Cosmic Queries – Scars in Spacetime

About This Episode

Can we influence the strong nuclear force? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Paul Mecurio answer grab bag questions about sci-fi laser guns, the Roche Limit, how we interact with the fundamental forces, and more!

What’s the difference between a black hole and a wormhole? And could wormholes ever form naturally? Neil breaks down why a hole is a misleading 2D concept, why “what goes up must come down” is complete nonsense, and why white holes would require negative gravity that nothing in the universe appears to produce.

How quietly would a singer have to whisper to affect only a single quark? And why can’t you do anything without moving electrons? Neil maps out all four fundamental forces and which ones we can interact with. Why don’t you feel squeezed underwater until you put on a wetsuit? What happens to the human body if you go deep enough? We break down the Roche limit and why it matters for asteroid deflection. Neil works through pressure, tidal forces, and the critical difference between a solid rock and a rubble pile hurtling toward Earth.

Which sci-fi tropes need to die? We talk about the visibility of laser guns and audible space explosions. Plus, why do we assume aliens are intelligent? Can multiple time travelers create conflicting timelines in the same universe? What’s stopping us from outrunning an expanding universe? And could black holes be topological scars in the fabric of spacetime quietly encoding information? All that and more on another Grab Bag Cosmic Queries!

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