for 20 minutes. Woo!

Woo! It's behind you. Nobody knows how to move. And nobody's moving, and it's trapped on the street. It's just, all right, sorry. Go ahead. You need drones to carry these folks. So if you're going through a wormhole, you're not having these Doppler effects.

That's right. So you're not going to have frequency changes or anything. If you're close to a black hole, sort of like in the movie Interstellar, you do have things change in terms of light and sound and those kinds of things. But in order to really predict what's happening in terms of superluminal communications,

I think we are well beyond normal science as we understand it now. And like the Orville, we're totally in fiction. Okay. All right. All right. Hey, Mike, what a great question, man. Way to go.

All right, let's go to Chris Mangrum from Facebook. So we're done with the Patreons? Yeah, for now. For now. We'll get back to them. You know, get back to them. I don't want to be that much of a whore you know buy me dinner first no um come on man here we go uh this is chris mangram from facebook who says have you ever watched a superhero sci-fi movie

that hadn't made you cringe and if so what was it i think that let's frame that positively is there a superhero or sci-fi movie that you have watched and appreciated the amount of science that was built in and the uh the level of science accuracy so that's that's really what this i think chris that's really what this... I think, Chris, that's really what you're saying. You just put a positive spin on the same question. I'm putting a positive frame.

Let's trade off. Give me a movie and I'll give you a movie and we'll go down the list until we cry. All right. In terms of movies, superhero movies that...

Maybe we can do like, how long did it take before I started to cringe or something like that. The movie that made me cringe least. Least. It was interesting. The 1966 Batman movie. The original Batman movie. No, that's the one we had shark

repellent in a spray can. That was also the one where they all became powder. Yes. In the United Nations. They used heavy water to bring them back. That's right. And they went. And they're identical to each other, except they're speaking each other's languages.

Which, by the way, is almost as believable as the Tower of Babel. Anyway, go ahead. The reason I did not cringe at that one is because I knew. Wait, wait, wait. What fraction of our audience even have seen that movie? Well, you didn't ask me that question. You've got to be like 80 years audience even have seen that movie? Well, you didn't ask me that question. You've got to be like 80 years old to have seen that movie. No, no. I know that on college campuses, on many college campuses, there's the

annual watching of the Batman movie. Gotcha. Okay, fine. Holy AARP Batman. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Wheel me closer to the screen. Robin, I do believe that man stole my walker.

So my cringing was, okay, I even allowed there to have been shark repellent in a spray can. Yes. But there was batmanta repellent and there was eel repellent, whatever it was. Here's my thing. My issue was, how big is his utility belt to just always happen to have shark repellent?

He didn't have the bat shark repellent on him at that time. It was in the vehicle. It was in the bat copter. And the shark was attached to the bat man's leg as he was coming up on the rope ladder. And he said, quick, Robin, hand me the batman's leg as he was coming up on the rope ladder and he said quick robin hand me the bat shark repellent and so from the cabinet that had the bat shark repellent bat manta ray repellent bat whatever repellent each kind of bad right aquatic it's like a spice rack of repellents

and he grabbed the thing and sprayed it and then they fell down and then exploded okay i thought it came from his utility about okay so now so the reason it wasn't cringeworthy for me is because I knew that it was totally goofy to begin with. And in a sense, I prefer movies of that genre that don't take themselves too seriously. Like Mars Attacks. Yes. If they're obviously messed up,

then I don't really worry too much about how they... What bothers me... That's Mars attacks. I'm sorry. Really? That's not Mars attacks. The aliens just say, and they were destroyed only by...

Should we spoil the movie? I don't know if you should do that. No, let's not spoil the movie, but it turns out something completely... You're worried about spoiling Mars attacks. Yeah. Something completely unexpected saves the world. Now the kids have something to go look at.

Go look at it, kids. So in that vein, my movie where I just said, okay, I am leaving all reality behind. No matter what. Suspending all disbelief. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Yes. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Okay.

So the tomatoes just jumping and smothering people. And I said, okay. Oh, my God. I'm dying by deliciousness. He was like, okay. I'll give it to them. Right. And.

My only regret is I still don't know if you're a fruit or a vegetable. All right. Same kind of genre. Okay. For current actual, say, Marvel, DC, Disney, whatever. For real superhero. For current universe superhero things, the least cringeworthy sci-fi superhero movie that I've actually seen is Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange! And the reason that doesn't cringe me... Is that a verb? To cringe? You just made it one. An active verb. I mean, I cringe, but to cringe somebody.

You made it an active verb. Okay, all right. The reason it doesn't is because it's all magic. Because the premise of the movie is that none of this is science anyway. Or, as say... It's supernatural as, say, Reed Richards would say on his Fantastic Four comic series. He regularly would say, I acknowledge.

