Cosmic Queries - Expanding Perspective, with Bill Nye – StarTalk All-Stars

this is Startalk welcome welcome to Startalk bill nighy here and this week on cosmic queries i'm joined by none other than Chuck nice Chuck it's good to see it always good to see you bill and this week our cosmic query topic yes is expanding our perspective that's correct is that the sound effect that goes along with it's gotta be right we're zooming out iris out so Chuck you have the great list of cosmic queries which come to us from our listeners yes they do from all over the internets and we're going to expand our perspective yes we are we've got some great questions from Facebook Twitter start talk radio dotnet and every other incarnation where we live these are electronic media these are electronic aids use yes that's right electric computer machine that's right and I'd say I think we're on everything except snapchat because you know doesn't last long just laugh long enough and nobody wants to see us make it so disturb you there okay so listen let's just jump into it you haven't seen the questions that's the way it works and it's just really you know the great thing about expanding your your perspectives is a lot of this is science as well as Bill Nyes actual opinions so we got a little sigh pinyon going on here sigh pins I pin winter coinage yes all right so let's go with Nelson saw okay from Facebook this is a pretty decent question I like you know it just sounds so surprised our listeners are very sophisticated Bunch you know what I just realized that that I did sound that way let it go I would have been remiss so lean right okay so Nelson from facebook says this have NASA's zero gravity experiments had any useful breakthroughs which better our society so I assume that Nelson means outside of space travel where of course it is directly applicable but here on earth do those zero gravity experiments do anything for us down here Lord living in gravity I'd say there's one thing specifically they have led to research in bone health really yeah so these modern bone medicines wouldn't probably they probably wouldn't be the way they are without all these discoveries made in zero or so-called microgravity mm-hm where people have very low gravity your bones you know you look at a skeleton right there in the museum let's say of American Museum of Natural History for example okay and they are solid they look like rocks but bones get flexed that are alive and if you stop putting a load on them they get weak and this is one of the things they discovered about astronauts in space for a long time or even a medium amount of time they lost their bones their calcium they would urinate it away is that because the body just realizes well there's no need i I'm not I'm not using this I don't need it yes and when you say realizes reacts as though it yes that's my non-scientific way of saying the body reacts it body reacts yeah and so they're now people take pills to keep their bones going and so they have speculated people who are in this world speculate that you could go to Mars in nearly zero gravity just by taking the right drugs you could keep your bones so this is affecting health on earth the other thing we've learned so much about physics writ large by watching people bounce around in microgravity oh really now you just I mean you just watch how things happen you learn about torques and reactions sort of classical physics it's a beautiful thing it's a beautiful thing nice alright so and do any of those observations as especially when it comes to watching objects or people bounce around in zero-g does that do anything in any particular industry like I'm thinking maybe the automobile industry might be able to you know go ahead to things people all dreamt of was new alloys of metal would only be fabrica ball if I may coin the adjective in space or in nearly zero gravity that hasn't been a panned out or alloy doubt and then the other one was sophisticated drug molecules that you could create more easily in zero gravity than you could create on earth and while that sounds reasonable when you're working on molecular level gravity isn't the main thing sort of viscosity just stickiness of molecules or overwhelms the gravitational effect with that said who knows what lies ahead what discovery is yet to be made and they study spite they we people astronauts study spiders who are still able to capture pet prey even though there's zero gravity even in zero gravity they have trouble spinning webs they have trouble spinning webs but there is somehow it can still it's a learning curve or it's a learning process spider jumps and misses spider just jumps and gets so there's something going on spider brain wise right compensating for zero gravity so what you and I think with our inner ears and how we roll or keep from rolling we think this but you might project that on spiders and other arthropods but they got something else going on there's something else going on and so you wouldn't really learn that without experiments in zero gravity or near zero gravity well that's great so zero gravity there you have it Nelson doing great things for us as a society and for spiders as well for example but you know spider-man one of the things that he can do he can do whatever a spider can this is true he can spin webs nice eyes catches thieves just like flies look out here comes the spider-man but we've all dreamed of being able to hang upside down without blood going to our brain spiders apparently you're able to roll yes hang and I have dreamed of hanging upside down and kissing Mary Jane my girlfriend who doesn't know that I'm a radioactive superhero all right I'm gonna move on now because that was uh that was kind of weird and creepy and I don't know why wasn't really creepy okay yes all right here we go this is Chad William Hardin he is coming to us through Facebook from Irvine California and he says this