StarTalk Radio

And joining us now by video call to break down the physics is Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College in Virginia.

We're going downhill, fast. Hosts Gary O'Reilly and Chuck Nice descend into the world of Olympic alpine skiing with Olympic skiers Erin Mielzynski (Team Canada) and Andrew Weibrecht (Team USA), physicist John Eric Goff, and Jake Stevens, the US Race Director at Rossignal.

Plus the ever-present danger that comes when you play with gravity. Yes and who better to bring the science of skiing than the author of Gold Medal Physics, our very good friend Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia.

Of course also with us is Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics. How are you Doc, how's it going?

And joining us to break down the physics of curling is our very own Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College, Virginia, an author of Gold Medal Physics, Professor Eric Goff.

And via Skype, we have the good professor Eric Goff, the author of Gold Medal Physics. You'll remember it was a stocking stuffer back end of last year. And still is.

And also on the show is our good friend from Lynchburg College, Virginia, Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and whose new book is coming out in 2018 and it's called The Science Behind Krav Maga, The Israeli Military Fighting Technique.

author of Gold Medal Physics,

He will be coming up shortly but the show will not end there, not at all. We shall examine the glove tech with Joe Bevier from Nike's innovation design team. Now that's going to be interesting, that'll be new for everybody and then drill down to the nuts and bolts of wide receiving with one of the most wide receiver coaches, Jay Norvell.

and joining us via Skype we have physicist Eric Goff, professor of physics at Lynchburg College in Virginia, author yes author of Gold Medal Physics the science of Sport and the man who is going to put possible in impossible.

very much that's just in time for the holidays and chuck what will that do if you get one well you know what go out and stuff your stocking that's what you do that's exactly the best advice you'll ever get on any show anywhere i'm gary o'reilly i'm chuck this has been playing with science hope you've enjoyed the show thank you to the good professor and thank you for being on board we look forward to your company very very soon

Once again, of course, the author of Gold Medal Physics as Gary said, the stocking stuffer of all time.

Eric, welcome to the show. How are you, sir?

author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sports and a whole lot of other things.

...a book we highly recommend that you go and check it out.

Oh, you mean that book that says Gold Medal Physics?

And it would tell me that famous stocking stuffer.

And also on the show is our good friend from Lynchburg College, Virginia, Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and whose new book is coming out in 2018 and it's called The Science Behind Krav Maga, The Israeli Military Fighting Technique.

Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College, Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics,

And joining us, our very good friend, Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia, the author of Gold Medal Physics and a man with a book about to come out sometime in 2018 called The Science Behind Krav Maga.

He is Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia and the author of Gold Medal Physics. The Science of Sports, which I can recommend is a fabulous, fabulous read.

He is Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia and the author of Gold Medal Physics. The Science of Sports, which I can recommend is a fabulous, fabulous read.

Professor Eric Goff, the author of Gold Medal Physics.

And to help us dig further into the amazing science of cycling is Eric Goff...physics professor at Lynchburg College, author of Gold Medal Physics, The Science of Sport and all-round cycling guru.

Eric, good to have you on board...author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport and physics professor at Lynchburg College.

Still with us via video call is Professor Eric Goss, author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport.

And bringing the science in to answer those questions will be our good friend, physics professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics and all-around sports guru and super soccer fan.

And with us by video call is Professor Eric Gough, author of the fabulous book Gold Medal Physics.

And joining us now by video call is Eric Goff, Professor of Physics at Linsberg College, author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport and a whole lot of other things.

a book we highly recommend that you go and check it out.

Just you're author of the book Gold Medal Physics. I love it. It's just bringing science to where people want it and need it in high performance competition. It's just great to have you here.

the author of Gold Medal Physics, among other stocking stuffer... Yeah. Best-selling, fabulous, must get your hands on books.

Of course everybody who's familiar with this show knows that professor Eric Goff is from Lynchburg University in Virginia and the author of Gold Medal Physics which we do believe was a stocking stuffer last Christmas.

It was, last Christmas that's right and it will be again this Christmas because it's still in print people.

And to help us dig further into the amazing science of cycling is Eric Goff, physics professor at Lynchburg College, author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport and all-round cycling guru.

And still with us via video call is Professor Eric Goss, author of Gold Medal Physics, The Science of Sport.

Professor Eric Goff from the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics.

Now before we get to the professor he is eagerly waiting I just have to expand upon something that's happened recently.

And joining us now by video call to break down the physics is Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College in Virginia.

We're going downhill, fast...Because this show is going to go downhill like the opening of a Bond movie.

Plus the ever-present danger that comes when you play with gravity. Yes and who better to bring the science of skiing than the author of Gold Medal Physics, our very good friend Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia.

Of course also with us is Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics. How are you Doc, how's it going?

We just had Dean Gemmill on, please don't call it shuffleboard.

Because the reply doesn't work so well.

You'll remember it was a stocking stuffer back end of last year.

And still is.

And the book for all sports fans who love their science.

And also on the show is our good friend from Lynchburg College, Virginia, Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and whose new book is coming out in 2018 and it's called The Science Behind Krav Maga, The Israeli Military Fighting Technique.

Joining us now is our very good friend, Professor Eric Goff, professor of physics at Lynchburg College, Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics, The Science of Sports and not just a man with a plan but a man with a book coming out next year.

Gold Medal Physics the Science of Sport and the man who is going to put possible in impossible.

Gold Medal Physics the science of sports.

Once again, of course, the author of Gold Medal Physics as Gary said, the stocking stuffer of all time.

author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sports and a whole lot of other things.

we will break down the physics behind the miracle of Michigan and to find out what it takes to get your Hail Mary's answered on Playing With Science.

and author of Gold Medal Physics, a book we highly recommend that you go and check it out.

Oh, you mean that book that says Gold Medal Physics?

That's right. And it would tell me that famous stocking stuffer.

And also on the show is our good friend from Lynchburg College, Virginia, Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics and whose new book is coming out in 2018 and it's called The Science Behind Krav Maga, The Israeli Military Fighting Technique.

Professor of Physics at Lynchburg College, Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics,

And joining us, our very good friend, Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia, the author of Gold Medal Physics and a man with a book about to come out sometime in 2018 called The Science Behind Krav Maga.

He is Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia and the author of Gold Medal Physics. The Science of Sports, which I can recommend is a fabulous, fabulous read.

Krav Maga physics is the subject of my next book

Professor Eric Goff, the author of Gold Medal Physics.

He is Professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia and the author of Gold Medal Physics. The Science of Sports, which I can recommend is a fabulous, fabulous read.

And one of our best friends, Professor Eric Goff, author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport and physics professor at Lynchburg College.

Eric, good to have you on board.

And bringing the science in to answer those questions will be our good friend, physics professor Eric Goff from Lynchburg College in Virginia, author of Gold Medal Physics and all-around sports guru and super soccer fan.

And with us by video call is Professor Eric Gough, author of the fabulous book Gold Medal Physics.

As always, we recommend you go and grab a copy.