Shut off now to the comic series. Well, that is the only real series. Okay, this cinematic universe stuff, that's all well and good. It's icing on a cake that was baked in the comic series. We know what the canon actually comes from. Yes. He acknowledges. He's like the greatest scientist in the world, right?

But he says, I acknowledge that science, that magic is a science I do not yet understand. He did say that. That's right. Yes. And so as a result. So did Princess Bubblegum, by the way. I'm sorry. Yeah.

And what movie was that? Well, it's not a movie. It's a series. Oh. It's called Adventure Time. Oh, yes. Is that the one where they don't have elbows? Yeah. That's Adventure Time. Really? Yeah. And what movie was that? Well, it's not a movie. It's a series. Oh. It's called Adventure Time. Oh, yes. Is that the one where they don't have elbows? Yeah, that's Adventure Time.

They don't. Yeah. They have like little noodle arms. Noodle arms. Like noodle arms. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

All she says is basically science. I mean, magic is just science unexplained. Or science you don't understand. And of course, as Arthur C. Clarke said, right? Yes. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from science. Oh, from magic.

No, from science. No. Any indistinguishable, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Good. Now, I don't mean to boast. Okay, you can line up

for autographs later. Okay. But I have a cameo in Sharknado 6. Excellent. And I play Merlin. Oh, wait, I can't tell you. I play Merlin.

Oh, this is a... The plot line takes you back to medieval times. I play Merlin. There's a time warp that opens in the vortex. Of course there is. Okay. And the sharks, as they go through the vortex, they end up crossbreeding in this vortex with dragons.

And so you have shark-dragon tornadoes back then. Wow. Okay, shark-dragon-nados. And I play Merlin performing actual science that everyone thinks is magic. Because you're still a scientist. Because I'm a scientist. And I was true to my roots.

Now, you do realize that you can say no to these projects. Yeah. Okay, Mom. We got to bring this segment to a close. That was a great question. Have fun with that one. When we come back, more on StarTalk, where we're talking about the science of pop fiction.

We return. Bringing space and science down to Earth. You're listening to StarTalk. We're back on StarTalk Cosmic Queries. The science of pop fiction. And we have decided, with the help of Charles Liu, my friend and colleague, and resident geek-in-chief, that these are things you might watch while eating popcorn.

Pop fiction. Made in your science oven. By the way, I think popcorn is one of the most extraordinary foods ever. Right. How many things do you say, gee, I want to turn that inside out and then eat it?

Just every cow I see. I mean, but that inside out. Right. And then eat it. Just every cow I see. I mean, but that's just me. No, okay. All right, technically, you're kind of doing that. But just if you look at a kernel in one instant, and then the next instant, it's completely inside out. And if you didn't tell someone what had just happened, they would think it's two completely different foods.

We'll see. And you're absolutely right. That's my only point. There's nobody who could look at a kernel and then look at a popcorn, like, flourished and say, oh, that came from that. And it was specifically designed by nature to be absorbent of butter. Okay? So it's the perfect food.

It is. And almost no calories. Oh, yeah. It's all air. So you got to load up the butter calories otherwise you know what are you doing what are you i tried eating air popcorn without butter it's like what am i doing i kind of like it no no the question is does it taco you know does it what oh does it yes this is the 21st young generation thing

can you put this particular food into a taco shell and eat it? Does it actually taste good? Taco as a verb. Does it taco? Does it taco? Yes. Does popcorn? Oh, taco. Popcorn definitely tacos. Especially if you put a sauce on it. Do you know what else? Styrofoam also tacos. Okay.

Now how somebody knows that? I don't even want to know. Don't even want to ask. Don't go there. How do you know the styrofoam tacos? The edible kind. Not the polystyrene stuff. You mean the starch popcorn? Yeah, the starch-based popcorn that, like, don't kill you if you eat them. Right.

But they're not really designed to. Plus, you can put them in the toilet and they just dissolve. Right. They're designed to disintegrate, right? Do they taco? And it turns out they do. What about that? The same is true with popcorn.

Is dissolving the same thing as disintegrate? I don't think taco? And it turns out they do. How about that? The same is true with popcorn. Is dissolving the same thing as disintegrate? I don't think so. They just dissolve in water. Dissolution is a form of disintegration. I'll give it to you. There you go.

Okay. Nicely done, fellas. I gotta tell you, these guys make even eating a taco that much more exciting to listen to. It is the joy

of the geekiverse. Wait, wait, wait. But Chuck, how would you know in advance if you're a three-year-old whether you're eating the polystyrene-looking corn or the starch-looking corn? I have the answer to that. When you don't end up in the hospital,

you ate the right one. Thank you, Chuck. Stuff that biodegrades, yeah, as opposed to the stuff that doesn't. All right, give us another question. All right, here we go. Let's get back to our queries that come from all over the internet. This is Bella Marani.