my question is can visit explain why time seems to speed up as we get older could this have something to do with the entanglement and the more interactions we have with each passing day or the expansion of the universe decreasing density and altering time itself Chad I want some of what's you are smoking well here's what I say to people like that the head where we start any of these things Chad you may be right yeah but far more likely it seems to me is that each day as you get older becomes a smaller fraction of your total number of days right and so each day blends in with the others more easily when you're 5 years old a day is that's a long time that's right that's a long time and you're 55 year old it's a day and you know that's have we talked about 30,000 days no we have it so if things go really well for you Chuck Wright live to be eighty two and seven weeks of the month and three quarters a month or three quarters you get 30,000 days Wow 30,000 days when you're five years old or maybe Chad's age 30,000 you know that's a long period of time when you get up near it yeah doesn't seem like that many at all so the days behind you are bigger and bigger than the days in front of you yeah as a result time seems to speed up speed up that's right Wow it could be dilation of the time-space space-time continuum could be but more likely is just the arithmetic fraction denominator getting bigger than numerator but the truth is it's it's a perspective at that point it really is a person your perspective so that the five-year-old has a different perspective of time than you do hope 65 you're also usually right you hope so unless you're that Benjamin Bratt oh no Prince grandpa what did we do what did he do to tick you off kept getting younger I said I'm so Bo did that guy okay take comfort he's not real he's living my dream though real or not hey Ted thanks for the question that was that's pretty cool and so there you have it who was he interacting with in the movie little Benjamin Button Cate Blanchet is that right what was it well that would be a good dream that's a solid dream yeah they can say interacting on the radio yes you can mm-hmm Matt Ellie no no I'm doing this wrong I'm gonna say it's Matt Eli even though it's spelled ily Matt Eli Matt Matt sure what sure what's on your mind respectively matt is coming from Facebook and he says is there a moment that sticks out in your memory bill when you have witnessed someone else's cosmic perspective expand when they weren't seeking it but it happened anyway Steve Jobs experimented with hallucinogenics and it aided him greatly so I think Matt is looking for tacit approval from you for him to do psychotropic drugs I don't I don't recommend those okay however I am a host on the show and you know when you work with neo wine is often yes absolutely flowing yeah that said it's happened more than once and it has been with the planet Saturn okay I set up a telescope I have a modest 80 millimeter telescope it's enough to look at planets yes it is and you get a 30 times or better Mack 50 time magnification woman looks through the eyepiece and goes whoa whoa sends me postcards the next day like just is in romance with Saturn okay setting you postcards of Saturn no no just said he composed some things but it was it's happened more than once when people look at the planet Saturn I claim they have a cosmic moment your your perspective is enlarged people think it's now why just Saturn I mean well I think it's because it's inherently intrinsically so pretty so it's such a beautiful object okay and there's this moment it's happened but I can't I cannot count more than a handful of times when people say did you put a slide in there did you put a slide in the telescope while I wasn't looking no that's that's actually sad looking at it when the planes of the plane of the Rings is especially favorable it's especially beautiful well I am sure Carolyn Porco would be very happy to hear you say that I hope so she's the leader of the Cassini team if you're scoring along where this Cassini was the mathematician who predicted the gaps in the Rings mathematically and after whom this spacecraft is named right the Cassini spacecraft which took pictures and you know still does it's still taking pictures your tax dollars at work people and you know what it's a better use of tax dollars that most of the stuff that's happening I'm so testified Chuck nice testify hey Matt Eli there's the answer man so the cosmic perspective it's you know I recommend this like a trek don't do it don't do the drugs man buy a telescope and look at Saturn there's your answer and you know Steve Jobs although he brought success to some companies he also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and one cannot help but wonder if he wouldn't have been even more successful if he didn't rub those people the wrong way yeah I feed if he'd stayed focused right but who knows speculating on and we can't I've had my share of problems for rubbing people the wrong way I am shocked your last name is not Chuck rub the wrong way Chuck nice people have expectations or maybe that's the that's the that's the problem you see that is the problems where you go light-fingered on ahead you get that ok nice chutney chuck me oh my god just as a as I digress for a second there's a club owner here in New York City who calls me that calls you char Chuck me he was like I'm the one who knows the truth no one knows the truth that's not bad you're Chuck mean so I still let the record show are still have great interest in meeting your you know I have to tell you cuz she's got to be extraordinary she is an extraordinary woman and you know what I got to tell you you and I are in the same broke I still look very much forward to meeting my wife and we've been living together 18 years but you work nights that's there you go this is lisandro Gutierrez lisandro Gutierrez must be coming to us from