1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:12,159 Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, do you ever think about your legacy? I mean, like, 2 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: what am I going to be remembered for? Yeah, you 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: know what's going to be the first line of your obituary? Well, 4 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: I'm gonna be dead, so I don't think I'll be 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:21,799 Speaker 1: too worried about it. But I just hope it's not 6 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 1: something like slipped on a banana Revenge of the Bananas. 7 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: That might be like comically and karmically appropriate. Yeah, it's 8 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:31,440 Speaker 1: a super subject. But what about you? What do you 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: want to be remembered for. I don't know. I guess 10 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: it would be nice to not be remembered for, like 11 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: destroying the planet and exterminating the human race. It seems 12 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: like a low bar there. But your physicist, you work 13 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: at a giant energy particle collider. I think you might 14 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: be in the wrong field there. That's why I worry 15 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:51,279 Speaker 1: about it. Well, as long as you're not the one 16 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: pressing the button, you're probably okay. Right, that person is 17 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:56,960 Speaker 1: going down in history or lack of history, because we'll 18 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: all be gone. What's that? I didn't hear you as 19 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: pressing this big red button. Don't do it. Hi am 20 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: or handmade cartoonists and the creator of PhD Comics. Hi. 21 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:21,679 Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I actually have 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: pressed the big red button in the control room at 23 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: certain kidding. They have one. They have one, absolutely. Is 24 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 1: it like a toy one or for real, like the 25 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: one that pulls out all the stops or does all 26 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: the stops? You know, they have a real one. They 27 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: also actually have a decoy for visitors so they can 28 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: come in and press the button and see all the 29 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,280 Speaker 1: lights go on. That one doesn't actually do anything, but 30 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: there is one in the center of the control room 31 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: which shuts everything down in case of emergency. Wow, and 32 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: you've pressed that one. I have pressed that one. I 33 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: was on shift something like twelve thirteen years ago when 34 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: the LHC had that big accident and there was a 35 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: short and liquid helium spread everywhere and we had to 36 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: shut everything down urgently. Well that's exciting. Does that mean 37 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: you say if the universe? I don't think I saved anything, 38 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: but I did get to press the button, so good 39 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,079 Speaker 1: points for me. Maybe you'll get a Nobel Prize for 40 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,839 Speaker 1: saving humanity. I just want to not end humanity. Well, 41 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge explained the Universe 42 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,959 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio, in which we take 43 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 1: you to the end of human thought and the forefront 44 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: of human ignorance and ask questions about the nature of 45 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: this crazy universe. We try to peel back a layer 46 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,080 Speaker 1: of reality and show you what's underneath. We try to 47 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: ask questions that if we knew the answers, would change 48 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: the way we felt about being human and about living 49 00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: in this world. We don't shy away from all of it, 50 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: and we try to explain all of it to you. Yeah, 51 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:47,119 Speaker 1: because it is a fascinating world, full of interesting and 52 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,239 Speaker 1: awesome things to discover, and a lot of interesting things 53 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: that could potentially destroy the world. I mean, that's kind 54 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 1: of the nature of physics. There's a lot of power there. 55 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:57,639 Speaker 1: There is a lot of power. There are fearsome forces 56 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: that are in delicate balances. You know, our son, for example, 57 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: is squeezed together by gravity and constantly exploded by fusion bombs. 