Bella Marani says, hey, Chuck. This is Bella? It's actually all. Oh, Bella Marani. Bella Marani is from, yeah, Bella Mariani. Oh, Mariani. Bella Mariani. Because Bella Morani is like, yeah, Bella Mariani. Oh, Mariani. Bella Mariani. Because Bella Morani is like a beautiful moron.

Moron, right. Okay. Right. However, Morani is Swahili for warrior as well, so. But not with the bellow on it. All right, what do you have? All right, here we go. Hey, Chuck, will it one day be possible for entire societies

to disguise themselves in plain sight as wakanda did in the marvel universe how close are we to developing invisibility technology so let's get the the top presentations of that so you have the cloaking device on star trek yeah and also one of the james bond movies movies with Daniel Craig. I forgot which one it was called, but it has something called adaptive camouflage. So you could park it, and whatever it was in front of, it would bring that pattern to the car,

and you'd walk by it, and you just thought you were looking at a normal scene. Right. So there's that. There was also cloaking in Chicken Little. Okay. Excuse me. Is my cinematic repertoire too large for you?

Probably so. Okay. Anytime you're referencing Chicken Little. The sky was not a real sky. There were hexagonal tiles that the aliens had put over the earth, and the tile is an exact image of what is behind it. Right.

And when a tile fell down, it fell to the ground, and Chicken Little looked at it and touched it, and it immediately became the floorboards. Right. And he put it on the table, it became the table. And so there's five minutes of this movie doing experiments with the hexagonal tile. Love it. So basically it's cloaking by not becoming invisible, but by becoming what is behind it. Camouflaged.

Camouflaged. Perfect camouflage. Perfect camouflage. It's one kind of invisibility. Sure. And then you have, what else? That's unnoticeable. Don't forget.

Unnoticeability. Unnoticeability. As opposed to, that's good. So Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Charles is inventing words today. The covering. I can't take credit for that.

Okay, so the cloak. The cloak and Harry Potter. You have the cloak and Harry Potter. Charles is inventing words today. The covering. I can't take credit for that. Okay, so the cloak. The cloak and Harry Potter. You have the cloak and Harry Potter. You have the invisible woman, Fantastic Four character. Okay, uh-huh. Right, who can turn invisible. She can turn invisible. Right.

As well as the... Well, there's the invisible man. The Incredibles. The original invisible man. The original invisible man. And the original visible man. So what gets me is, just because he's invisible shouldn't automatically mean he can walk through walls.

No. Why should it mean that at all? What do you mean? Yes, of course he did. H.G. Wells, Invisible Man, didn't walk through walls. No, no, the movie. No, I'm talking about the guy who was wrapped in a thing and they unwrapped it and he was invisible. Yeah, he couldn't walk through walls.

He couldn't walk through walls? No. You sure? Not the original Invisible Man. I'm too young for this kind of thing. No, no, no. His problem was also he had to. Oh, no, I know. I'mvisible Man. I'm too young for this kind of thing. No, no, no. His problem was also he had to... Oh, no, I know.

I'm confusing it. I'm confusing it with ghosts who go through walls. Oh, yeah. Well, movie ghosts, yeah. Why can you walk through walls but not fall into the basement? They always leave that out. Right. Right?

Yeah, that's right. Why is the floor holding you up but you can walk through the walls? Interesting. It doesn't make any sense. Okay, so who else do we have? Invisible Woman. Invisible Woman. Invisible Woman. We got the Harry

Potter thing. We got Star Trek, as you already said. Cloaking devices. And then you have the entire city being cloaked, right? Yes.

So can we cloak an entire city? Well, in Wakanda, yeah, they did that. The answer at the moment is... No? I'm guessing...

I'm guessing we can't do a city. I'm betting. Going out on a limb. Let's bet on that one. Yeah, we're going to go out on a limb here. Can't do a city. Chuck, can we cloak a whole city? No. At the moment, the answer is that we can seem to be able to bend light around objects

in such a way that the object would not be visible to someone looking at it because all they'd see is the background. And you don't even know the light is bending. You just see the direction the light comes from at the last point of contact. That's right. So the light can do a full 360, 180, doesn't matter. And you look at if all the light coherently comes around the object,

again, you've rendered it invisible. That is at this moment only doable in the laboratory under very extreme conditions and sort of at the subatomic level, basically. Okay, however, Charles. But I thought DARPA was working on a cloak like that. That's the kind of thing to which I refer. I'm not authorized to speak any further on that.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak any further on that. The city is sitting on the ground. Yes. You can't bring light from behind the city around it. Right. So that technology wouldn't work to hide a city. Right. It would only hide objects in front of other things.

Well, in this sort of a spectrum. In Wakanda, it was a dome that covered the city as well. There was some kind of forced dome that then cloaked the city. Right. The dome in that case was really just almost a mirror. In a sense, it projected upon itself fake pastoral images of goat herders. Okay, so it didn't disappear. It's just a projection screen.

