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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Cosmic Coolth

Cosmic Coolth

by | 53 Comments

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Because hominids cannot live by snark (or rage) alone, let’s have a moment of science sweetness, courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History’s Neil deGrasse Tyson:

<div align=”center”><iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/38101676?color=00c4ff” width=”400″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/38101676″>The Most Astounding Fact</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/schlick”>Max Schlickenmeyer</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p></div>

And, he said, shuffling his feet just a little, if you want a more detailed account of what Neil’s talking about here, you can watch an hour long NOVA special produced, directed and written by (ahem!) your humble blogger.  In the program Origins: Back to the Beginning Neil leads us through from what was in essence  the discovery of the Big Bang to the evolution of cosmic habitats that could support the kind of life we know exists at least one place in the universe.

I particularly enjoyed making the section that talks about the cooking of the periodic table in the hearts of stars — you can find it in the Youtube excerpt below.  

<div align=”center”><iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/neMEo8ZrwuI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

What gave me pleasure in the sequence that included that scene is its juxtaposition of a (very distant) homage to one of my favorite movies (Searching for Bobby Fisher) with a quick lesson (in the next scene after this cut ends) from one of New York’s best chefs, the Union Square Cafe’s Michael Romano, who teaches Neil how to prepare a galactic bouillabaisse.You can check  that out, along with the rest of the film  at the PBS website. (The soup bit starts at around minute 41.)

Oh, and by the way:  Open Thread.

PS: Tim F. Not dead yet!

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    Tom, when is this episode of NOVA appearing widely on PBS?

    I’m glad we all had this time with you before you went Hollywood and forgot your humble roots.

  6. 6.

    kindness

    Neal deGrasse is the current Carl Sagan. He reaches people and that is a very very good thing.

  7. 7.

    scav

    O thank you thank you. And how many others began to hear Tom Lehrer after the star blew up after hitting the iron barrier?

  8. 8.

    Michael

    Huh, I submitted a comment and didn’t get a moderation notification, but it didn’t show up either. Weird. I think I may have used forum tags instead of html tags, I wonder if that messed it up…?

    Anyway, I love this stuff, they’re really nice vids. I also recommend Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten. Unfortunately I cannot find a clear version online

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m not where I can currently watch/listen, but I will in an hour or so. In the meantime, Tom, so glad to see a shoutout to Searching for Bobby Fisher — a wonderful movie that is, sadly and surprisingly, not nearly as well known as it should be.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Michael:

    There is a very good iPad/iPhone app called “Magic World” by DanApps that is based on the Eames’s work. I can’t remember now if it was free or possibly cost a buck or two, but it is very cool.

  14. 14.

    Cassidy

    OT, listening to CNN at work: those shitstains can’t help themselves but lie about our economy and try to make it seem like a “race”. Fucking fucks need to DIAF. fucking hate the media.

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’ve always enjoyed listening to Neil, the guy is great describing things and he can get you wrapped up in a topic real fast. You did a NOVA special?

    Now that’s just cool. :)

  19. 19.

    Watusie

    Cool!

    Question I’ve always wondered about: would the periodic table be different in different galaxies?

  20. 20.

    orygunian

    I am currently reading “A Universe From Nothing” by Lawrence M. Krauss. Highly recommend it. I haven’t been keeping up for the past ten years on the newest thinking/discoveries in cosmology and it is a great read. The something from nothing and defining Nothing as full of virtual particles creating all this energy has been blowing my mind.

  22. 22.

    El Tiburon

    Neil deGrasse Tyson was a TA in a lower-level astronomy course at UT-Austin back in the late 80s. He was out of Brooklyn, had a fro and beach muscles. Great instructor.

    But, using guilt by association, this makes me the smartest motherfucker here.

    Holla. Bitchez.

  25. 25.

    Sawgrass Stan

    Astounding. Major kudos to our Tom!! I can’t wait to see this. Remembering that you and everyone else on this earth, and the earth itself, are the ashes of stars can get your mind into a far better place.

  26. 26.

    Ferd of the Nort

    Very rude words.

    “Not available in your region”

    I have been looking for brain-food like this.

  27. 27.

    El Tiburon

    @srv:

    That would be second smartest. I had him as an instructor for AST 1623 at ACC in 1985.

    Look, I don’t want to go all 1% on your 99% ass, but obviously NdT had moved up in the world circa 1987 as a TA at THE University of Texas as opposed to an instructor at Austin High, I mean Austin Community college 2 years prior.

    Good story: I tracked down SmartyPants Tyson a couple of years ago at whatever organization he was associated with. I told him he wouldn’t remember me, but I remembered him. As I recalled it he used to wear muscle shirts to class. He did correct me and say he never wore muscle shirts and he sent me a pic from the time period. I’m not saying he was gangster or anything like that, but it’s pretty remarkable how he has become the defacto smart dude on space and shit for this country. He was really a nice guy and you could tell he really cared about his vocation and teaching students.