58 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: And it's amazing how stable our situation is given how 59 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: fragile it seems. Yeah, it is sort of a weird 60 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: sort of mixture in the universe of feeling like things 61 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: could end at any moment, but also it's sort of 62 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:19,520 Speaker 1: being amazed that we're still here. Yeah, it's sort of 63 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:21,799 Speaker 1: like we're balancing on a knife edge, and we've been 64 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: doing it for thousands and thousands of years, billions of years, 65 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: billions of years if you include all the microbs. Why 66 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:30,640 Speaker 1: hasn't you know, just a puff of wind come to 67 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,040 Speaker 1: knock us off in one direction? Why haven't we been 68 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: sterilized by a nearby supernova? Yeah, it seems like physics 69 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: has a lot of ways in which things can end. 70 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: It's almost like a handbook for future supervillain. The more 71 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: you understand the universe, the better you are manipulating it 72 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: and bending it to your will. So in some sense, 73 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: the task of physics is to reveal those handles, is 74 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: to figure out, like, huh, how does this whole machine 75 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: actually work? Because if you know how it works, you 76 00:03:57,560 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: might be able to twist the knobs to get your 77 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: particular desired outcome. Yeah, and you know, obviously, and we 78 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:05,760 Speaker 1: want to do good things with physics, and people have 79 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: done amazing and wonderful things with physics and understanding of 80 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: the universe. But you might also do some other things 81 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: with what you learn about the universe. You might and 82 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: we often get questions from listeners. That makes me go, 83 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: why is this person asking this question? Why are they 84 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: interested in building a giant laser that they could put 85 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,600 Speaker 1: in space and point at the Earth. Why is their 86 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,039 Speaker 1: email address double encrypted? And why can't you find any 87 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: trace of this person on the Internet. That's right at 88 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: underground Volcano Layer dot com effort that has good reviews 89 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: on yon. But yeah, it's a question we often get 90 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: on the inbox. People seem to be very curious about 91 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: different ways that you can end the world using physics. 92 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,160 Speaker 1: That's right, and personally, while I'm very interested in physics 93 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:53,720 Speaker 1: and revealing the nature of reality, I chose particle physics 94 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: because I thought it would have basically no immediate applications, 95 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: meaning I'm not equipping supervillain or master criminals or dictators 96 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,479 Speaker 1: with technologies that they can use to terrorize or slaughter 97 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,919 Speaker 1: innocent civilians. That's one reason I got into particle physics. 98 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,479 Speaker 1: So that makes me feel two ways about sharing these 99 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,160 Speaker 1: secrets of the universe with everybody out there. I thought 100 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:16,839 Speaker 1: your story was going to take a different twist. I 101 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: thought you were going to go with the butt It's 102 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,360 Speaker 1: like I started off wanting to do good for humanity, 103 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:25,280 Speaker 1: but then I learned more about particle physics. That's the 104 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: character arc for Daniel Whites and the comic character. That's 105 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: the supervillain origin story. Here, we're living it right now. Well, 106 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: we're still in the preamble because I'm not a supervillain yet, 107 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: so this is still all lead up to my supervillain 108 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: origin story. I'm just creating other supervillains by sharing physics. 109 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: I see, you're like in that movie trilogy where you're 110 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: the good guy in the first movie, but then you 111 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:47,600 Speaker 1: turn into the bad guy in the second movie. Hey, 112 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: you know, every bad guy thinks that they're the good guy. Okay, 113 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: so maybe we're all just a bad guy. But we 114 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: are here to help, or at least we try to 115 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: help here on the podcast, answering people's questions, and so 116 00:05:57,680 --> 00:05:59,159 Speaker 1: today we are going to take a step at some 117 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: of these in thing suggestions from readers about ways in 118 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:07,040 Speaker 1: which you might use physics for the wrong ends. So 119 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:14,160 Speaker 1: to the end the podcast, we'll be tackling how do 120 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: it be a super villain using physics. I can't tell 121 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: if everybody out there just pulled out pencil and paper 122 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: because they want to take notes, or if they're now 123 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,680 Speaker 1: writing a furious, angry email. Why would you even do that? 124 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:29,359 Speaker 1: We might get canceled from the internet. We also might 125 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: get canceled because some supervillain out there might use this 126 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: information to destroy us, literally canceled the universe. But yeah, 127 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: I guess this is sort of like supervillain consulting our Like, 128 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: if you ever wanted to be a super villain, here 129 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: are ways in which you might want to approach this, 130 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: And you can look at it the other way. You 131 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: could say, Hey, supervillains out there, please send us a 132 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: detailed speck of your plans to destroy the world so 133 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: we can quote unquote help you with it. C c 134 00:06:56,320 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: FBI dot gov. Yeah, maybe there are superheroes listening to this, 135 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 1: in which case you know they can start making you know, counterplants. 