Twitter although she doesn't say so lissandra wants to know this Wow look at this man when you say expanding perspectives people pretty much go to one place she says would it be better for marijuana to be available as a prescription drug for those who truly need it or be available for recreational purposes what are your thoughts on marijuana well I'll give you two separate tines of this Fork okay and and let me just say before you answer that that lisandro comes to us from patreon so this is a this is a patreon question so we must give a special attention mr. not well there are two tines to this fork for me the first one is in Washington State in the United States they claim that their new marijuana laws are working in the following way they've reduced the number of duis driving under the influence they don't have policemen don't have to spend as much time pursuing what we used to be petty offenders when people have a small amount of marijuana with them right and not that it's hard to pursue somebody who's high on marijuana yeah dude and I would run right now but yeah so it's an income stream instead of a burden but I will say that's the first time of the fork the other one just for me I do not like the smell I do not I'm not a fan of marijuana see I'm just I don't mind the smell of marijuana I like the smell of cocaine a lot better and so the thing is if if marijuana is taxed and we have an education program because I mean this is anecdotal Chuck go ahead just people I've known have smoked marijuana for long time long time some of them are completely unaffected but some of them just seem like they get stupider well yes and so I think it's related or not really it's a similar pattern to what you see with alcohol right some people are tolerant of it some people aren't correct and so I'm all for legalizing marijuana so long as we include an education program with it like it some people are not gonna be able to do it you know and this is it's you know what you just say right there is very important and I agree with you exactly in that same way because I myself used to and when I say used to look he's fine and no I'm not that's the boy I'm not fine I used to smoke marijuana and it's not that I'm done that's it right there there you go like what happened was no sir I used to smoke marijuana but it's I'm not done with marijuana it's done with me so you lost me so what happened what took a meeting no it just it fired you it stopped working oh I see the the desired effect that I wanted was no longer available it did not produce the desired effect and so basically I would smoke it become very paranoid and that would be the entire experience me sitting alone in a room going there's a lot of people in here and I was by myself so you stopped doing so I stopped because it just it was what was in effect you were going for before at that whole I would run right now officer play yeah sense of well-being yeah exactly like the sensor were like who cares everything is great you know now I have a friend who told me I'm just smoking the wrong marijuana but that's a whole nother customs like a pushing person these we've expanded our perspective somewhat and we're going to expand them further in the coming minutes here on Startalk appreciate everybody you sending your perspectival questions in and we will join you Bill Nye and Chuck nice right after this welcome back welcome back to star talk radio this is Bill Nye hosting this week and I'm joined by a man with extraordinary cosmic perspective none other than Chuck nice yes and we are taking your input with respect to a cosmic perspective yes and we finished the last segment with some mind expansion questions about smoking marijuana and the role of the pusher person haha Chuck's life at one time which by the way I think from now on the pushing person is the new term to be used it's for anyone who is a purveyor of substances you are politically correct you can't go generalizing you might think the pusher man right was a guy but it could be it's a pushing person a woman I like I love it hey you know what since we're on that since we're back on that theme I got asked this question this man Eli again who said to his prolific he is if me our men and never know because it could be could be Mathilda this is what Matt wants to know have you Bill Nye ever experiment with any perception altering drugs or aids that have expanded your perspective no I mean I've enjoyed alcoholic beverages I don't know if that's expanded my perspective it's definitely reduced my inhibitions yeah and I know if that's the same as expanding perspective I have put I am picturing a shirtless Bill Nye up on a bar right now baby that's yes with that said I've tried on the glasses I've tried closing my eyes for extended periods trying to turn off all your senses I've tried meditation with extraordinary input or techniques with words to say thoughts to think breaths to feel on your upper lip I've tried all this stuff but not mine never really had my reality expanded my perception of reality expanded gotta say ok ho I've tried you haven't tried as hard like I knew people who take LSD right and they've had they claim you know good experiences and they all come back a little afraid of it ok yes I was gonna say there's a there are a lot of people who have good experiences with LSD or even if it's not LSD like just any hallucinogenic like mushrooms or so and they they tend to like it and and then at the same time they are very leery like they don't they would never say yo man you should do that like I don't I don't know too many people like LSD man you gotta do that I don't know too many people like that it's not mine it's not my thing but I'm you know people I am dull and boring I mean I've unexpanded life give me a perspective expand me okay alright well let's move on this is from cosmos matters this is the person that's what they call them it may not be it could