Our Burning Questions – Age of the Universe & More

About This Episode

What is the greatest scientific breakthrough? Neil deGrasse Tyson answers co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly’s burning questions they have been saving all year about the age of the universe, the double slit experiment, and the nature of time. Is time even real?

Chuck gets specific and asks about an argument he overheard Neil have with a colleague. What is the age of the universe? Is there even meaning to that question? Learn about when Galileo tried to measure the speed of light and what the size of the universe is including expansion.

Would it ever be possible to communicate in deep space in real time? Would the delay make any communication useless? We also discuss the interference pattern in the double slit experiment and what it means. What does the observer effect really mean?

Is time a real thing? We break down time dilation, the atomic clock, what time really is. Is it a human construct? What other things measure time? What scientific breakthrough has shaped the current world the most? We discuss energy and a fundamental truth that helped unlock many fields of science we see today.

Thanks to our Patrons Jessi Strong Spear, Jeffrey Brenman, Dr. Cy (she, her, hers), Amanda Kerschen, Andrea Chitwood, Glenn Downing, and Lucas Reames for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.