Eric, welcome to the show. How are you, sir?

and joining us now by video call is Eric Goff, Professor of Physics at Linsberg College, author of Gold Medal Physics, the Science of Sport and a whole lot of other things.

a book we highly recommend that you go and check it out.

I came up with this idea for an astronaut stranded on Mars, but I wanted everything to be physically accurate. Just because I always get taken out of a story when I see some blatant physical inaccuracy.

Oh, the book's delightful in many ways, but you know... Sorry, I meant to say, is the book delightful scientifically? Let me think about that.

The book is fairly accurate too, right? Or very accurate?

Your book's accurate, delightfully so. But you gotta check the science at the door and go on and enjoy it. It's enjoyable, it's great.

Andy has said that the opening event, the wind that blows everything around and causes the problem couldn't happen on Mars. The atmosphere is too thin and the dust is not sandy, granular like that. It's more the texture of smoke particles.

That original book was sort of battle-tested because it was written in parcels, if I remember correctly.

And the internet would react and you'd react back.

But this one, not so much.

Yeah, no, I mean, it was a good start.

What if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads it? On the brink of tweeting about some mess up in your book. And you didn't want that.

But this one, not so much.

So you don't have everyone's buy-in in advance.

When a publisher gives you a big pile of money to write a book, they don't like it when you post it for free.

So they prefer that you don't do that.

Yeah, I was on my own this time.

When the critically acclaimed film The Martian hit the box office in 2015, it became what is perhaps the most scientifically accurate science fiction film ever made. And it was wildly successful. The film was, of course, based on the bestselling novel of the same name, written by Andy Weir.

I'm going to have to science the s*** out of this.

Scienceing the s*** out of everything.

What if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads this?

I'm going to have design to last 31 days.

I'm still alive, obviously.

I believe that Andy Weir and his techno knowledge and so forth is right there.

Andy Weir's first book, The Martian, didn't involve alien life. It was human life on Mars.

In that case, Matt Damon, of course.

Andy Weir's first book, The Martian, didn't involve alien life. It was human life on Mars.

I think he talked to the scientists engineers at the jet propulsion laboratory there in Pasadena not far from where he lives.

What did you know I get asked that question about that movie almost all the time?

I enjoyed it I thought it was probably the best space movie since 2001 and we can argue about whether it was better than 2001

The only snide comment that either of us made was was one she made during one of the climactic EVA scenes she noticed the astronaut was not tethered to the spacecraft and she said that would never happen.

He said yes, I know but I needed to start the movie somehow and that's how I chose do it

I got to go to NASA for a bunch of tours and they brought me to the meteorite.

Once I started making pretty good money off of the book my stupid pointless impulse purchase was I bought a Martian meteorite. I own one.

Yeah, it's called moxie, yeah that's right. Because it's an acronym. Mars Oxygen...

The reason I want to send humans to Mars is to colonize it.

All the stuff that is done in the book and in the movie, that's sometimes significant.

The man who created Mark Watney, the man who wrote the book about being The Martian.

You started out online?

Yeah, originally I wrote The Martian as just a series of blog posts.

So you finished this novel in 2011. And who approached you? Ridley Scott, who approached you?

Initially no one approached me, I self-published it.

I mean, The Martian is a great example of that. The Martian the Book by Andy Weir.

Well, I'm honored that I would give you such anxieties writing the story.

And I didn't want it to read like a Wikipedia article.

So you've got to be funny. You've got to throw jokes in there and one-liners.

So basically the whole book, he has this Gallows humor, right? Where he's like, well, I'm probably going to die today.

He's got engineering background, turned novelist Got all up in his face I said, what are you doing, dude? And he said, well, he needed some ruse to make, you know Just to give the excuse to launch

He imagined I was looking over his shoulder And he's saying, will Neer tweet about this if I publish this?

That original book was sort of battle-tested because it was written in parcels, if I remember correctly.

And the internet would react and you'd react back.

But this one, not so much.

Yeah.

That original book was sort of battle-tested because it was written in parcels, if I remember correctly.

And the internet would react and you'd react back.

But this one, not so much.

Having a movie about the book was not enough.

Yeah, no, I mean, it was a good start.

When the critically acclaimed film The Martian hit the box office in 2015, it became what is perhaps the most scientifically accurate science fiction film ever made. And it was wildly successful. The film was, of course, based on the bestselling novel of the same name, written by Andy Weir.

I'm going to have to science the s*** out of this.

Scienceing the s*** out of everything.

What if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads this?

Don't die.

His potatoes in poop.

I think he talked to the scientists engineers at the jet propulsion laboratory there in Pasadena not far from where he lives.

What did you know I get asked that question about that movie almost all the time?

I enjoyed it I thought it was probably the best space movie since 2001 and we can argue about whether it was better than 2001.

The only snide comment that either of us made was was one she made during one of the climactic EVA scenes she noticed the astronaut was not tethered to the spacecraft and she said that would never happen.

He said yes, I know but I needed to start the movie somehow and that's how I chose do it.

I got to go to NASA for a bunch of tours and they brought me to the meteorite.

Once I started making pretty good money off of the book my stupid pointless impulse purchase was I bought a Martian meteorite. I own one.

Yeah, it's the real life version of what was at the time fictional the oxygenator from The Martian.

All the stuff that is done in the book and in the movie, that's sometimes significant.

I definitely think that in the long term, we do need to send people to Mars because I want us to be a two-planet species.

The man who created Mark Watney, the man who wrote the book about being The Martian.

Well, he's based on me, so...

Yeah, originally I wrote The Martian as just a series of blog posts.

So you finished this novel in 2011. And who approached you? Ridley Scott, who approached you?

Initially no one approached me, I self-published it. So basically I had been putting it on my website a chapter at a time until I was done.

The Martian is a great example of that. The Martian the Book by Andy Weir.

Well, I'm honored that I would give you such anxieties writing the story.

So basically the whole book, he has this Gallows humor, right? Where he's like, well, I'm probably going to die today.

Well, you're the first person who's ever told me I'm full of comedy.

I had read the book already and one person read the book while we were in.

I had read the book already and one person read the book while we were in.

But they didn't leave her for dead on Mars. And she's still on Earth. It's a good simulation too.

He couldn't just grow it in the soils.

And the third one was Black Hole Blues.

Your recent book was the black hole blues?

You said it better than anyone ever. I want Scott to say the whole title, which you might not remember, was Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

The Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

I'm a big fan of the blues in general, so I was enchanted by the title.

I was really writing it... Precisely ties him with what we were talking about earlier about the pursuit and you know, It's 50 long years that they strove to build this instrument.

And also one of my favorites, The Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

That's how you want me to say it. All the time. I want you to say it all the time. The Black Hole Blues.

award-winning author, most recently a black hole blues, and other songs from outer space.

So the book really follows the recent announcement of the gravitational wave detection from the collision of two black holes. But it precedes the detection.

And so it's called Black Hole Blues because Ray, who won the Nobel Prize in 2017, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, said to me literally the month before the detection, 50 years into this endeavor. If we don't detect black holes, he said, this whole thing's a failure.

Nobody says it better than you. And other songs of outer space.