136 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: All right, Well, maybe what we should do when we 137 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: answer each question is we should also give tips to 138 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: the superheroes as to how to thwart this plan and 139 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: then sit back and enjoy with a bag of popcorn. 140 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: Better than a Marvel movie, watch this happen in real life. Well, 141 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: if this is actually a thing, I mean, Daniel, you 142 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: do get these suggestions and questions on Twitter and over email, right, 143 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: I do, absolutely and usually They don't explicitly say, by 144 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,520 Speaker 1: the way, I'm a supervillain. They just sort of asked 145 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: the kind of question of supervillain might But last week 146 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: I did get an email from a listener named Frederick 147 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: who said he wanted to know if it was possible 148 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: to be a supervillain and destroy the world, and he 149 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: had an idea he wanted to run by me. Oh wow, 150 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: so he's self identified as a super or was he 151 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 1: asking for a friend quote unquote, No, he's self identified, 152 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: though I can't tell if it's tongue in cheek or 153 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: if he's real and it's a tongue in cheek in 154 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,080 Speaker 1: cheek or something. Oh boy, did he end the know 155 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: with ba ha ha ha. That might be a telltale sign. 156 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: He does have a French accent, so I don't know 157 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: what that means. Right the Bond movies they always have 158 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: a European xing. Well, yeah, so Frederick sort of started 159 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: this off, and then you went out there and you 160 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: asked people to send you more ideas for how to 161 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: be a supervillain. Yeah. I was wondering how many aspiring 162 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 1: supervillains were out there with burning physics questions that they 163 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: hadn't asked us, So I thought, let's hear all of them. 164 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's start with Frederick's question, And here's 165 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: a question about the sun. Hello, Danyan, Hey, that's Frederick 166 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: from Friends. I wanted to know what would be the 167 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: best way to extinguish or turn of the sun. No, 168 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: but I have any immediate pends. Thanks. Wow, he really 169 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,160 Speaker 1: does sound like a supervillain. Hey, but he says he 170 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:48,520 Speaker 1: doesn't have any immediate plans, so we shouldn't worry, right, Yes, 171 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: Mr Bond, I have all the time in the world exactly. 172 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just planning to turn off the sun 173 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: next year or the year after, so don't worry. Yeah, 174 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:58,960 Speaker 1: you can get back to me tomorrow or the day after. 175 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: I still have to to implement my plan, that's right. 176 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: That does give us time to give some tips to 177 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: the superheroes out there working furiously to make sure Frederick's 178 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: ambitions are not realized. Frederick has an interesting question. I 179 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: guess if you are a supervillain and you wanted to 180 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: take out the sun, how would you do it? Like, 181 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,440 Speaker 1: can you extinguish it like you said, or turn it 182 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,679 Speaker 1: off somehow? Because that would be a kind of catastrophic 183 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: for humanity in the Earth. It would definitely be bad news. 184 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: Almost all of the energy that we use here on 185 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:30,439 Speaker 1: Earth comes from the Sun, either directly like solar panels, 186 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,680 Speaker 1: or indirectly because plants eat it, and then we eat 187 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:36,520 Speaker 1: the plants or use their remnants millions of years later 188 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:40,319 Speaker 1: as fossil fuels. It's pretty essential. Without the Sun, our 189 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: lives would definitely change a lot. So extinguishing the Sun 190 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: would be pretty effective. Thanks. We get dark pretty quick exactly, 191 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 1: but would die immediately. I mean, like if you just 192 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: turn off the Sun, all the mass would presumably still 193 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: be there, so our orbits would still be the same. 194 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,440 Speaker 1: I mean, it would just be kind of a permanent night. 