  28. 28.

    Lawnguylander

    Well, I am impressed. I knew you were more than just a “pretentious art douche” but didn’t know you did stuff like this. The boy and I watch Nova regularly, especially when cosmology is the topic. A couple of years ago he started asking me questions I couldn’t answer, like, what’s on the outside of the universe, is everything white and where does it end? Then came the questions about the nature of time. I remember liking this episode a lot, but he was only 2 when this aired so I’m looking forward to watching it with him. I’m grateful that guys like you and Neil for producing such great programs. And thanks for reminding me of Searching for Bobby Fischer, he’s going to love that too.

  32. 32.

    Schlemizel

    @kindness:

    Yup, I love Neil deGrasse Tyson – his excitement over science is so obviously genuine and so contagious. I wish he could head NASA, maybe we could get excited about space exploration again.

  33. 33.

    Schlemizel

    @Michael:
    I have had that happen rarely, Just today I had an error pop up saying I met some spam filter & I might be able to fix it myself but the link blamed my security software. I have seen that a couple of times here too. I reposted the same comment & it went through no problem.

  34. 34.

    TaMara (BHF)

    First let me say, once again on this blog, I <3 Neil deGrasse Tyson and am jealous of all of you who've had him as an instructor.

    Second, cool Tom, cool.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    FYWP ate my comment. I’ll try again but doing this from memory now.

    Re Jupiter-Venus: go down a few threads and find Tim F’s post called something like Open Thread for Non-Believers. Scroll down to Poopyman’s comment around #5 and check out the photo he links to.

  42. 42.

    redshirt

    Tell me how I’m wrong/dumb:

    In Einstein’s theory of relativity he equated gravity with accelerated motion, using thought experiments to show how if you were in a sealed box with no outside frame of reference you’d have no way of knowing whether you were experiencing gravity – say, by like being on a planet – or acceleration – say, speeding away in space in a rocket box.

    So, given this, can’t gravity itself as a force be described as accelerated motion on a universal scale? Or even if such a thing exists, a multi-universal scale? We spin on Earth which spins around the sun which spins around the galaxy and so on, with each step up in scale equated with an accelerated motion.

    Now, if you say it’s a change in acceleration which produces this force and not just motion itself, I would add then that so called Dark Energy would be the answer, which is supposedly expanding the Universe at an accelerating rate.

    In sum, there’s no such thing as gravity (and certainly not the gravitron), but rather what we call gravity is the result of accelerated motion in expanding space/time.

    Thoughts? Gibberish?

  43. 43.

    srv

    El Tiburon rants:

    Look, I don’t want to go all 1% on your 99% ass, but obviously NdT had moved up in the world circa 1987 as a TA at THE University of Texas as opposed to an instructor at Austin High, I mean Austin Community college 2 years prior.

    I had him as an instructor, not some grader. And he was already working on the PhD at UT, I don’t know why they wouldn’t let him lecture and he had to go to ACC. As for dress, he was Crew, so he wore crew shirts and nice slacks. I don’t know how the fuck he wrestled, he’s too tall.

    And the back row of our 20-something class had already declared him the “next” Sagan. It was that obvious. He wouldn’t remember me, but he’d remember my name.

  46. 46.

    margie

    Good job, I enjoy all of those shows and I get to thank someone in person (kind of).

    Thank You and Dr Tyson a thousand times over!

    I also have watched the Most Astounding Fact about 5 times. It makes me happy! I like knowing we are made of stars.

    Thank you so much for your work/art!
    margie

  47. 47.

    Jimbo316

    Wow! I am a longstanding environmental economist and climate change consultant and so am in this world and Neil has long been on my awesome guys list. Now add you. I saw this episode and it was superb. Nova and its British doppelganger Science are such great shows. You rock dude! I liked your blog posts already, now I am in just in awe as I know what it’s like to write and produce.

  49. 49.

    slag

    Funny you bring this up Tom since I’ve been seeing this clip everywhere lately and couldn’t figure out why it’s so popular now. From what I’ve seen, NDGT has been saying this same thing almost every day in almost every way. Of course, I thought about Origins too. Weird what catches people’s attention at any given moment.

  50. 50.

    Aussiesmurf

    Searching for Bobby Fischer is one of my 10 favourite movies ever. The soundtrack, by James Horner (Aliens, Titanic) is also among his best work, and pops up on trailers all the time.

    “This certifies that Josh Waitzkin has, in the eyes of his teacher, attained the rank of grand master….
    I have never been so proud of anyone in my life.”
    “Will you stay until its over?”
    “Will I stay? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

    *snif*

    THERE’s SOMETHING IN MY EYE, DAMMIT!

  51. 51.

    Paul in KY

    @redshirt: Lots of high mass objects are not speeding thru space at super fast speeds (which they would need to be doing, if your theory was correct).

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