Your book, The Black Hole Blues, it explored the quest to measure gravity waves and what effort that would take.

The Black Hole Blues and other songs of outer space.

Matt says, my question is if there were two black holes orbiting one another and generating powerful gravitational waves, is there a possibility that a small object, he says perhaps a ping pong ball, could actually be carried away by the waves thus making gravity a repulsive force in this particular case?

So the book called Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space Which if I was Neil deGrasse Tyson, I would say in an awesome deep DJ voice I think I do have him recorded saying it

So first there's Together, Chuck, The Black Hole Blues. I live for that.

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

So the interesting thing from me writing the book was I became so enamored of the experimentalists and what they were doing.

Black Hole Blues was one of them. Black Hole Blues was from 2016 after the LIGO detection of the collision of black holes.

So when I was writing Black Hole Blues, I set out to write a certain book.

That turned into a story about the pilgrimage of trying to detect something so incredibly difficult.

Oh yeah, that's her book, Black Hole Blues.

Oh yeah, that's her book, Black Hole Blues.

Chuck we got to do it

Oh I've gotta learn a harmony to that There's gotta be a way which sort of picks up the book it says Guaranteed more sale just every time you walk past it on the shelf

So that was about the discovery of Gravitational waves.

Your recent book was Black Hole Blues?

Was Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

The Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

I'm a big fan of the blues in general, so I was enchanted by the title

And I've been loving your book Black Hole... The Black Hole Blues

Also joining me is my friend and colleague, theoretical physicist, Jana Levin. Jana, welcome! You're a professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, award-winning author, most recently a black hole blues, and other songs from outer space.

So the book really follows the recent announcement of the gravitational wave detection from the collision of two black holes. But it precedes the detection.

And so it's called Black Hole Blues because Ray, who won the Nobel Prize in 2017, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, said to me literally the month before the detection, 50 years into this endeavor. If we don't detect black holes, he said, this whole thing's a failure.

And other songs of outer space.

Nobody says it better than you.

The Black Hole Blues, it explored the quest to measure gravity waves and what effort that would take.

So the book called Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space Which if I was Neil deGrasse Tyson, I would say in an awesome deep DJ voice I think I do have him recorded saying it

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

This is the Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.

And then they made a discovery. So did you have to like change up your plans?

It dovetailed. Like I printed the book out for Ray Weiss, one of the original architects in Kipthorne who we've talked about. I printed a copy for each of them on September 14th just by coincidence and sent them drafts.

And that's an incredibly bold thing to say in August 2015 from the original designer of the machine and so... But I got to write an epilogue of redemption, you know?

Our second StarTalk book published with National Geographic called Cosmic Queries has an entire section on how astronomers find distances to things in the universe. And it was called the distance ladder.

Go buy the damn book. That's the lazy answer. Read the book.

Nice big fat book makes a good gift. Makes a good gift.

And all of that is in Cosmic Queries. All of it. All of it. All of it. In a whole section called the Cosmic Distance Ladder.

I guess now you don't have to buy the book. But you kind of do because you need to go through it.

So we devote a fair number of pages in the Cosmic Queries book, which I think you can click by it on our website, startalkmedia.com.

And by the way, in the Cosmic Queries book, book, okay? That's one of the installments of the StarTalk book series in collaboration with National Geographic.

In that book, there's an entire chapter.

There's an entire chapter on how the universe will die. And it has all the ways.

And it describes how the multiverse gives us all these different combinations of size, laws of physics, and the like.

So it's a fun read. So check it out.

Oh, by the way, there's a whole chapter in my next book on life and death where all these topics are addressed in case you want to read up on them even further.

And we talk about Big Rip in the StarTalk book, Cosmic Queries.

And if you pick that up, there's a whole section on ways the universe can end.

In our second Star Talk book, guess what it was titled, Chuck?

Cosmic Queries.

So if you get that book, you'll have way more conversation about it than anything I just laid down to this report.

In the future of the universe. The crisis of cosmology.

I think it's in there. In the future of the universe. The crisis of cosmology.

I'm getting this from a book that is coming out this fall. It's the third installment of a StarTalk book in a collaboration with National Geographic.

It's a book I've co-written with one of our senior producers, Lindsay Walker.

Uh, in 1945, a Dutch meteorologist, C.H.D. Boisballet... Interesting name there. Wow. Conducted a simple yet brilliant experiment to demonstrate the Doppler effect to anyone in doubt.

By the way, the namesake of this format, Cosmic Queries, became a book published by National Geographic a couple of years ago, and there's an entire section on how the universe will end.

What you just said over the last four minutes, there's an entire chapter in the StarTalk book called Cosmic Queries on that subject. And it's called Cosmic Tension and it tells you how you get the distances and the standard candles and the microwave background and the conflict. It's all in a book, Cosmic Queries, inspired by the fact that we actually have these kinds of conversations.

Ed, doggone it, your book is always number one in astrophysics and I'm getting tired of you, okay?

Our recent book, StarTalk Cosmic Queries, there's a whole section on the formation of star systems and this migratory process. So I invite you to check out that book. It's a fun book, and it's published by National Geographic.

And it was one of our engineers and editors and producers, Lindsey Walker, was a major contributor to that, just making it shape, star-talkifying the content to make sure that any StarTalk fan feels like they are at home in that book. And so we got this.

Dr. Tyson, just love you and love your Cosmic Queries book.

We have to show this is available downstairs in the exhibit hall So please remember that this is Andrews book start track the official guide to our universe Okay, and this is Star talk the book with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Oh, yes, indeed. So, thanks for mentioning that because I almost forgot. I probably wouldn't have forgotten by the end, but there's a book called Cosmic Queries because this format was so successful, we said we've got to do more than just put it out there as a podcast.

So, there's a book called Cosmic Queries that takes all the biggest questions, including this one. And much of Sarah's research that informs this field is contained in that chapter.

And also your book as well, Neil. We've got to give that another plug.

Oh, sorry. Another plug for Cosmic Queries. If you like this format and if you're listening, you probably do because it's one of our most popular. We just put it all in one book.

And the reason why it's a shame, maybe it's not shameless, maybe it's full of shame. The point is, it's, the title of the book is Cosmic Queries. And this is a Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk.

And so it's questions, 10 chapters, and each chapter is a really deep question that we barely have time to address given the nature of what we normally do in a Cosmic Queries.

it's published by National Geographic Books, who published the first StarTalk book.

This is a celebration of the release of the second StarTalk book called Cosmic Queries, inspired by this spinoff of our show.

We're gonna have different guests for the different kinds of chapters that are in the book.

And the reason why it's a shame, maybe it's not shameless, maybe it's full of shame. The point is, it's, the title of the book is Cosmic Queries. And this is a Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk.

And so it's questions, 10 chapters, and each chapter is a really deep question that we barely have time to address given the nature of what we normally do in a Cosmic Queries.

This is a celebration of the release of the second StarTalk book called Cosmic Queries, inspired by this spinoff of our show.

By the way, we're gonna have different guests for the different kinds of chapters that are in the book.

And in fact, the final chapter of the Cosmic Queries book takes you there. The great rip.