195 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:01,680 Speaker 1: And then couldn't we use like energy from the core 196 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: of the Earth, Like, wouldn't the Earth stay kind of 197 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:06,719 Speaker 1: nice and warm at least at the center for a while? Well, 198 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:08,959 Speaker 1: it depends on how you extinguish the Sun. We'll get 199 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: into it. But some of these schemes involved adding a 200 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: lot more mass to the Sun, which would definitely change 201 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 1: the Earth's orbit. But if you could somehow just like 202 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 1: flick the Sun off so it just went dark and 203 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,199 Speaker 1: then we lived in a cold Earth, then yeah, It's 204 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: not true that we would all instantly die, right, but 205 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: we would just lose all sorts of external energy. And 206 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: so while you couldn't get energy from the core of 207 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:31,600 Speaker 1: the earth, because there's a lot of energy down there, 208 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: you need to use all of that to grow food 209 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: and you know, clean water and all that kind of stuff. 210 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:38,840 Speaker 1: So it would be a huge endeavor. We might not 211 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: all die, but I think most of us would definitely die. 212 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,480 Speaker 1: I see, we would all look a little paler, probably, 213 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:46,840 Speaker 1: and we would get cabin fever and we get grumpy, 214 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: and we'd be like arguing with each other. We'd be 215 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: unhappy at least. That's probably the least of our But yeah, 216 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:54,280 Speaker 1: I guess this question is like, how would you do it? 217 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: How would you turn off the sun or, as you said, 218 00:10:56,400 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 1: extinguish it? Like can you just pour up a bunch 219 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:00,840 Speaker 1: of water in it to die it? Right, that's a 220 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: lot of people's first thought. But you know, the sun 221 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: is not like a fire. It's not just like an 222 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: enormous fire. Fire is chemical, right, and you're extracting energy 223 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:13,559 Speaker 1: from the bonds stored in wood or whatever fuel that is. 224 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: And the reason water puts that out is because part 225 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 1: of that reaction is using oxygen from the air, and 226 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: the water suffocates the fire and cools it very quickly. 227 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:24,360 Speaker 1: But you can't do that with the Sun because the 228 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: Sun is not fire. The Sun is a huge exploding 229 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: nuclear bomb. And the nuclear bomb doesn't require any oxygen 230 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 1: to go off. And more importantly, if you add water 231 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:37,480 Speaker 1: to it, it's just like adding more fuel. This fusion 232 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,959 Speaker 1: bomb can burn that water. What so like if I well, 233 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:43,679 Speaker 1: if I poured some water on the Sun, first of all, 234 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,560 Speaker 1: it would probably like evaporate, right, would turn into plasma 235 00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:49,000 Speaker 1: right away, before it even gets the center. It wouldn't 236 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:52,319 Speaker 1: stay as water. It would break down into hydrogen and oxygen. 237 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: And what's hydrogen. Hydrogen is the fuel the sun burns. 238 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: So it's like adding oil to cooking fire. You're literally 239 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: adding agen and hydrogen to a hydrogen bomb. Yeah, you 240 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: want to put out this fire, and you pour curacine 241 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:06,800 Speaker 1: on it, Well, lead that didn't work. That's essentially what 242 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: you'd be doing. And that's true of almost anything you 243 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 1: add to the Sun, unless it's too heavy, unless it's 244 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:16,040 Speaker 1: got too many protons inside of it. It's too high 245 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: numbered an element for the Sun to burn, right, Because 246 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: as a reminder, the Sun works using fusion, which kind 247 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,840 Speaker 1: of takes two light elements together and build a heavier 248 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:27,680 Speaker 1: element that releases energy. That's why the sun is factory 249 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,839 Speaker 1: for taking lower number elements, elements with fewer protons and 250 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:35,040 Speaker 1: the nucleus and producing heavier things or is astronomers say metals, 251 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:38,719 Speaker 1: because for astronomy, everything that's not hydrogen or helium is 252 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: a metal, And so it's turning hydrogen and helium into 253 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: heavier stuff lithium and carbon and neon and oxygen, and 254 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:48,000 Speaker 1: it does that by squeezing them together and then releasing 255 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,439 Speaker 1: some energy. But that's only true up to about iron. 256 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,959 Speaker 1: If you squeeze to hydrogen nuclei together, you get helium 257 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:58,839 Speaker 1: plus energy. If you squeeze to iron nuclei together, then 258 