be his real name cosmos matters that's true cosmos is a real name from Facebook what waste management strategies are they considering when people go to Mars I sometimes think we need to save Earth before potentially polluting and messing up another planet so he is assuming that when we go to Mars we are going to screw it up well he raises a very important point he raised a very important point key points I'm going to consider you don't want to contaminate another planet especially if you're going there as an explorer to look for signs of life prime directive the prime directive and the prime directive is of course spiritually reasonable don't let other people don't mess up other people's societies but technically or scientifically it's a guideline a very good strong guideline if you're going to try to look for the evidence of some Martian micro but Mars krob you don't want to bring a bunch of microbes from Earth that would contaminate you wouldn't be able to tell one from the other that said I'll just remind everybody it is my opinion as you pointed out earlier Chuck my opinion eyes opinion is so often correct you don't you don't really want to go live on Mars you want to colonize Mars now listen see you say that bill but you have to understand that you say this in the face of an actual lust for living on Mars there is a living la vida loca Mars movement right now you got the movie March loved it yeah but he's not colonizing it okay doing scientific research and he fully intended to come home right right he's like oh I can't wait to live where I can't breathe or drink or eat at all but you do want to go find out because everybody we are living it's 2015 as we record this okay in the next hundred years humankind will know whether or not there was living there are living things on Mars or were living things on Mars humankind will probably know whether or not there are living things on Europa the moon of Jupiter with twice as much sea waters the earth I want to do it now I want to do this exploration now and as far as waste management on Mars the main thing I would say cosmos is you got to conserve water you don't want to waste water about 90 percent of human waste is water so you want to recover all that when you go to set up your Mars base to do your scientific research to learn about Mars is past and prepare for our future to have a safe journey in the joy of discovery we also hope you keep track of all that water it's precious on Mars you know it's kind of precious here on earth too if you kind of look around I mean do you think that that's something we should be worried about here Oh Chuck I did not queue Chuck up on this people yes the the those are one the water is one of fours bit of Bill Nyes big four oh really yes I did not know Bill Nye had a big fool yes I must here are four of the metal what we want is electrical storage a way to store electricity okay we need electrical transmission all right so what's your story transmission get it replaced a place we waste about six per lose about six percent in transmission that's huge there's enough to power in Montana or Saskatchewan or some exotic place Wow and then then we need a new policy we need to penalize or incentivize people to not make carbon dioxide we need a fee on carbon dioxide this is a big policy it's a big heavy thing then the fourth thing is clean water for everyone on earth so if you can come up with a way the cosmos out there if you can come up with a way to desalinate seawater more cheaply than we are able to do it mean we'd do it but if you could do it more cheaply and buy cheap women using less energy right you could get rich and change the world improve the quality of life for humans everywhere yes I must pull back all right and I cannot help but point out that these big four are described in my upcoming book unstoppable harnessing science to change the world it comes out November 10th there's 20 in a carton they make great gifts pick up some eggs if you want a monograph I know a guy there you go all right cosmos good question there's then there you have it let's save water on Mars and on when you go to Mars in waste management you want to save live water that's the number one thing and let's do it number one it's a thing save air - yeah that makes sense because I don't I hear there's not a lot of it but they were like we're gonna in situ resource utilization it's true we're gonna make oxygen from the regolith okay it's just it's just not that easy cool you say it's not that easy what I hear is that ain't happening well no well see we're gonna run tests all right cool that's cool that's cool all right let us go to let's go to another patreon question okay and for those of you who don't know patreon is at patreon.com where you can go and you can help Startalk sustain this wonderful programming that we bring to you and be a sponsor of the show and we space we pay special attention to you because you have made an investment like Josh and people are buying their way on the air that's exactly what I'm saying and I have no problem with it that's right and this is from Joel Jericho and he's at Jericho pottery and from st. Joseph Minnesota and this is what Joel wants no bill smartphones and computers give us amazing access to information but come with financial burdens should powerful new technology technology be made available to everyone or is it fair that only those who can afford new technology are the ones that can use it wow this is really opinion this is straight-up bill Nyes opinion kind of like the art question the technology question when art is made is it for everyone or is it just for the rich people who can afford to Commission it when technology is made is it for everyone or is it just for those yuppies who actually need to do stuff with apps this so you're saying that's my opinion what sounded like chucks to me no that's good what's your opinion I kid because I love