By the way, I'm compelled that this format inspired a book, a StarTalk book called Cosmic Queries.

So we collected the deepest questions ever asked and we put them in the Cosmic Queries book.

By the way, there's a whole section of one of the chapters in the Cosmic Query book on this.

And so I'm gonna pull rank here and say, buy the damn book when it comes out.

Beyond that little bit of simple language, there's an entire section of the Cosmic Queries book that specifically addresses all the scenarios of how we will end.

In fact, StarTalk has another book coming out. Do you know this? In the spring?

You know what that book is called? The Big Rip?

I shouldn't be announcing yet because I don't think it's on shelves yet. Because they're still in production. So don't look for it yet. But it's called Cosmic Queries.

And in there is the whole discussion about the expansion of the universe and how it could, in one scenario, could end up in the big rip.

In which case all of the nesting doll scenarios described by... What's the person's name again? Isom. Isom will be realized. And that'll be the end of the universe as we know it.

We have to show this is available downstairs in the exhibit hall So please remember that this is Andrews book Star Trek the official guide to our universe Okay, and this is Star talk the book with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Not only that, in Carl Sagan's novel Contact, which then became a movie in the late 1990s.

So Contact, that also had aliens that you never saw.

There was more work done on wormholes, especially inspired by Carl Sagan's novel Contact, when he was buds with Kip Thorne, a relativist physicist, astrophysicist at Caltech, where you run through more of the equations and you can, in principle, just punch a wormhole through the fabric of space without reference to a black hole or a white hole.

So he also actually suggested to Carl Sagan in Contact that wormholes were used in the film.

In the movie Contact. And the novel. In the story.

So that was a film adaptation of Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, and we saw there Jodie Foster playing the lead character, Ellie Arroway, first hearing a signal coming through the radio telescopes converted into sound.

And they said, Carl's writing a science fiction book.

And they said, well, you might think you recognize someone in the book, but I think you'll like her.

And I said, oh, come on. All right. As long as she doesn't eat ice cream cones for lunch, nobody's going to think it's me.

It's been rumored that the lead character of Contact, Ellie Araway, might have smelled like you a little bit.

I was a fan of the book Contact.

Carl Sagan's first novel is always strongly drawn from your personal life experience.

In the film, she wants to listen for radio signals from intelligent aliens at a time when that's not an entirely embraced thing for a scientist to do.

She has this developing relationship with a religious cleric who is the other side of the argument.

So to listen to the conversations between Ellie Arroway and Palmer Joss, who was a romantic interest and also a cleric, was very much to read Carl Sagan and what he had to say about the juncture between science and religion.

And so that's one that did it. Not only that, in Carl Sagan's novel Contact, which then became a movie in the late 1990s, because 2001 A Space Odyssey was 1968. So Contact, that also had aliens that you never saw.

Not only that, in Carl Sagan's novel Contact, which then became a movie in the late 1990s, because 2001 A Space Odyssey was 1968. So Contact, that also had aliens that you never saw.

Well, that was Carl's first novel.

And they say that your first novel is always strongly drawn from your personal life experience.

In the film if you haven't seen it, she wants to listen for radio signals from intelligent aliens at a time when that's not an entirely embraced thing for a scientist to do.

And also she has this developing relationship, believe it or not, with a religious cleric who is the other side of the argument.

Because the closest we get to this I think Is Kip Thorne speaking of The development of the wormhole in Contact In the movie Contact Because he said he was approached by Carl Sagan And he said how can we justify this scientifically

And then Kip Thorne went and did a calculation Added some extra physics that was not known before To wormhole calculations And then there he actually published a paper Inspired by Carl Sagan Trying to get this science right in the movie Contact

So that was a film adaptation of Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, and we saw there Jodie Foster playing the lead character, Ellie Arroway, first hearing a signal coming through the radio telescopes converted into sound.

And once they decoded it, they found that it was a sequence of prime numbers.

I think in the novel they sent digits of pi, but it's the same idea here.

So what's interesting for me is Carl Sagan, who is not himself professionally a novelist, has to gather raw data to assemble the story that he ultimately composed.

And there were rumors that Jodie Foster's character was based on a real person that Carl Sagan knew. And you wonder, might it have been Jill Tarter, one of the co-founders of the SETI Institute?

I was a fan of the book Contact. I loved the movie Contact. I love the Ellie Arroway character. I love that he described there as a wonder junkie, literally addicted to the mystery, addicted to the question.

Carl Sagan's first novel and they say that your first novel is always strongly drawn from your personal life experience.

In the film if you haven't seen it, she wants to listen for radio signals from intelligent aliens at a time when that's not an entirely embraced thing for a scientist to do.

When came time to do the movie, Carl called me up and said out of all the female scientists he knew, I came closest to being like the character he wanted to portray on the screen which I immediately thought, well of course, it's because I'm just so tactless and in your face and in the book that's the way the character is.

Well, that was Carl's first novel.

And they say that your first novel is always strongly drawn from your personal life experience.

In the film if you haven't seen it, she wants to listen for radio signals from intelligent aliens at a time when that's not an entirely embraced thing for a scientist to do.

And also she has this developing relationship, believe it or not, with a religious cleric who is the other side of the argument.

So to listen to the conversations between Ellie Arroway and Palmer Joss, who was a romantic interest and also a cleric, was very much to read Carl Sagan and what he had to say about the juncture between science and religion.

I'm told and you might have some other insight here that Carl Sagan at the time though young advised the producers of that film to not show the aliens and leave it to your imagination and that fact was preserved in his novel Contact when the screen version at least you don't see the aliens at all

And I studied carefully because I have a book recently, Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

And in it, I try to put the stuff on the table and say, you want to remember America as pioneers in this.

But in fact, almost every decision we made was reactive to what Russia did or reactive to what Russia said they would do.

So I wrote a book called Space Chronicles, facing the ultimate frontier. It came out two years ago.

I write books so that I never have to talk about that subject again.

I compile it all in there and someone said, tell me about that. I just handed a book. Here's a book.

It's now in paperback And it's more affordable than the Harcum

Space Chronicles Facing the Ultimate Frontier

It's because we need charisma And there's a lot of sort of misinformation And delusional thinking out there This book is a full exploration of that Of the fact that we have yet to progress beyond There are reasons for that

Okay, I wrote an entire book on this Called Space Chronicles And I write books so that I never have to talk about that subject again

Okay, I wrote an entire book on this Called Space Chronicles And I write books so that I never have to talk about that subject again

I just finished reading Space Chronicles and it was an absolute delight.

It just came out on paperback like seconds ago.

Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

I know it's a kind of lamey title, but I really had a different title in mind that I submitted the manuscript with.

Failure to Launch. The Dreams and Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.

It's every thought I've ever had about our past, present and future in space.

I studied carefully because I have a book recently, Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

And in it, I try to put the stuff on the table and say you want to remember America as pioneers in this but in fact almost every decision we made was reactive to what Russia did or reactive to what Russia said they would do.

And I wrote a whole book on this

It was called What's it called? This one right here? No, it's not that one The Unspoken Alliance?

