Our Burning Questions – Free Will Emergence

About This Episode

Neil deGrasse Tyson answers the burning questions Chuck Nice, Gary O’Reilly, and the StarTalk Team have been saving all year about gravity as a force, cosmic rays, free will, emergence, and how physicists decide which equations to apply.

What was Neil’s favorite non-astrophysics topic from the past year? Chuck asks: Is gravity really a force, or just the bending of spacetime? Neil unpacks Einstein’s equivalence principle, curved spacetime, acceleration versus gravity, and why it may not matter which explanation you prefer.

Are cosmic rays causing airplane computer glitches? Are particles from deep space really to blame? Neil explains cosmic radiation, solar activity, space weather, and why redundancy, not blaming the universe, is the real solution. Why does the strong nuclear force grow stronger with distance? How do gluons interact with quarks to create protons and neutrons?

How do physicists choose equations? Neil breaks down the real value behind problem sets and building up your physics toolkit. Is free will an emergent property of consciousness? Could you predict an action someone does before they do it? How does solar energy end up locked inside trees, food, and fossil fuels?

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