so what you want is for everyone to have access to the Internet you want everyone to have access to the world's information this is to say this doesn't mean all the information is free but you have access to it for example if you buy a book online right you want the author to be to be compensated of course oh you have to buy it and there's no electronic scheme to do that but I remind everybody that the example of the post office the United States Post Office you can send a letter from Miami to what's another exotic place Tampa ok for the same price you can send a letter from Tampa to Juneau Alaska it's the same price and the reason is not because there are four fair fathers the drafters of the Constitution were crazy it's to enable people to vote to engage the whole country or ultimately the entire planet in the same means to communicate the reason the post office was established was to us have communication for everyone in the same way now that we have the internet which is the electronic equivalent of the post office we want to include everyone and people have talked quite a bit in my business of science education and education writ large about the digital divide yes you don't want people excluded from participating in information based events or information exchanges without because of money with and so this is why we want to not have we won't have an a neutral internet where everyone gets access this is to say it's not free and the way the way it would be paid for is through taxes in the same way we expect sewers to work water in the United States water out of the tap to be drinkable right or if you want to change it or not yeah right it's there in the same way everybody gets has access to electricity you can control how much you buy we want everyone to have access to the information so that's to leave people out based on money is information is power it is really it sounds cool okay so now let me it is not in everybody's best interest right let me just follow up on Joel's question with this okay you're talking about net neutrality net neutrality why when you say everyone should have access to the information the the question me as a soulless capitalist Pig who needs to make money no matter what yeah because that's my god-given right as an American yes why why do these people why should they have access to the internet when they can't afford it I mean what is the affordable what is the benefit what's the benefit of what's the downside of having people not have access to sewers we have poop in the streets so in the same way if you have people excluded from the goings-on in system you're gonna have people that become a burden rather than contributors ah and this is I'm first to admit you know this progressive bleeding-heart liberal liberal crazy thoughtless to chickens in every pot perspective but believe me if you explode the library if you exclude people from what goes on in the community electronically Yorke's your there will become a burden rather than contributors just imagine you're trying to hire somebody who who goes home and cannot receive email from you or can I communicate with you or does not have a phone that person is much harder to employ tril and so that person then will ultimately pay less taxes done and will become a burden on you right and so this is a while this is obvious to me and not other people as charming okay so who do we hate more than the cable company I mean very few things so you want to you want to hit straighten that out and make it competitive who I so well you touched the nerve there that's it so we want to straighten that out and make it compatible priced and competitive and this gets in as we say just like a machine should have all the parts it needs and no more we want our government regulations our government rather to enact and enforce all the regulations it needs but no more gotcha hey what is why we have governments and legislatures and we argue about stuff now all that stuff should go away I'm sorry as a libertarian I'm just saying there should be no regulation people should do whatever they want to do so they build their own telephone lines and their own routers can and a string bill can and stray who paves the road out front of your place hire people gravel get yourself some gravel you got soft road where do you hate gravel from gravel coat your other libertarian sells gravel there you go okay what does he get his gravel from a glacial till or does he get it by stealing it from the other libertarian gravel dot-com I don't we be gravel I don't know I think you I think you're just patronizing me to blow holes in my argument just reminding us all that we live in communities and this communities are where you're where you're productive communities are where you have radio shows communities are where people work together to create wonderful things like star talk radio a Chuck nice and your host Bill Nighy and we will be back right after this welcome back welcome back to start talk radio Bill Nye hosting this week I'm joined today by none other than Chuck nice that's right and we are doing your questions we are answering your questions from an expanding of perspective point of view now this fall yes earlier this month that we had comic-con enjoy yes we did which is sort of Halloween on the Hudson and nice we have some expanding of our perspective queries and cosmic query sense from comic-con yes is that true Chuck that is correct so we were we were out at comic-con and we you know we took a microphone and that's some people who were fans of the show to ask us you know I could say roll that digital recording absolutely that's all we have to do is roll the tape and let's see who it is and what they want to know we are from New York hey Bill how much of humanity's trash is currently on Mars how much of humanity's trash what are very valuable scientific instruments do you want to call the parachute that landed