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:02,600 Speaker 1: you get something heavier, but you lose energy. It costs energy, 259 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 Speaker 1: so at that point you start to cool down the sun. Right, 260 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,960 Speaker 1: It's almost like things that are lighter than iron want 261 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,439 Speaker 1: to fuse together, or at least it's like a positive reaction, 262 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: but anything heavier than iron doesn't really want to get together, 263 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: so you have to put energy in. Well, we have 264 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 1: to invite it on the podcast to ask it about 265 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,560 Speaker 1: like what does it really want man, But energetically, yeah, 266 00:13:23,559 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 1: it's not favorable. If you have a star that has 267 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: a lot of iron at its core, that iron isn't 268 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: gonna be able to fuse, or if it does, it's 269 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: going to be sucking energy away from everything else, so 270 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,200 Speaker 1: it'll be cooling the star. The whole point is you 271 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: need a self sustaining reaction. You need to be producing 272 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,320 Speaker 1: energy to make the next one. And so that's why 273 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:44,280 Speaker 1: less than iron is fusion that drives the star forward, 274 00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: and heavier than iron cools the star. Right, It's almost 275 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:49,280 Speaker 1: like adding ashes to a fire. It doesn't do anything right. 276 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 1: It can't burn anymore, that's right. The ash just sort 277 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:53,679 Speaker 1: of gets in the way. So I guess a way 278 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: to turn out the sun would be just to dump 279 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 1: a bunch of iron into the sun, right like it 280 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: just back up roocoloads of it and pour it in 281 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:02,800 Speaker 1: and it would all sort of, I guess, fall to 282 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,439 Speaker 1: the center of the Sun, and then the Sun would 283 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:10,400 Speaker 1: just be unable to sustain the fusion reaction. And more technically, 284 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,520 Speaker 1: the reaction happens mostly at the core of the Sun, 285 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 1: and so if you put a bunch of iron in 286 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: and it just sort of like floats around the surface 287 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 1: for a while. The Sun will just burn away happily. 288 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: The iron won't fuse, but the helium and the hydrogen 289 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: inside of it still will. But if that iron gets 290 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: to the core and it sort of pushes out the hydrogen, 291 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: then that really will disrupt the burning of the Sun. Interesting, 292 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: would it be hard for the iron to get to 293 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: the core because I imagine the center is like exploding 294 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,000 Speaker 1: and there's like stuff coming out and being stuff being 295 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: pushed out. Would it be hard for like, if I 296 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,640 Speaker 1: just sprinkled the Sun with some iron, maybe the iron 297 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: would just stay on the surface. Well, we don't really 298 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: understand the convection inside the Sun very well, and that's why, 299 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 1: for example, we still don't really understand the Sun's magnetic 300 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,680 Speaker 1: field and stuff like that. But we do think that 301 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: the heavier stuff tends to fall to the core. In 302 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,080 Speaker 1: really large stars, you end up with these shell with 303 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 1: the heaviest stuff at the core and the lighter stuff 304 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: on the outside. And so eventually the iron will fall 305 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: to the core, but it might not be immediate. All right, 306 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: So that's one way to turn off the Sun. Just 307 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: give it some iron supplements. So what are other ways 308 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: that you can take it out. The other thing is 309 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: you don't really need iron. It's true that iron can't 310 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,200 Speaker 1: fuse and release energy, but there are other things that 311 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:22,440 Speaker 1: are too heavy for our sun to fuse. Like the 312 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: really biggest stars confuse things up to iron, but you've 313 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:28,080 Speaker 1: got to be really massive for that. Our star is 314 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:30,360 Speaker 1: not heavy enough to create the conditions to fuse even 315 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,840 Speaker 1: lighter things like oxygen or carbon. So you put enough 316 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: oxygen or carbon at the core, you can actually put 317 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: out our sun because it's not hot enough to fuse that, 318 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: even though in theory another star could what you mean, 319 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:45,720 Speaker 1: I could put out the sun with ashes, is what 320 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: you're saying. Anything that it can't fuse would put it out. 321 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: And our star and not big enough, not hot enough 322 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: at its core to