So I wrote a whole book on this That I wanted to call Failure to Launch The Dreams and Delusions of Space Enthusiasts And the publisher said No, we can't have the word failure in a title That's just bad But I love the title

They said By the way, isn't there a movie with that title? Yes, except I'm using the title Literally Failure to Launch That one was figurative about Failing to leave home and get married Why don't you just call it I'll just call it Successes and Unsuccesses In the world of launching Unsuccesses

So that book's called Space Chronicles Facing the So I settled on the title Space Chronicles Facing the Ultimate Frontier Half of that book Is on why we didn't continue to go to Mars

I wrote a whole book on this.

So I'd be lazy and say, go and buy the damn book.

Yeah, the book is Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

Do you know why I write books? Because you can.

I write books so that I never have to talk about that subject again.

And I studied carefully because I have a book recently, Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier. And in it, I try to put the stuff on the table and say, you want to remember America as pioneers in this.

So I wrote a book called Space Chronicles, facing the ultimate frontier. It came out two years ago.

It just came out on paperback like seconds ago.

Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

I know it's a kind of lamey title, but I really had a different title in mind that I submitted the manuscript with.

Failure to Launch. The Dreams and Delusions of Space Enthusiasts.

The publisher said, wait a minute, Failure to Launch, isn't that the title of a movie?

I studied carefully because I have a book recently, Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

And in it, I try to put the stuff on the table and say you want to remember America as pioneers in this but in fact almost every decision we made was reactive to what Russia did or reactive to what Russia said they would do.

I wrote a whole book on this.

Yeah, the book is Space Chronicles, Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

In fact, I have an entire essay titled, On Earth As It Is In The Heavens.

Oh, it's an entire, in fact, it's a chapter in my Death by Black Hole book.

I'm going to have to, I have in my hand, Death by Black Hole. And all I'm going to do is like read the first paragraph of that chapter.

Okay, it's chapter freaking two of this book. Okay. Okay, On Earth As It Is In The Heavens.

So now we're going to go to page 31. You ready? Go ahead. Until Isaac Newton wrote down the universal law of gravitation, there was little reason to presume that the laws of physics on Earth were the same as everywhere else in the universe.

Okay, I guarantee it's in Death by Black Hole and other cosmic quandaries.

Don't you have a book titled Death by Black Hole? I've always wanted to steal that title from you.

It's one, so that title is the title of one chapter in a book that goes a lot of different places.

I've been reading your book, Death by Black Hole.

It's a fan favorite, Death by Black Hole.

I wrote a whole book on this.

I've been reading your book Death by Black Hole.

In my Death by Black Hole book.

And it might I don't think I put it in my So it's out there, okay, so should I spend time on that here and now or should you just go buy the book?

Warium Sedu Here's your answer Death by Black Hole Amazon It's a whole chapter there on being round and being and it's I'll say in simple terms.

It's a whole chapter there on being round and being and it's I'll say in simple terms.

The range of measured densities within our universe is staggeringly large.

one thimbleful [of neutrons in pulsars] would weigh about as much as a herd of 50 million elephants.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you

In fact, in my book Death by Black Hole, I spend a whole chapter on this. All the ways the Universe wants to kill us.

I've been reading your book, Death by Black Hole.

It's a fan favorite, Death by Black Hole.

I've been reading your book Death by Black Hole.

And I wrote about that in one of my books, I think in Death by Black Hole.

In fact, in my book Death by Black Hole, I spend a whole chapters on this.

All the way is the Universe wants to kill us.

All the way is Earth wants to kill us.

Ray Bradbury was accused of saying, why are you always all dystopic about the future?

And you know what he said? He said, is this the future you're wishing we go to? He says, no, I write these futures so that we don't go there.

And of course Ray Bradbury is famous for... The Martian Chronicles.

He said is this the future you're wishing we go to? He says no I write these futures so that we don't go there.

In the Martian, you can scrape the book or the movie, you scrape up some Martian soil and use chemistry to make rocket fuel out of it.

In the Martian, you can scrape the book or the movie, you scrape up some Martian soil and use chemistry to make rocket fuel out of it.

It's called the oxygenator on the movie The Martian, but we call it MOXIE on Perseverance.

This one is the Martian based on a true story. I'm just kidding.

And he wrote heavily about Mars And he wrote heavily about Mars And he was in fact The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury are some of the most important ones

And he said absolutely what you said first of all, right? That he was inspired to write much of The Martian Chronicles based on the scientific discoveries or the purported discoveries of people like Percival Lowell and things like that And he wrote about the canals and so on

But then he went on to talk a little bit about how many letters he had received over the years Where they were space scientists, they were planetary scientists They were other kinds of science-based people who said your Martian Chronicles inspired me to make this discovery Or inspired me to look into that and do that

Ray Bradbury was accused of saying, why are you always all dystopic about the future?

And you know what he said? He said, is this the future you're wishing we go to? He says, no, I write these futures so that we don't go there.

And of course Ray Bradbury is famous for... The Martian Chronicles. Yeah, Ray Bradbury was accused of saying why are you always all dystopic about the future? And you know what he said?

He said is this the future you're wishing we go to? He says no I write these futures so that we don't go there.

In the Martian, you can scrape the book or the movie, you scrape up some Martian soil and use chemistry to make rocket fuel out of it.

In the Martian, you can scrape the book or the movie, you scrape up some Martian soil and use chemistry to make rocket fuel out of it.

This one's a good one. I'm not authorized to answer that question.

I saw that movie and I was like I guarantee if I tweet this people will be like oh my god I thought so. I read the book.

This is from Jeff Gerchin at Jeff Gerchin. Does space smell?

If you wrote a book called How to Make White People Laugh, that's gutsy.

I mean it was probably my book and it was partly I've sued the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City for the right to put up funny posters about Muslims. I've done a lot of work around like activism, comedic activism around immigrant rights and Islamophobia and so that's something that I think caught their interest.

Nagin, you wrote a book. I did. A few years ago. Yeah. Just it was, and I'm trying to remember the title. Is it How to Make White People Laugh or something like that?

Neil, it wasn't for you. No, it wasn't for me. That's why I never, I heard about the book, but I said, nope, this is not addressed to me.

That's right, How to Make White People Laugh. So I remembered the title correctly. That's the title, yeah. Okay, very cool.

One of my favorite things you've done is your book, How to Make White People Laugh. Did I get that title right?

Just so you know, you wrote a book that has my favorite title of any book ever. It's called How to Make White People Laugh.

And you're also author of the book, How to Make White People Laugh.

Now, I laugh just reading that title. Is that allowed?

And that's, the entire book is just the title. That's it.

And you're also author of the book, How to Make White People Laugh.

Now, I laugh just reading that title. Is that allowed?

And that's, the entire book is just the title. That's it.

And there's no, it's actually just a notebook where you can write your own thoughts.

Now, I'd laugh just reading that title. Is that allowed? And that's, the entire book is just the title. That's it. And there's no, it's actually just a notebook where you can write your own thoughts.

And you're also the author of the funniest book title I've ever seen. It's called How to Make White People Laugh.