these spirit and the Opportunity Rovers or those trash are those glorious artifacts of humankind dedicated to exploring the solar system so that we would know the cosmos and our place within it or are those refuse I would say there's no human trash on Mars no human trash so am i right yeah and that's because you are not a Martian if you walked out of your front door on Mars that you saw a big parachute land on your lawn you'd be like who put that trash there or you'd say wow how do I take advantage of this wonderful wonderful alien material that's true - yes wow this is a gift from the sky who the gods must be crazy okay I will dare you have actually instead of a coke bottle bottle it's a parachute that's pretty cool or skycrane alright excellent excellent no trash from Mars no human trash on Mars as of yet afore heretofore all right I let's go with this name here okay that's an unusual name all right Dietrich its wig Shia or kaya all right Dietrich kaya d click kaya okay from Facebook I am from Alaska my question for you bill is what do you believe our next step in space exploration is or should be we've been to the moon but we haven't gone in a little while is our next step another trip to the moon is it perhaps an asteroid Mars Europa where do you think it is and what do you think it should be I'm listening to the nature of your question I think you mean what's the next place for people because in 2020 we're gonna land another Rover on Mars okay shortly after that we hope by 2023 we'll have a mission orbiting a spacecraft orbiting Europa the very thing you brought up 2016 Juno will be in orbit around Jupiter Cassini is still working Saturn and so on but what we at the Planetary Society propose is that NASA get its self-organized okay so that we send humans in orbit around Mars in the year 2033 this is an especially favorable orbital opportunity me it's not magical but it's favorable and we would have enough time to build the architecture and architecture of space words for a bunch of rockets and spacecraft ship things that you would use to get humans all the way to Mars in orbit around Mars and then probably four years later you would land on Mars in 2033 that orbital mission might land on Phobos and the word land Phobos is a moon of Mars it has so little gravity how little does it have it's more like lasso Phobos more than land on it so this would be an extraordinary thing and the claim of the Planetary Society we sponsored a workshop in the end of March beginning of April this year we seventy of the world's experts people expert on what it costs to explore space and experts on NASA's budget and we could do this only adjusting for inflation the key thing would be to agree that we've actually agreed to actually agree actually to actually not support the International Space Station with NASA money after 2024 so wait a minute is that the condition under which we would be able to go to Mars is that we no longer support the is an increase in the budget okay without an increase if you just leave the budget just the way it just informational which is an increase but an expected one right you could do it we could do it and this would be an extraordinary thing and as my what is he regular host Neil deGrasse Tyson often remarks if we were really people going to Mars there would be a line around the block of people who wanted to go and what we would do is go there to look for signs of life if we were to discover life on this other world it would change this world it would change the way everyone feels about his or her place in space would it now let's I know but I'd say it would be it would just get to you in the same way Copernicus showed the earth goes around the Sun it changed everything not in a weekend no you're right cuz the F cuz it took quite some time for that to happen so what would be in your estimation when you talk about expanding perspectives which is what we're talking about here on cosmic we're in star talk radio right what would be the number one perspective or change in people's perspective okay what would the Delta be for that perspective in humankind because you found some microbes on Mars well we're not talking about you know just the microbes that you don't have on earth what does that do to the perspective life is more likely than you thought so there's got to be something else out there and it's once again this humbling nature of astronomy you think you're the center of the universe first of all you think your territory the map that you draw is the whole thing then you go over some mountains and there's some other people whose skins slightly different color and their faces are a little different shape and you go to we're in Detroit for example and then you find out you expect the Sun to go around your flat place but then it turns out no you go around the Sun and wait the Sun isn't the only star way there's billions of stars wait there are things that look like stars that are actually groups of billions of stars and you're in one of them and you suck because you are nothing you are smaller than you could even at first imagined but then you find out not only do you suck that way you suck because there's life on another planet right down the solar system extreme and somehow it's your fault no wait then the question would be are those things on Mars like us to wit do they have DNA okay if they have DNA what would that mean to medicine it would mean DNA is always there DNA's or does it mean obviously when Mars was hit with an impact or SFX coming that's Mars getting that bitch-slap then rock went into outer space but you're in space there's no sound just and then landed on earth right fiery entry Shh and then you and I are descendant of marked Martian microbes right that is extraordinary see now that is wild and that would change I hope the way you feel about it what it means to be a living thing and I hope it gives you just that much