fuse things like oxygen. Other stars 323 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: are right, which is how we get heavier elements. But 324 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: ours is sort of a smaller, colder star compared to 325 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:00,720 Speaker 1: the big Poppas and mamas out there. I mean, we 326 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 1: just said that if you put water, you're putting oxygen 327 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: and hydrogen. Wouldn't the oxygen then kind of put out 328 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 1: to the sun. Yeah, but you're also adding hydrogen, right, 329 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,080 Speaker 1: And so you're adding fuel to it, so water is 330 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:13,320 Speaker 1: not the way I would do it. I would put 331 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: pure oxygen, or pure carbon or pure iron. I feel 332 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: like you're saying that we can just blow on the 333 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: Sun and it'll go out, like you just go. If 334 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,360 Speaker 1: you're big enough and you're your puff is big enough, 335 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: you could put out. It's not that way. Yes, that's true. 336 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Speaker 1: If you can blow out an entire sun's core of breath, 337 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: then you could blow out the Sun. There you go, 338 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,640 Speaker 1: that's the problem for the supervillain. Super lung Man could 339 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,640 Speaker 1: totally blow out the Sun, and then you can also 340 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:39,440 Speaker 1: put out the Sun by taking stuff out of it. Right. 341 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: The reason the fusion is happening in the Sun is 342 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 1: because there's so much gravitational pressure because it has so 343 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: much mass. And we once talked about how small a 344 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,360 Speaker 1: star could get, and we figured out it's something like 345 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 1: eighty times the mass of Jupiter, whereas our Sun is 346 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: like a thousand times the mass of Jupiter. And so 347 00:16:57,160 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: if you stripped away a lot of the fuel from 348 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: the Sun, then it wouldn't have enough mass to keep 349 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: up that gravitational pressure, and it would basically fall apart 350 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:06,920 Speaker 1: and the fusion would stop. But you'd have to take 351 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 1: away like more than nine of the mass of the 352 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: Sun and blow it out into space somewhere. Really like, 353 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,240 Speaker 1: if you took out the Sun would still keep going. 354 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:16,800 Speaker 1: The Sun would still keep going. It would be a 355 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: much smaller, colder star, but it would still keep burning. Well, 356 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: this one seems harder than blowing on it. How do 357 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: you take a ninety percent of a star? I guess 358 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: you blow on it really hard. I don't know. I 359 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:30,920 Speaker 1: don't have a plan for that, you know, I see, Well, 360 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,919 Speaker 1: that doesn't help our supervillain friend Frederick here about that. 361 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,240 Speaker 1: I'm kind of relieved. Maybe so, I guess what's the 362 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,640 Speaker 1: lesson for superheroes? Then? If you see anybody accumulating Jupiter 363 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: side blobs of carbon or iron, be worried. If you 364 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,600 Speaker 1: see a giant Jupiter size ball of oxygen heading towards 365 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:51,440 Speaker 1: the Sun, start digging. I guess it's the lesson. Call 366 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:53,880 Speaker 1: somebody and start digging. Do something. I mean, if you're 367 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: a superhero, don't just watch this happen, you know, at 368 00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 1: least let us know. All right, Well, let's get into 369 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,920 Speaker 1: other questions we have for potential supervillains. Here, we want 370 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 1: to use physics two spice things up in the universe. 371 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,640 Speaker 1: We have questions here about freeze raise giant nuclear power ants, 372 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: so let's get into those. But first let's take a 373 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:29,119 Speaker 1: quick break. All right, Welcome back to Daniel and JORGEZ 374 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 1: super Villain Academy, where you can learn to destroy the 375 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,360 Speaker 1: human race for a cheap, cheap rate and conveniently. Daniel, 376 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: you're already a professor, so you're you know, code name 377 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:43,280 Speaker 1: could just be the professor. Is that a super villain 378 00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: or superhero code name? I think it's usually a super villain. 