Neil deGrasse Tyson - “Merlin’s Tour of the Universe” & Future of American Science | The Daily Show

please welcome the great Neil degrass Tyson oh man it's almost like your show great you yeah you're so beloved thanks for coming on so great to meet you well thank you man and I as well I never met you before met you before I've watched you for years I really appreciate by I loved you in the movie Megan oh thanks by the way that terrified me yeah no yeah please watch uh that movie as many times as you can it house my contract negotiation yeah this I loved your book as well your new book yeah

thank you it's a republishing of uh q&as that you got brought into the 21st century brought into 21st century and so it's written in terms uh it the the format is uh kind of short questions and you kind of answers and and this was done over the course of the last what 30 well that was done 30 35 years ago but I brought it into the 21st centur my brother Illustrated it yes your brother Illustrated I want to get into that he he actually went to the high school of music and art here in New

York City there you go what talent of family Art and Science and uh yeah what I what I love about this book is like it's almost written like poetry the science questions in terms of like you know every page is a distinct yes thanks thanks for noticing that every attempt to reply to people has its own personality its own flavor but it's almost like reading a Bukowski uh book because you no because you can just have it on your desk and you flip it open and you get some inspiration from how dumb people are right

like this was written 35 years ago um um you know well I shouldn't say d some good questions how effective would the Hubble Space Telescope be for earth viewing blah blah blah Houston Texas uh but I I guess my point like this was written 35 years ago you found like the the the general Public's questions to you have gotten Dumber or smarter I like where where are we trending where are we trending uh I see both happening simultaneously yeah the smart question is getting smarter and the dumb question getting Dumber but but I don't I

don't care as an educator you bring the question on okay so even even in science it's we're we're going to extremes but I'm okay and on either side of that fence mathematically it cancels out they yes they average out to the Middle look very good yes yes take the is take the average it works out um yeah I mean I you know I I hate to be I'm I'm trying to phrase these questions neutrally but it it sounds sometimes it feels sometimes like when as a Outsider to America I came here I was 30 and

growing up I always felt like this was the place for Innovation this is where NASA was this is where they invented the Internet they invented Apple this is where uh oil drillers went to space and blew up a astroid using nuclear weapons that actually happened yeah no yeah yeah so for me like America was always the place you go when you're the best at science you know and do you feel like the politics is kind of getting the way of that now and like do people not want come here yeah so poit people can say

what they want when they're running for office what matters is how do you allocate money when the budget gets gets put out and I can say you no we don't have another equation like E equals MC squ you know that was that was good back no no that was a hit single that was a hit single that K yeah Stein killed it with the equal in 1905 he he he knocked the all right out of the park so but we but there's not just science there's the engineering that flows out of that science this is

the this is the cousin of science that is empowered by science so so you've seen pictures from the from the James web Space Telescope bringing the edge of the universe to the front of your face putting it in your backyard that that's been happening you've seen Elon Musk chopstick booster out of the sky to reuse later okay that's we've never seen that before we we have a Rover on Mars the size of an SUV that brought a helicopter with it yes okay so what what are you complaining about wait no no no I'm sorry doctor

I'm not oh wait hey wait wait one more I got one more one more was it two weeks ago three weeks ago NASA launched the Europa Clipper mission to go orbit Jupiter and dip close to the Frozen surface of Jupiter's moon Europa and search for life in that in that Moon Yeah Yeah it touched it touched europa's Moon Yeah but uh I no but dude like doctor what are you trying to tell me that I'm trying to tell you the stuff is still going down okay well I Y it sounds like you're trying to convince

me that science is good I don't disagree I I I agree science is good I'm just asking in your expert opinion do you think that um the the kind of divisive politics we're facing right now is adverse to American innovation and scientific development I I I haven't seen it can be that if but we have to be SE I I don't see important evidence of it none of this none of this bothers you none of anything that's that's a different question you haven't seen anything that bothers you that's a different question well that is the

question I'm asking does anything bother you in the last I don't know maybe year of presidential elections that makes you think that maybe science is in trouble um so I worry for example that people get their science off of random places on the internet uh off a clickbait rather than looking at what this scientific establishment has has discovered for us sure so take you get someone on there and say the whole establishment is wrong and I'm right click here that's irresistible yeah that's what we do on this show all the time irresistible and I'm thinking