So you're out there, you're trying to, you're into social justice and keep that going. That's what I do. And it turns out making white people laugh is like a critical part of social justice.

Nagin Farsad is a stand-up comedian, and if I remember correctly, you wrote a book called How to Make White People Laugh. Indeed.

They're fun, but they have, like, you know, just a lot less science, but you'll still love them. And you write this not as a white person. You write this as a sort of Middle Eastern heritage person?

Nagin Farsad is a stand-up comedian, and if I remember correctly, you wrote a book called How to Make White People Laugh.

Indeed.

That's a crazy title. It's just crazy. I would like a comet to be named after my book. How to Make White People Laugh.

And you're also author of the book, How to Make White People Laugh.

So time in your New York Times bestselling book. Yes. Yeah so in the book you talk it's called Undeniable and you talk about evolution and the evidence for it and and there's a lot of sort of personal storytelling to get people warm and fuzzy with it. But in there at some point you got to get people understand how long time is cosmic time geologic time biological time.

We really take on the creationist. Yeah. The creationist but in biblical creationist the literalists the universe is six thousand years old.

So time in your New York Times bestselling book. Yes. Yeah. So in the book, you talk. It's called Undeniable and you talk about evolution and the evidence for it. And there's a lot of sort of personal storytelling to get people warm and fuzzy with it. But in there, at some point, you got to get people to understand how long time is.

But so more so in your in your book, in your book, Undeniable, we really take on the creationists, the creationist. But in biblical creationist, the literalists, the universe is six thousand years old.

Proud to be Homo sapiens, a curious species with DNA compelling us to explore, even if doing so, put your own life at risk. Apparently. Why? I believe our ancestors...

Undeniable, evolution of science of creation. So if you've got people who are ready to kill themselves. You pick up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Proud to be homo sapiens, a curious species with DNA compelling us to explore even if doing so puts your own life at risk.

Undeniable. Evolution of the Science of Creation.

With his charming breezy narrative style, Bill empowers the reader to see the natural world as it is, not as some would wish it to be.

The subtitle of it is Evolution in the Science of Creation, My Blurb. And I'm honored that it was the top blurb. And it is the shortest one.

The book I consider a primer on evolution.

Evolution is the main idea in all biology.

I do remember very well watching bumblebees. And just thinking... I mean a bumblebee is a small thing by human standards. But just compare the size of their wings to how small they are. How in the world is this possible?

And in my book Undeniable, on the New York transoralist, I have a little discussion about this.

In your sort of later life Post science guy you've written a couple Of books Three books One of them is about evolution Now here's an example Neal I'm not an evolutionary biologist But I claim I have enough science literacy To have written a book about the fundamentals Of evolution And I did

In the book you talk it's called Undeniable and you talk about evolution and the evidence for it and and there's a lot of sort of personal storytelling to get people warm and fuzzy with it. But in there at some point you got to get people understand how long time is cosmic time geologic time biological time.

We really take on the creationist. Yeah. The creationist but in biblical creationist the literalists the universe is six thousand years old.

So in the book, you talk. It's called Undeniable and you talk about evolution and the evidence for it.

But in there, at some point, you got to get people to understand how long time is. And cosmic time, geologic time, biological time.

Proud to be Homo sapiens, a curious species with DNA compelling us to explore, even if doing so, put your own life at risk. Apparently. Why? I believe our ancestors...

Undeniable, evolution of science of creation.

Proud to be homo sapiens, a curious species with DNA compelling us to explore even if doing so puts your own life at risk. Apparently. Why? I believe our ancestors...

Undeniable. Evolution of the Science of Creation.

I wrote a book, New York Times bestseller, Undeniable Evolution and the Science of Creation. Yes. And in that book I had some...

And at that time when I wrote it, I said it's always good to be cautious. It's, you don't know what you're going to do to the ecosystem.

In your recent book Undeniable you give caution to the use of GMOs and food stuff now you're advocating their use explain or describe the science specifically that changed your perspective so you talked about what would happen but is there a specific scientific moment that you can look to that says hey man this is cool now yes okay

And in my book Undeniable, on the New York transoralist, I have a little discussion about this.

Newton's most famous book which we call Principia, the full title of that is Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. And so the natural philosophy is part of that framing.

So Newton had already figured that out.

His famous book is The Principia where he discovers gravity and all this.

So Newton's famous book is The Principia where he discovers gravity and all this.

And this is sort of an analysis of that book. You get to bask in his genius.

Yeah, so a big turning point though is Newton's Principia

Which after that

Now Newton's my man

I know he's your man that's why I brought him up

Just so you know

about 400 years ago Sir Isaac Newton...discovered the laws of motion and gravity

He also discovered calculus and had already discovered the laws of optics

How was he so focused and deeply indulged in his work during the plague which was a pandemic during that time

How was he able to manage his mental health and how can we manage our own mental health and have a spark of our own creativity and imagination during this time of peak anxiety

escaping the Black Plague in London and in Cambridge, he was a professor at Cambridge or at least in school at Cambridge

He published, well, the pub date is 1687. He published Principia, the mathematical principles of natural philosophy.

And in there he, well actually it was the math for knowing this is in there.

Isaac Newton first demonstrated this in In keeping a pre-incipient and first drew it in the system of the world That was his cliff notes for his principia terrific written in English.

a big turning point though is Newton's Principia

That's what orbit means. That's what Isaac Newton determined in Principia 1587.

And Isaac Newton figured this out in 1686. He published, well, the pub date is 1687. He published Principia, the mathematical principles of natural philosophy.

And the one I think most people know if they know you at all The Elegant Universe There's nothing the fabric of the cosmos.

Yeah, it's about multiple universes.

I had lunch with him, Brian Green up the street here at Columbia University. The Elegant Universe guy. Author of The Elegant Universe and several other books to follow.

author of the very bestselling The Elegant Universe, followed by The Fabric of the Cosmos, followed by The Hidden Reality.

The man who wrote the book The Elegant Universe is this a philosophical motivating force for you

We're hip to you, you in the industrial string complex. That's true. We know what you're up to Brian.

And his first book that anyone knows about was a mega bestseller, which was? The Elegant Universe.

And this was a way to share not only the frontier of his research with all the rest of us, give us a sense of hope that maybe one day we'll understand everything.

I was having lunch with Brian Greene, an author of The Elegant Universe and several other books that followed that.

And so what he told me was these--in the vacuum of space, we've known that there are these things called virtual particles because quantum physics says you can't have zero energy anywhere, that there's fluctuations in the space-time fabric, quantum fluctuations that will always give you a little bit of energy. You'll never be pure zero.

And then they return no longer quantum entangled.

There's been some thinking lately to suggest that these two quantum entangled particles are connected by a wormhole, such as the EP bridge that he mentioned. That's a wormhole.

It's just a fancier name for a wormhole.

Our buddy Brian, author of the best-selling book, The Elegant Universe, and he followed it up with The Fabric of the Cosmos.

He's right up the street from us in Columbia University.

Well, so a great book on this, which was a big bestseller, was from my friend and colleague Brian Green. He wrote a book called The Elegant Universe.