It's just a projection screen. And then you had to get through it, and then you saw all the marvelous technology inside. Cool. So that we't disappear. It's just a projection screen. It's just a projection screen. And then you had to get through it, and then you saw all the marvelous technology and stuff. Cool. So that we can do. We're already projecting movies onto skyscrapers, aren't we? You know what got me about Wakanda? How is it that down in the town,

with all this technology and all this stuff, they're still selling woven baskets in the street? What's up with that? I believe it's very simple. Why? Because they realize they essentially have infinite wealth and infinite technology.

Yeah. What makes them happy? It's not the toys. Baskets. It's baskets. Baskets. I totally get that. I would much rather, like,

make a basket and enjoy that basket than, like, you know, point my finger, and I have this sort of virtual basket made of vibranium that's going to, you know, bring me heat up. I want a basket made of vibranium. That's what I want. I would appreciate that, too, if it were artistic and beautiful.

I'm going to tell you the truth. I want a bowl. I want an actual bowl. I don't want a basket. But baskets are beautiful. That's the point. I think it want a basket. But baskets are beautiful. That's the point. I think it shows a very interesting utopia. Actually, in

this song, there's a hole in the bucket. Dear Liza. Dear Liza. The solution to that is to repair it with straw. That's right. I'm thinking, why would straw hold water? I was just thinking that when I heard that song. If it's woven tightly enough. That's right. You think so? There are many waterproof straw things that the people before using that i

was just thinking is there any other way you can plug this hole right weld i'm thinking technology science and no let's get straw okay because the straw's right there i guess so because if you got to do the wood you got to hammer it down or you got to weld okay i just thought they would have a more permanent solution than just straw. Right. And there's a hole in the bucket, there lies a dear life. All Georgie wanted was to carry a little water from here to there. Why, like, bring out vibranium for that?

And then they said, how will I cut the straw? And they say, with an axe? No, no, with a knife. Either. Why do you have to, you know? Yeah. I think that the original song has an axe. An axe?

Yeah. A little overkill for Straw, I think. That's what I'm saying. The whole song didn't make sense. I stopped listening to it. Okay. What were you saying, Chuck? Last bit on invisibility.

Then we'll go to the next question. Last bit is that I think that when we think about invisibility, we want to be able to take it with us. The motion of being invisible is more important than just being able to render something not visible from any point. In a static plot. And this is the value that Harry Potter had. That's right. Right. You go wherever the cloaking, the cloak is. And so that's really the most important thing right now. The technology is not just to make something not

visible, but to make something not visible as it moves around to everybody, from every point. And from every, and in fact, the lab experiments you're describing, it is only invisible from one exact direction. Correct. Because the optics only conspire for that point of view, not from the side. That's where we start. Okay, we'll start there. All right, there you have it.

Oh, by the way, one other thing. Go ahead. Militaristically, invisibility just means you're not reflecting a radar signal. Rack. Which we already have have that it's called stealth technology so that is a kind of invisibility that accomplishes what the star trek stealth things were doing right in but in a militaristic sense so yeah right yeah very cool all right all right here we go another darper project that was by the way stealth was a dartha iPA? DARPA? I think so. Nice.

Yeah, we can verify that. We've got top crack researchers here. Yeah. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Are there any other technology? And it was Lockheed that did that. Yeah, I do know it was Lockheed. But are there any other technological applications for stealth technology?

That's redundant. for stealth technology. That's redundant, but are there any other applications for stealth technology outside of absorbing radar that we might find in life? Well, sure. Well, it's not just absorbing radar.

Absorb all electromagnetic rays. So whatever might be your... Anything you're shooting at it. You're shooting at it. Right, right. And also, but not all of it because some of it has to do with the shape of the plane too.

Everything has to do with the shape. Yeah plane. Everything has to do with the shape. Yeah, that causes it to flow over. It's the material, the shape. Right. The B-2 bomber, which looks like a bat plane. Right. The shape is because when the radar signal does reflect, it doesn't reflect back to the direction it was sent from.

So it doesn't reflect, it deflects. It deflects. It deflects. And there't reflect back to the direction it was sent from. So it doesn't reflect. It deflects. It deflects. It deflects. And there are multiple reflections within the physical body. You don't want any of them going back to where it's at. They now have stealth Navy ships. And you look at their shape, it's like, oh, that's a funky kind of shape. Yeah, I've seen them.

Right. Yeah, they're very cool looking. Yeah, and the masts have certain shapes. Right. Just to minimize and reduce the radar cross-section. Yeah. So it's just like, oh, it's a lost whale. And it's just like, why is that lost whale shooting a torpedo at us?

Cool. All right. All right. Here we go. This is Yusel Lopez. What's the first name? Yusel. Yusel.