no science doesn't work that way it works by you get enough observations and and data and if it if it comes to agreement that's the new objective truth it's not one lone person that says whatever the hell he want doctor I mean great doctor so far I I agree with you that uh science is good and the internet is stupid I'm I'm asking are you worried about where we're headed in terms of because America was always the leader to me I know they're CERN and whatever it's happening saying like America's a leader of science are

you worried because because all of the House of Representatives gets voted on every two years and a third of the Senate and the president gets voted on every four years at any time that I feel depressed I say and this too shall pass okay that's not helpful look that's yo that's Buddhism that's Buddhism bu I want you for science okay you're the Science Guy Buddhism is my thing you're the Science Guy you give the science okay okay well here here's I guess I'll I'll put more here's what Happ here's what'll happen okay if if our

science go goes bad yeah okay and other countries rise up yeah then we all come together and say we don't want to be bested by these other countries and that would be a good reason to come together rather than targeting enemies within us okay that is good but you have faith that that will happen let me okay let me put it this way because like we you know what one thing that was always what I'm getting at this whole questioning is that the Innovation America seems to me driven a lot by immigrants to America immigrants

invented the phone they invented Einstein was an immigrant everyone was an immigrant so Elon Musk is an immigrant is an immigrant so that okay well maybe that's not great no but I'm just saying if you have an environment that's that's that's kind of saying hey country first let's not have so much immigration affect science third of all Nobel prizes in the sciences that have gone to Americans have gone to immigrants okay oneir okay I track that every year great so I know that number okay so I've never been spooked by immigrants the way so many

other people I so are you worried about again we agree immigrants are good for science are you worried if you close if you step if you if you start closing things off we will descend and become a shadow of what we once were as a technological power in this country so it may be not to make you depressed it may be we need to sink deeper before people wake up to the consequences of these actions or the consequences of the inactions when they should have taken action like we may have to sink deeper before we

just get slapped in the face and said oh my gosh bring the science back okay that's bad this is bad this is a this is you're describing a do age right now which I was hoping would not happen but I guess I got to T to Buddhism to get out of that one but um uh right so by the way I think that's Persian and this two Shall Pass uh I I'll I'll Buddha will claim it we'll give that one to Buddha I'll give that um yeah but like uh there is like a um uh

this idea that uh I feel like anytime I see you explaining something about science in America right now it's like people just want to argue like pull you into this culture War yeah and I and I and and you know what to be fair I I guess if you look at history scientists have always been pulled into politics and the culture War but you as like a kind of front-facing member of the science Community trying to educate people like how do you navigate this yeah it it's hard because because another thing is Click bait is

it he said she said he said you said that comment on what they said no I'd rather comment and ideas and and and mission statements of what we can be as a species as a nation a as a as a you know as as as a world and so I try to avoid it but sometimes they just drag you down drag you into the trenches and I can fight in the trenches you know I can fight but I don't want to I I I don't want to so what's the I kick some ass if I

have to I was undefeated mass time acceleration yes you got that you got the other equation that preceded equals MC squ um but no I was a captain and undefeated of my high school wrestling team some damn all right it was 40 pounds ago but I could that was still feeling okay well that's exactly what we need right now we need uh Neil degress Tyson to beat some cage match match yeah uh yeah so like I I guess your advice is to beat the out people that's I don't know what you know what what what

can the science community no you can do it with love by offering them perspectives they had never previously recognized was in front of them and you say have you thought about it this way or that way know I hadn't thought about it that way and let's go have a beer yeah that sounds like every interaction on the internet yeah the inter internet the internet is a cesspool has become a cesspool and I'm very disappointed by that so bad science bad on that one internet but there's some good science that that that happens there but but

yeah as an invention we all thought we would just be the the community town hall and it's just it's sucessful get off it um I I uh so on on a more helpful note I feel like uh like thank you have a more helpful note yeah I'm trying I'm trying so far it's not been a great outlook for the world right now but internet sucks and we're going to go into a Dark Age just kind of the message of this um like we I feel like you know we used to rev scientists a bit more