His earliest book, The Elegant Universe, was a mega bestseller back in 1999 and it was followed up with a book called The Fabric of the Cosmos, Space, Time and the Texture of Reality.

Your best selling author, The Elegant Universe. A beautiful book.

Brian Green, he's best known to the public for popularizing string theory. His earliest book, The Elegant Universe, was a mega bestseller back in 1999 and it was followed up with a book called The Fabric of the Cosmos, Space, Time and the Texture of Reality.

So, I mean, in the book I talk about the witch theory of causality. If you believe that burning women at the stake for cavorting with demons in the middle of the night as an explanation for storms and diseases and plagues, then you're either insane or you live 500 years ago.

In the last chapter of The Moral Arc I speculated on us becoming a Multi-planetary spacefaring civilization in which there's no more nation states either.

In 1959 a poll showed that 96% of Americans were against interracial marriage now they don't even ask the question anymore.

How science and reason lead humanity towards truth, justice, and freedom.

publisher of Skeptic magazine and the author of The Moral Arc, Michael Shermer

On this next episode of Cosmic Queries, I'm joined in studio by co-host Eugene Merman and the founder of Skeptic Magazine and author of The Moral Arc, Michael Schermer.

I speculate...that's audacious, you know.

So I do speculate about this at the last chapter of toward the end of The Moral Arc.

And I've leaned towards you, Rick, on this.

So then I think it becomes sort of a feedback loop. More science and reason is good for morality. More just and open society is more conducive to science.

And currently it's called The Moral Arc

Well the title of course comes from Dr. King's famous How Long Not Long

That would be Martin Luther King

That's right, yes

And he quoted that verbatim in his speech, yeah

So first, at the very least, if the science informs us that it's not a choice, you're just born that way, that tells us that condemning it as a wrong choice is itself wrong.

If we know something about biology and embryology and hormones and so on, so there's this great spectrum in sexual choices and preferences, not choices, preferences, that's why we use that word, it's just how it is, or orientation, then we can at least be more respectful.

Now nobody burns women as witches in the West anyway. It's very rare elsewhere. And so we've been debunking essentially wrong ideas, mainly science.

These are wrong ideas, that blacks are inferior, that women can't run companies and countries. These are all wrong ideas and we debunk them to the point where no one even talks about it anymore.

In the last chapter of The Moral Arc I speculated on us becoming a Multi-planetary spacefaring civilization in which there's no more nation states either.

How science and reason lead humanity towards truth, justice, and freedom.

author of The Moral Arc, How Science Makes Us Better People.

So here's Josh I on Twitter asks, if we found life on other worlds, how would that affect the way we look at life on our world?

I speculate... That's audacious, you know.

If we encountered aliens, would they be good or evil?

So I do speculate about this at the last chapter of toward the end of The Moral Arc.

So always our moral consideration for other animals, including possible hybrids or a clone, would be, you know, are they going to suffer by us bringing them into existence?

And currently it's called The Moral Arc

Well the title of course comes from Dr. King's famous How Long Not Long

And I think I even blurbed this book

And The Moral Arc is your latest

My goal is to be the shortest blurb On any book jacket

One of the reasons why one of my books, titled Welcome to the Universe

It's basically a textbook intended for you to read, not for you to use in a classroom

Just at a local bookstore near you.

actually speaking of books I just finished reading your other book The Astrophysical Tour of the Universe The other day so thanks for that Two book plugs That is not playing around I just finished your book Get the next one out

Princeton University Press. There it is.

The title is Welcome to the Universe. Yeah, yeah. An astrophysical tour.

actually I'm co-author on it, a book that was just released. Princeton University Press. What's the title? Welcome to the Universe. An astrophysical tour.

Just at a local bookstore near you.

Actually speaking of books I just finished reading your other book The Astrophysical Tour of the Universe the other day so thanks for that.

Princeton University Press. There it is.

The title is Welcome to the Universe.

An astrophysical tour.

actually I'm co-author on it, a book that was just released. Princeton University Press. What's the title? Welcome to the Universe. An astrophysical tour.

Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

It became almost the spiritual inspiration for the book, Carl Sagan's book, The Pale Blue Dot.

So it's just Earth, just barely a pixel in the image and it was not in a sea of stars but it's a sea of nothingness.

But that's just because the aperture of a lens, if you set it for the lighting of the Earth then you're not going to see the stars but they're there. It's not like they weren't there.

So, in the Pale Blue Dot, the book, Carl Sagan waxed poetic and philosophical with great elegance on what our place is in space and in the universe in general upon reflecting on this Pale Blue Dot.

In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It's up to us.

Carl Sagan writes an entire book with that title.

It has become synonymous with planetary brotherhood and protection of the environment.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's like the first cosmic meme, Pale Blue Dot.

Carl Sagan writes an entire book with that title.

It has become synonymous with planetary brotherhood and protection of the environment.

So this image led Carl Sagan to write a very famous book called The Pale Blue Dodd and in it he waxes poetic about our presence in space.

He talks about as you stare upon this Pale Blue Dot, barely a pixel in the image. This is Earth, something we're so accustomed to seeing with mountains and valleys and craters and hills and oceans. It's big. It is not even a pixel in this image.

And he says everyone you've ever known, read about, heard about, lived out their lives on that speck and all the wars that are fought over the temporary command of one plot of land versus another, all happened on this speck.

Everyone who contributed to what we call history lived out their lives on that dodd.

It became almost the spiritual inspiration for the book, Carl Sagan's book, The Pale Blue Dot.

So, in the Pale Blue Dot, the book, Carl Sagan waxed poetic and philosophical with great elegance on what our place is in space and in the universe in general upon reflecting on this Pale Blue Dot.

It's iconic. I mean it just really...people really love it.

Carl Sagan writes an entire book with that title.

It has become synonymous with planetary brotherhood and protection of the environment.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's like the first cosmic meme, Pale Blue Dot.

Carl Sagan writes an entire book with that title.

It has become synonymous with planetary brotherhood and protection of the environment.

So this image led Carl Sagan to write a very famous book called The Pale Blue Dodd and in it he waxes poetic about our presence in space.

So, David, if memory serves, you wrote a book on Venus too. This is correct, yes. Wait, wait, sorry, you wrote a book on Earth about Venus. That's right. I was not on Venus when I wrote the book, but I wrote a book on the subject of Venus. And the title of that book was what? That's Venus Revealed.

So, but anyhow, you've literally wrote the book on Venus.

A few years back, the book Venus Revealed.

Now one of your favorite places in the solar system is Venus you even wrote a book on it called Venus Revealed

You wrote a book on Venus?

What was that one called?

Venus Revealed.

It might have been a better title, Venus Unveiled.

Maybe the next edition I'll go for you, Unveiled.

Now one of your favorite places in the solar system is Venus you even wrote a book on it called Venus Revealed

yeah Venus Revealed

He has a mega best-selling book, A Brief History of Time. Sold 10 million copies. And it brought cosmology from the frontier of physics into people's living rooms.