Okay. Yeah. Or Yusel. Wellel okay yeah or Yusel well I mean Yusel was the name of the character is it Jesse or Jussie Yusel was the name

of the character Yusel Yusel was the name of the character in Dune by Frank Herbert it was the nickname given by the Fremen

to Paul Atreides damn Yusel you were too good I'm telling you man we are unworthy yes we are unworthy I saw. We are unworthy.

I saw the movie. The book was too thick for me to read. Oh. Yeah, I saw the movie in the 80s. I saw the movie first. I got to tell you, I didn't read the book, and the movie was too damn long. The movie should have been longer. What I like is they have their language translator, where it's this thing you put in front, and

you speak, and at the other side. Right. But now our iPhones do that. I know. Yeah. It's pretty wild. All right, here we go. This is what Yusel, what Yusel Lopez says.

This is specifically for you, Neil, but I'd like to know what Chuck thinks about the answer should be. So a couple episodes back, there was a reference to the bat signal, and a guest jokingly mentioned that Neil should have a Neil signal. I'm curious, Dr. Tyson, what would your Neil signal in the night sky be?

Oh, that's easy. Yeah, yeah. We already have one of these. There's a webpage on Amazon that sells sanctioned T-shirts that are designed by fans but inspired by my work or my words or my image. But it's all sanctioned and the fans get a fee and everything. Everybody's happy. And one of them is just simply a silhouette of my hairline. Right.

And a mustache. That's it. That's the Neil signal. And that's kind of me, right? Right. Because I got this sort of widow's people thing. You're right. Very Eddie Munster, your hairline.

No, but Eddie Munster came to a point. Right. No, yours is natural, though. Yeah, yeah. And so it's a, and I think when I see that, I think of myself abstracted. And you want a simple iconography for the bat signal. So the Neil signal, in case you get stuck in an argument

with a flat earther and you need help. You just send up the hairline and the mustache. And Dr. Tyson will not show up to your house. But he'll solve the argument for you. That's cool, man. All right, Chuck, what would you think it would be? I think it would be a ball in a box. The iconic structure of the Hayden Planetarium

and Rose Center for Earth and Space. See, your silhouette is great, but it's a little too detailed. A little bit of clouds, and you look like Bozo the Clown. Yeah, you're right. So you have to have basic shapes that are immediately recognizable.

And if we do that, because the Rose Center for Earth and Space is a glass cube and a ball inside containing the Hayden Planetarium, that iconography would mean if I'm not available, we get some of our other staff. There you go.

It's just that you need an astrophysicist to help settle your argument. It doesn't have to be me. I don't have unique knowledge in this world. Now I'm going back to the hairline and the mustache. Because you know somebody's just like, let's call Neil. And they put up the ball in the box, right? And all of a sudden, like, you know, just some

intern shows up. Hey, guys! Hey, guys, what do you need? But we got badass interns, let me just say. No, you do. This is true. I like the ball in the box. Very, very, very thoughtful. Chuck, what's the next question? Okay, here we go. This is true. All right. I like the ball in the box. Very, very, very thoughtful. Chuck, what's the next question? Okay, here we go.

This is Daniel J. Lay. And he says, this is for Chuck and Neil. What superpower would you like to have that could be theoretically enabled by gene editing? Ooh. Good one. Very X-Files. I mean, very X-Men. Yes. On that one, I have an answer, Chuck. Do you have an answer? I do. We don't Very X-Files. I mean, very X-Men. Yes.

On that one, I have an answer, Chuck. Do you have an answer? I do. We don't have time to give it. We got to go to break. All right, we'll go to break. We'll take a break. And when we come back, Chuck and I will argue about what genes we will edit

to try to get some kind of superhero superpowers. We're going to start talking about that. Superpowers. Going to StarTalk. Hey, a special shout out to our Patreon patrons who make the trip through the cosmos possible for StarTalk. This week, we want to say thanks to Samir Cope, Jesus Rodriguez, and Ronald Warmerdown. If I said any of those names wrong, then you need to give me some phonetic spelling. Thanks again, guys.

This is StarTalk. StarTalk. We're back. Tyson here. Chuck Lue there. Chuck Nice there. Charles Lue, Chuck Nice there. Charles Lou, Chuck Nice. Chuck Lou, Charles Nice. That's right.

You tweet, don't you? Occasionally? At Chuck Lou. At C-H-U-C-K-L-I-U. Chuck Lou, L-I-U. Yeah. It's just because Charles Lou was already taken. Oh, that's too bad. Well, no, it's actually better. It reminds me of my college roots. Okay. And you are? At Chuck Nice Comic.

Chuck Nice Comic. That's my name and what I do. You actually have to tell people you're a comic. Well, you know, I'm not that good at it. That means your tweets were not good. I'm not that good at it. Just in case you forgot. What is this tweet?