in America you know and like when when I I get I think what we need from scientists right now is like a hit single what you said you you need another yeah we need like E equals MC square like we give us a give us something to Einstein's don't come around all the time well you know that's what we we need something give us something give us something Einstein was like 200 years 300 years after Isaac Newton and they're big you know big men on campus so what we got 250 years till the next what's

the what's what's the give us something maybe I I I don't know give me the equation something that we can hold on to as a society want equation I want like a hit single come on give us the give us the club beat give us the commercial something that Sciences you know quantum mechanics fit something computers all right all right I I'll boil it down to one word okay maybe Einstein hated maybe Einstein hated maybe you need a maybe every now and then cuz you don't know the answer but you're hopeful for one that will

satisfy not only you but the survival of the species so yeah maybe it's kind of depressing I gotta be H that wasn't that's not the hit single I was hoping for no there there are people who are paying attention I think I who people I got no there there's a few there's a few out there oh name one person paying attention name I feel like we just in a in the scientific institutions that we have National Institutes of Health National Academy of Sciences Academia we I know I I get that but leaders come and go

the scientists are there for their careers okay in the end they is who will Triumph okay I hope so I hope so you elative or something I do I do after do you know the chemical formula fortive or is it uh okay I'm going to ask you a few questions on the internet right now okay and in the spirit of your book and if you can answer here's a here's a friendly internet Q&A okay um our first question comes from uh Twitter can wi tur can wi turbines cause cancer this is from president Trump okay

science man science that would that would be no okay are you sure about that is that maybe is that like a maybe no no that's a not just a no that's a no you got to get down and deep on that one that's that's solid E equals MC of all the things you want to worry about cancer this should be last on that list not even on the list at all not on the list at all okay correct okay uh our second question is is uh also comes from Twitter um why can't we drink raw

milk this is from RFK incoming incoming president of Health okay has he ever seen microbes that could be thriving in raw milk under a microscope I know this guy seen any this guy yeah if you if you somebody should invite him to see what's going on there under a microscope he might he might feel different so what's your answer can we drink raw milk or not can we just Ambiguously you can drink anything that's liquid it's just whether you care whether you die or get sick at the end yes you can drink anything no don't

say that to the idiots this is on the ID the idiots are watching stop don't say that don't do not you could drink bleach you could drink any of this you will die okay I'm just saying if you want an esophagus when you're done don't drink be bleach okay I feel like we're going from chemistry to Darwinism right now well it's the Darwin Award you know what the darn award is I do know what the I do know what it is yeah yes it's people who drink bleach no no people do something completely stupid that

kills themselves before they have children yes so that they're removed from the gene pool yeah yeah calling of the don't applaud that let's applaud that in our heads for legal reasons we can't appla publicly okay I got two more for you more for two more okay uh is there a pill that can reverse the effects of the co vaccine this is from nominee for FBI director cash [Applause] Patel wow a pill that will remove the effects reverse the effects of the covid-19 reverse the vaccine like why would why would you want to do that dude

hey man I'm just asking a question so that you do that so that you can die from the virus I get look this is as a pre country if that's what they want to do I don't know that we can stop them no but is there a pill answer the science oh oh I don't okay okay if such a pill exists I know nothing of it so it might exist it might exist that's not what I said yeah that's kind of what you said that's kind of what you said man uh okay last last one

last one give me one more here all right uh also from the internet uh can the government manipulate the weather with Jewish space lasers this is from Anonymous congresswoman um this is more in your realm astrophysics this is what are the physics of Jewish space lasers does like does like the star like Focus the thing in okay the prism of uh a laser will function as lasers do no matter the religion of who invokes it you know the the more the more you speak the more it's like you're more like a Buddhist like zen master

Cohen then scientist here I'm just saying when you turn on a laser it the religion of the person it doesn't matter that's a b b to worry that a space laser could affect the weather while we are simultaneously pumping CO2 into the atmosphere possibly irreversibly changing the weather seems to me to be a completely misguided Mis prioritized sense of the world okay that's yo but the the answer is no the answer no no not a maybe no just just say that to the yeah no okay no all right okay well look uh you can uh

follow you can get his book but really I mean what a treasure that we have we alive around when Dr Tyson said educate us hey M the universe is available now Dr Neo degrass Tyson [Music]