Well, rumor has it, and actually it wasn't just rumor, I heard it from the person who said it, that the original editor for Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, this was at Cambridge Press, warned him that for every equation he put in that book, the available audience to him would be cut in half.

In the last edition of A Brief History of Time that Stephen added to, there's a great story at the end where he said...

And he says in A Brief History of Time, given what we've just discussed about, you know, the things and the ashes and the smoke and all the information, he said, I should have given them in an urn and burnt them.

Remember when Stephen Hawking's A Short History of Time was a bestseller? And there was a kind of an open joke about whether anyone who was buying it was reading it because like, that is not a, you know, the idea that, you know, some, a standard normally educated human being could read that book and make sense of it is a little bit of a stretch.

I feel like the Stephen Hawking book was for giving, not for reading.

And all I could think of was Steve Hawkins, A Short History of Time.

A Brief History of Time, yeah.

She says why did you choose something that's fun?

And I said this is fun and it is. I don't ask me to explicate about black holes or anything. But I love reading it. It's just so awesome.

They realized the value of that in the 1700s. They knew back then before they even knew how to cure polio, how come we can't get a grip?

He has a mega best-selling book, A Brief History of Time. Sold 10 million copies. And it brought cosmology from the frontier of physics into people's living rooms.

And all I could think of was Steve Hawkins, A Short History of Time.

A Brief History of Time, yeah.

She says why did you choose something that's fun? And I said this is fun and it is. I don't ask me to explicate about black holes or anything. But I love reading it. It's just so awesome.

So meet you, A Brief History of Time. Stephen Hawking, that single-handedly put physics back on the map in pop culture ever since Einstein was a pop culture icon.

The other one was Black Hole Survival Guide.

One of my favorites, Black Hole Survival Guide.

So you described, you said that black holes are nothing. They are no thing.

So Janet, you wrote a book called The Black Hole Survival Guide, which is a little scary because you should not come close enough to a black hole to ever have to think about surviving it, is what I'm thinking.

Yeah, spoiler alert, it doesn't end well.

So you take the reader... Doesn't end well, as we've described. You take the reader on a journey towards a black hole. You cross the event horizon and take it into the depths of oblivion.

Jani, your book is mistitled because you call it *The Survival Guide*, but it's really your recipe for death. Yeah.

And more recently you have a book called The Black Hole Survival Guide, which is like a pocket book, fits right in your coat pocket.

It's sort of a, I have a spoiler alert. It doesn't end well.

So you've got that book and a more recent one called The Black Hole Survivor's Guide, which is a very pocket-sized book and everything you needed to know to visit and not die in a black hole, I think.

Chuck says the person who wrote the book, Black Hole Survival Guide.

That's like chapter three in Black Hole Survival Guide.

So you've got that book and a more recent one called The Black Hole Survivor's Guide, which is a very pocket-sized book and everything you needed to know to visit and not die in a black hole, I think.

So you've got that book and a more recent one called The Black Hole Survivor's Guide, which is a very pocket-sized book and everything you needed to know to visit and not die in a black hole, I think.

So this one, Black Hole Survival Guide, is just all black holes all the time.

It's so cute. It's like this big.

It's a little guide. You can put it in your back pocket.

And I also had an artist friend of mine do the illustrations and she did 23 original paintings, Leah Halloran, for it.

So it's really this book feels very much like a little object.

So then with our friend of StarTalk, David Grinspoon, he's been on Dr. Funky Spoon.

Yeah. Yeah. He's, you banded together with him to write Chasing New Horizons.

Yeah. And with this long subtitle.

Yeah. What was that subtitle?

Inside the Epic Mission to Explore the Ninth Planet.

I'm reminded you're author of Chasing New Horizons. I see what you did there because there is a mission to Pluto called New Horizons. And it's called Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto.

But more recently, you've got a book titled Chasing New Horizons, which was New Horizons was the actual name of a space mission.

So you did a double meaning there, Chasing New Horizons, inside the epic first mission to Pluto.

But more recently, you've got a book titled Chasing New Horizons, which was New Horizons was the actual name of a space mission.

Also, you care about Pluto. I'm told you're working on a new book with Alan Stern. What's that one called?

Yeah. Boy, I love Pluto. Alan and I are working on a book called Chasing New Horizons.

When does that come out?

It comes out next year 2017.

I'm told you're working on a new book with Alan Stern.

What's that one called?

Yeah. Boy, I love Pluto. Alan and I are working on a book called Chasing New Horizons.

When does that come out?

It comes out next year 2017.

remind us of the book that you wrote about pluto a few years back what's that title and yeah yeah Chasing New Horizons with alan stern oh both of you yeah together on that excellent and and the subtitle was oh gosh you want to remember the subtitle it was no inside Chasing New Horizons inside the epic first mission to pluto

I wrote a book, New York Times bestseller, Undeniable Evolution and the Science of Creation.

And in that book I had some...

By the way it's a great book. I love you man.

And at that time when I wrote it, I said it's always good to be cautious. It's, you don't know what you're going to do to the ecosystem.

In your recent book Undeniable you give caution to the use of GMOs and food stuff now you're advocating their use explain or describe the science specifically that changed your perspective so you talked about what would happen but is there a specific scientific moment that you can look to that says hey man this is cool now

This book that I hope we're going to discuss shortly is a result of the stories that I've heard my whole life having to do with life science, biology, how we all got here.

It addresses that deep question. How did we all get here?

It is to be hoped.

It's all about evolution.

With his charming breezy narrative style, Bill guides the reader to see the natural world as it is, not as some would wish it to be.

He's had a new lead new bestseller on on on New York Times with his book on evolution and called Undeniable.

Bill, your book, Undeniable, is now on the best sell, New York Times, best of, congratulations on this.

But there's a denominator here I want to tease out. Bill's book, it's not simply Here's Evolution. It's Here's Evolution to all you people who think it didn't happen.

With his charming breezy narrative style, Bill empowers the reader to see the natural world as it is, not as some would wish it to be. He does it right. And as I expected he does it best.

The subtitle of it is Evolution and the Science of Creation, My Blurb... The book is very breezy and informative at the same time and those two words are hardly ever in the same sense.

The book I consider a primer on evolution. It's very important for everybody to realize that living things make more copies of themselves than can succeed.

Evolution is the main idea in all biology. And but your title is very confrontational.

I do remember very well watching bumblebees... Furthermore, in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, they stated categorically that bumblebees should be unable to fly. They are aerodynamic misfits.

This book that I hope we're going to discuss shortly is a result of the stories that I've heard my whole life having to do with life science, biology, how we all got here.

It addresses that deep question. How did we all get here?

It is to be hoped. That is a cause and effect.

With his charming breezy narrative style, Bill was the reader to see the natural world as it is, not as some would wish it to be. He does it right and as I expected, he does it best.

I have a chapter here about race.

He's had a new lead new bestseller on on on New York Times with his book on evolution and called Undeniable.

Bill, your book, Undeniable, is now on the best sell, New York Times, best of, congratulations on this.

But there's a denominator here I want to tease out. Bill's book, it's not simply Here's Evolution. It's Here's Evolution to all you people who think it didn't happen.