Oh, he's a comedian. Right. By the way, it was originally Chuck Nice Black Comic, but I figured, okay, one of them is, they'll figure it out. He also has another tweet. He also has another Twitter handle that he doesn't publicize so much. It's at Chuck Nice Go-Go Dancer. Is that right?

No, that's not right. Sorry. No, I thought I saw that. That was you? That was just for you. Oh, I'm so sorry. All right, so read this question again. Okay, so right before we went to the break,

Daniel J. Lay asked a great question for Neil and Charles. What superpower would you like to have that could be theoretically enabled by gene editing? Okay. Chuck, you go first. Charles,

you go first. I would say, and I know this might seem a little goofy, but with gene editing, the best thing that I could hope for for myself is that my genes make it so that I will stay as mentally and physically in perfect health as long as I want to.

It's not a superpower. It is. Immortality. But it's healthy immortality. Superpower is somebody's in distress and you go help them. Yes. If I am immortal. And he's like this.

I'm going to stand here and watch you. Watch you die while I live forever. Charles. If I am immortal, then I will have the opportunity to learn all the medical technology, all of the information over the centuries and the millennia. And that way I will be able to help people not by being some crazy guy in a costume. Medical knowledge over the centuries includes like bloodletting and this sort of thing. Well, and it depends on whether that bloodletting is worth keeping or not. Okay.

But for example, nowadays, not strong. These days, medical people actually use leeches to help get rid of hematomas. Get rid of bad blood. That's right. So I just— Excuse me, hematoma. Excuse me. I want to make it so that I have great value to society without my having to stand out as some sort of a beacon or a flagpole.

Does that make sense? So I think that is a tremendous— Charles, no one is making a movie about that. Maybe not. Oh, well, there was's making a movie about that. Maybe not. Oh, well, there was The Fountain. It's The Man Who Reads. The Fountain of Youth? Yeah, that was the one that Darren Aronofsky put together.

It was starring Hugh Ackman and Rachel Weisz. Hugh Ackman. Yeah. That's the brother of Hugh Ackman? Yeah. Okay. All right, Niels, what was yours? So Charles is going to live forever.

I thought about this, actually. And if gene editing is what is allowed, because the X-Men stuff is extreme. You're not going to edit your genes and spit fire. That's not going to happen. But what you're allowed to do is you can ask the animal kingdom, what are the things that are exhibited in all the animals of the world? Because we all have DNA in common.

And I'm going to say, give me some of that. Okay. Animal man. So what I would do is I'd say, give me genes that a snake has where I can open my mouth five times bigger than my head. So I can finally eat the sandwich at the deli. Pastrami sandwich at the deli. Pastrami sandwich at the deli. Okay, but that's not a superpower.

I want to throw that in there. Snakes can detect in infrared. Insects can see deeply in the ultraviolet, which is why bug zappers work, because they're ultraviolet. And they said, I gotta go to the ultraviolet. And then they die. So I want to be able

to see infrared, see ultraviolet. Also, I got to go to the ultraviolet. And then they die. So I want to be able to see infrared, see ultraviolet. Also, I want to be able to gene edit other people so that I can help regenerate the limbs of veterans who've lost limbs defending this country. Cool. And newts can regenerate limbs. Right, exactly. Humans can't.

It is in the genome of the tree of life to regenerate limbs. And so I want to be able to have that to then impart that in fellow humans. And so that everybody gets their limbs back. For me, that's... It's not super power, but it's a power that I think would be greatly valuable.

Being able to regenerate limbs. I mean, that's a pretty good power. That's a great power. And again, no one's going to make a movie out of that, but people will take a look and, what? You explained that no one would make a movie out of my power. It's true.

But notice that the two of us were thinking about powers that, like, don't, like, turn us into, like, these godlike creatures, right, that do stuff to people. But rather that allow us to be part of the society that matters. Because that's sort of, in a sense, that's kind of what the impulse of science is. I don't know. Yes, I agree. That's what we're thinking about. Right, right. And if there's a way to think about superpowers, maybe that's the best way to do it,

where we can create the powers. We have these folks going out and fighting cosmic villains or anything like that, but why not take some of that wonderful technology and heal people? Like in Black Panther, for example, when the Black Panther's sister saves the life of that gentleman

that was working with them. Their super technology was being used for good and used for a societal benefit. That's the kind of thing we do. Well, I'm going with super strength and sprouting wings like a beetle so that I don't have wings all the time because that would probably get on my nerves when I'm trying to sleep. So you want wings that tuck in under an exoskeleton. Tuck in under an exoskeleton, pop exoskeleton pop out when i want to fly and then super strength and by the way i'm not helping anybody i'm going on a life of crime uh

so you'd be a super villain i'd be a super villain without a doubt and then you guys could figure out a way to stop me you would be like called kafka man? Yeah. No, that was a cockroach. Not a beetle. You don't think so? What? In Kafka, that was a cockroach. Oh my gosh. Well, that's your interpretation.