more reverence right for the cosmos and our place within it it is worth exploring this the NASA budget now is 0.4 percent of the federal budget less than half a percent and you could keep it right there just adjusting for inflation and you could change the world then you engage international partners Canadian Space Agency European Space Agency right Japanese our aerospace exploration agency it's row Indian Space Research Organization Chinese Space Administration and here we are changing the world together nice nice okay Wow you know that was that was HR computing some water cuz that was fantastic let's another question from come all right let's do a comic-con question shall we let's hear it hey Bill this is Sam I fling I live in Brooklyn Mac Comic Con had this thought and I want to know what you think about it there must be a finite number of possible molecules that we could catalogue and understand in the same way that we've done with human genes is there any chance we will ever have a full catalogue of all the possible safe organic molecules available to us on planet earth that's a great question and I'll say people are pursuing this in plants there are people at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell that are working hard to assay or say all the different molecules and plants that people didn't realize were there okay I have to say from a practical standpoint you probably never get every molecular combination because because we just can't think of them and when you start talking about polymers do you count ultra high molecular weight polyethylene like Tupperware and then do you count plastic wrap food film right which is a different like then it gets to be a question you know Chuck that question is sort of overwhelming yeah and I but nevertheless I feel a jolt and by that I mean I think it's time for the lightning round there you have it it is time for the lightning round shall we yes this is where you hit me with a question answer really quickly better hit the bell take a Chuck this is Bethany DiCaprio coming from Facebook here she says what do you think it would take to unite the human beings on this planet big question working together over the next century and a half to resolve climate change Wow good one Kelly Elizabeth Claus from facebook wants to know what are your thoughts on toys and games such as Goldie box that are recently being developed and marketed towards young girls to help foster an early interest in engineering which you are built you're an engineer what what do you think about that oh it's Terra no wait it's great come on it's great the more the merrier let's go get will double the number of brains applied to engineering problems and we will improve the quality of life for humans everywhere what's not to love okay and follow-up question do you think that those games work time will tell you it's hard to say right away but intuitively if the parents are excited about it then the kid will get excited about because kids watch what the parents do and and emulate them for better or for worse that's way it is and full disclosure everybody Chuck nice has three kids but I'm not a role model okay this one comes from this one comes from Gabe Dominguez on Facebook how can we get more women into STEM careers at what point in life do you think the little girls stop believing that they can become astronauts or inventors the key may be algebra by engaging people students in school when in letters representing numbers much sooner than we do now so that when you take formal algebra in seventh grade let's say in the United States the stakes aren't as high apparently algebra not only enables you to think abstractly about numbers it enables you to think abstractly about all sorts of things and so but in a formal fashion and that's what so we could just up the algebra budget just a little bit and see what happens keep in mind it takes years for these things now the European Space Agency is largely run by women but it took many years or decades for those people to work their way up through the brittle glass ceilings there you have it okay Bradley Dean Sommerfeld from facebook wants to know this is their room and our current understanding of the universe for the possibility that our consciousness may in fact reside somewhere in space and not necessarily within the brains of our bodies Wow in a word no no because if you hang around people who grow old and die it certainly seems as they lose their faculties which many of us do it certainly seems like it's a chemical thing going on in your brain but when I watch science fiction when I read my science fiction it would be great to put your consciousness in some receptacle as long as I still could feel the whole thing well that was oddly sexual I don't know what we're talking about people okay he's the guy with three kids Kaela yet men on Facebook was to know this as we explore the universe more and more in search of life and answers if we did encounter new life in micro blue or intelligence were sentient how do you think the world proceeds from that point forward we would think differently about what it means to be alive in the universe in the cosmos and we would have more respect for it and that would improve the quality of life quality of life for humans everywhere let's work together and change the world this has been star talk with me Bill Nyes your host joined by Chuck nice together that's right keep looking up this is Startalk [Music]

Channel: StarTalk All-Stars

Views: 13,142

Rating: 4.8506665 out of 5

Keywords: Bill Nye, Chuck Nice, cosmic perspective, expanding perspective, marijuana, pot, LSD, legalization, time, passage of time, new technology, clean water, panspermia, life on Mars, exploration of Mars, colonizing Mars, Saturn, telescope, climate change, STEM, girls, toys

Id: LepbO9q2HAw

Length: 48min 16sec (2896 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 24 2019