Excuse me, that was a cockroach. Wasn't it? I don't know Kafka man. I thought I read the... You didn't read the story? It's a short story. No, I didn't read Kafka. No, I don't think...

Everybody read that story. No, I don't believe I have. I thought you were an educated man. No, I'm not. read the story? It's a short story. No, I didn't read that. By Franz Kafka. No, I don't think I have. Everybody read that story. No, I don't believe I have. I thought you were an educated man. No, I'm not. Chuck, how can I fight? I'm trying to fight you, Chuck. I'm not supposed to agree with that. It's an abstract commentary on the dehumanization of man.

Okay, I'm going to read it tonight. Metamorphosis. The metamorphosis. Definitely read it. It's a short story. I'm sorry. You read it in like ninth grade, Chuck. Okay. I probably read it tonight. Metamorphosis. Definitely read it. It's a short story. You read it in like ninth grade. I probably read it and don't even know that I read it

to be honest. Okay, well there you have it. Alright, listen, that was interesting. That was interesting. Alright. So a guy goes to bed and he wakes up as a cockroach. And his thoughts... Don't make me. And he has thoughts about what that means.

And it's just kind of a meditation. And the reaction of his family members to him. Yeah, it's a meditation on a thing. Right. It's an existential story. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That questions what is your life. I get it.

All right, here we go. Let's go to Vaughn Murray. Actually, he is a Patreon patron. Oh, here we go. Let's go to Vaughn Murray. Actually, he is a Patreon patron. Oh, okay. Okay. Sorry that it took this long to get to your question. Oh, that wasn't right. All right, Vaughn, here you go.

This is what he says. Dear StarTalk experts and Chuck. That's cold. That was cold. Oh, that's cold. That was cold, man. Why you got to do that, bro? That's cold. Yeah was cold. Oh, that's cold. That was cold, man. Why you got to do that, bro? That's cold.

Yeah, why you go there like that? Why you got to go there? Oh, damn. Treat me like I'm Cop Command. All right, here we go. My friend and I got into a space discussion about future starship design. Sci-fi franchises like to make use of the simulated gravity on starships and space stations by way of centrifugal force

or centrifugal force. Rotating section. Which is a rotating section. In a habitat section. We all know what they are, okay? As earliest evidence in, what was it, 2001 A Space Odyssey, right? Okay.

Would it be realistic to use this idea for long-term space travel? So, yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Next question. And next question.

Vaughn, there's your answer. The point is, the point is, there's all this research on the medical effects of zero G, none of which would be necessary if our long-term spaceships had rotating habitats. Right. And you don't have to be in there 100% of the time, but you go in there to get your sea legs back,

you know, and you lift weights, you do whatever. Your bone density stays the same. Everything because you're... So now how fast would I have to spend to give you 1G? It depends on the radius. Entirely. So you have to... So the smaller the radius, the faster it has to spend. And the larger the radius, the slower it can go.

So you want to make it as big as possible. And remember, in space, since radius, the slower it can go. So you want to make it as big as possible. As big as possible. Right. And remember, in space, since there's no air resistance. But why do you have to make it as big as possible? Who cares? It doesn't matter. If it's small, then your inner ear has issues with rotation.

If it's small, if you are large relative to the size of the thing. But I'm saying, if it's still big relative to you, then the size doesn't matter. The size doesn't matter. But it's got to get to that size. But I'm sure there's a particular size that's going to give you the 1G, right? No, no. Any size. Any size.

In fact, do this, right? Go ahead. Take a bucket of water and swing it fast enough over your head so it doesn't fall out. That's 1G. No, that could be 0G. It could be weightless up there. It doesn't have to be 1G. That's right.

So take that back. Right. Sorry. Bad example. No, you're right. But I'm just saying. Because that Sorry. Bad example. No, no, no. No, you're right. But I'm just saying. Because that's what happens on a roller coaster when you go. Yeah, yeah.

You go. You're weightless at the top. You're weightless at the top. Right. The relevant formula is that centripetal acceleration. Oh, no, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. This would work.

This would work. Is V squared over R? No, no, no, no. Watch. This would work because if it is 0G at the top and it's not falling out. Right. Right. That would be 1G if I were in zero G.

Sure. You lost me, man. I'm sorry. No, no. So the force up is now counteracting the force down because we're doing this experiment in one G. Right. So the cancellation, so that is one G.

That's where zero G is. But in space, it would be one G. One G, okay. So the point is, it's not hard to figure out the speed. By the way, you wouldn't even need one. You can do 8.8G. You can get ready for the next planet you visit. Mars is 38%.

38% of our gravity. You can change the rotation to get accustomed to being on Mars. It could be a very fun, interesting exercise. The equation is the centripetal acceleration equals velocity squared divided by the radius of rotation. Okay. So, all you do is measure how far it is. How fast you have to spin. And by the way, I did the calculation

for the rotating section in 2001. Okay. And they rotated that three times too fast. Really? Yes. So, people were really bulking up? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So it was a heavy gravity space station.

They're just getting ready to get to Jupiter. No, no, here's the thing. Okay, they surely knew what speed it would have to be to be 1G. Right. It was already rotating slowly. Right. So it was too boring for the camera. Too boring for the camera! That's really what it is. it was too boring for the camera.

Too boring for the camera. That's really what it is. It's too boring for the camera. It's stately, but still doing something. So this rate, where they match the rotation of the shuttle to go into the station, that's 3G. Right. And I said to myself, if you slow this down by a factor of three. You're not doing anything. Whatever the number is, you're.

You got a terrible boring shot it's a slow boring movie so I gave it to him yeah gave it to him alright I just thought that they were trying to

get some extra resistance work in you know while they were heading to the moon oh that's cool alright next question alright that was actually a really cool question

alright even though alright here we go ooh Greg Vaughn we went from Vaughn Murray to Greg Vaughn we went from vaughn murray to greg vaughn uh coming to us from instagram this oh wait wait one other thing sorry before we get back sorry yeah yeah so if you don't have

rotating sections then you need to invent something that shuts off gravity right and we know of no such thing okay we're not even close to knowing so so when that so in any sci-fi film where they go, enact artificial gravity, it's just, in other words, they're saying, enact the BS. Turn on the BS so that we don't float, so that we don't float around.

Now, I don't mean to boast. Captain, the BS is not working. I don't mean to boast. Go ahead. But I had a cameo in Ice Age boast. Go ahead. But I had a cameo in Ice Age 5. All right. That is definitely not a boast, sir. The Scrat.

That little squirrel looking thing. Squirrel chipmunky thing. Right. He's on a ship. There's a scene. It's like a throwaway scene. It's not relevant to what's going on down on Earth. But he accidentally hits the gravity changer

knob because he's just accidentally doing stuff. And there's a scene where there's like 20 G and he's flat on the ground and he's lifting up his top jaw and he can't. I mean, they're very creative about how it would be as he chains the G's. But anyhow, I just want to say.

I love that. That's great. So guys, we've got only one minute left. Chuck, you got a fast one. Okay, here's a fast one. Greg Vaughn wants to know this. Is there a real quantum realm? Oh, that's a reference to Ant-Man.

Yes, it is. Okay, okay. Can you shrink down so far that you have a whole new universe which doesn't follow the laws of anything and get trapped in there for decades and things like that? Well, there is a quantum realm. The question is, can you function as a normal person in a quantum realm? The answer is you can't, of course.

Why you got to be like that? No, no. Why you got to be like that? But the bottom line is, yes, there is such a thing as a quantum realm. We can actually do something in it, completely different story. So the Tompkins and Wonderland series. Did you know the Tompkins and Wonderland?. Did you know the Tompkins and Wonderland? No.

Written by George Gamow. So George Gamow wrote a series, a famous physicist, a mid-century, 20th century physicist. To figure out the theoretical underpinnings of the Big Bang Theory. Okay. Yes, yes. All right. Made the first prediction of the cosmic microwave background.

And he said it would be five degrees, and it turned out to be three degrees the idiot what a loser george is rolling in his grave way to go neil all right okay so anyhow the uh so he had a series of stories where he changed the physical constants of nature in those stories. So in one of them, the speed of light was 60 miles an hour. Wow. So there you are driving down the street, and then he describes how things change.

That's cool. In another one, you can change Planck's constant. Nice. And so then as you walk— The quantum realm changes. The quantum realm changes. So you walk through a door, and you diffract walking through a door. All the things that happen to particles happen to you.

Right, happen to you. Wow. Yeah. Okay, that's cool. That's very cool. But Ant-Man, I think they had to make up a bunch of stuff in order to let that story roll. But I'm glad they used the word quantum. Yeah.

That's all. Oh, okay. And they almost used it right. Almost. They used it right enough to get you to go see the movie. Exactly. It shows that they have some concern. Some concern for this.

And more broadly, the Marvel Universe, as we know, many of those superheroes were once scientists. Correct. Dr. Banner. Right. Even Spider-Man. He was in his science class. Well, they all screw themselves up while they're doing an experiment that goes horribly wrong. I'm just saying that science matters there

in ways that it doesn't seem to matter in the DC universe. Okay. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh, blood drawn. All right, we got to wrap this up. It's StarTalk. Chuck, Charles Liu, thanks, as always,

for being on the show. Chuck Nice. Always a pleasure. My man. You know it. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. We are signing off StarTalk, as always, for being on the show. Chuck Nice. Always a pleasure. My man. You know it. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. We are signing off StarTalk. As always, I bid you to keep working.