379 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:53,040 Speaker 1: That right, You never see a good professor. What about 380 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: Professor X. He's need to lead the X academy? Oh true, yeah, yeah, yeah, 381 00:18:57,520 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: well he has the X. So are you professor D 382 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:06,959 Speaker 1: I'm professor w Professor why? All right? We're answering questions 383 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: here of suggestions people have sent about ways that you 384 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: can use physics to potentially kind of end things for 385 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:16,320 Speaker 1: humanity on bread or by accident. I think these things 386 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: would be pretty tough to do accidentally, so there's not 387 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,160 Speaker 1: a lot of mystery about people's intentions if you see 388 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,200 Speaker 1: them pulling off one of these schemes. All right, Well, 389 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: our next question is from Brian, and he has a 390 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: question about ants. Hi, Daniel and Jorge. This is Brian 391 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: Field calling, longtime listener, first time caller. As you well know, 392 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 1: I have developed a race of giant nuclear powered robot 393 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,360 Speaker 1: ants as part of an unholy technological horror. I plan 394 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,440 Speaker 1: to unleash and crush my many enemies. During my beta 395 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,360 Speaker 1: testing phase, I allowed the ants to communicate with each 396 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: other via wired internet cables to speed up the debugging process. 397 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:53,320 Speaker 1: But now that I've upgraded to WiFi six on the ants, 398 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,640 Speaker 1: they really only function well in swarm mode and tend 399 00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:58,879 Speaker 1: to get lost when they go on individuals seek and 400 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,119 Speaker 1: destroy missions, and I think the WiFi is the problem. 401 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: Any advice. Also, let me know which major city would 402 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,960 Speaker 1: like to be appointed the local warlord of Thanks so much, 403 00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,960 Speaker 1: talk to you later. Wow, that was a pretty detailed 404 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:15,960 Speaker 1: confession there. I don't know what to do with that man. 405 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,919 Speaker 1: This person has already very specific plans. It sounds like 406 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,360 Speaker 1: he just music called tech support, not a physicist. He's 407 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,679 Speaker 1: like kind of control with my WiFi. Maybe he can 408 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:27,800 Speaker 1: turn it off and on. Maybe they'll help. I happen 409 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,760 Speaker 1: to know this person is already a working theoretical physicist. 410 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:35,480 Speaker 1: I see, al right, Well, his question is how can 411 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 1: we build giant nuclear powered ants? And I guess he 412 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:43,800 Speaker 1: means like ants the insect, not your parents, sister, giant 413 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,119 Speaker 1: nuclear powered aunts and uncles and cousins, And that sounds 414 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,520 Speaker 1: even more terrifying, Oh my gosh, even more dangerous. Yeah, 415 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,280 Speaker 1: so this is a fun question, you know, giant nuclear 416 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:55,359 Speaker 1: powered ants. And as I was thinking about how to 417 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: answer this, I thought, I wonder if I know anybody 418 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: who's sort of an expert on robotics, maybe like robotics 419 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,959 Speaker 1: inspired by insects. And then I remember, I do know 420 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:09,480 Speaker 1: this guy who got his PhD thinking about how cockroaches run. 421 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:12,520 Speaker 1: I know someone like that, so I like to forget 422 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:15,879 Speaker 1: him sometimes. So I thought, let's ask him instead of 423 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 1: me answering the question, Let's see what Jorge has to 424 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:22,159 Speaker 1: say about giant nuclear powered ants. Yeah. I do have 425 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 1: a PhD in robotics and I focused on making carckroach robots. 426 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: But answer a bit of a more of a challenge. 427 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: I think he means like little tiny robots, which is 428 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:33,359 Speaker 1: kind of like a whole new, different kind of problem, 429 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,560 Speaker 1: like how do you miniaturize all of these things? But 430 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,680 Speaker 1: I want to ride down the street of this city. 431 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 1: I've been appointed warlord of on top of one of 432 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:44,119 Speaker 1: these giant nuclear powered ants. Oh. I see you're thinking 433 00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:48,080 Speaker 1: like giant. Oh I see, I'm gonna crush my enemies. Oh, 434 00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 1: because I don't think Brian said giant in his question, 435 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,480 Speaker 1: did he? I wonder if he meant like little tiny 436 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 1: ones like a swarm, or like once you can ride 437 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,160 Speaker 1: around it. All right, Well, let's think about both. How 438 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: hard would it be to build super tiny, miniature nuclear 439 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,760 Speaker 1: power dance. Well, it would be kind of hard. Yeah, 440 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,520 Speaker 1: I know that at least twenty years ago that people 441 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:11,160 Speaker 1: were making little tiny robot flies. So I've seen those. 442 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,280 Speaker 1: I've seen videos of those. You can make little tiny, 443 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,320 Speaker 1: little mechanisms and little wings that can beat and generate 444 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,760 Speaker 1: enough lift to you know, fly around. So I think 445 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,639 Speaker 1: that's possible, like making little tiny mechanisms. And it's the 446 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,000 Speaker 1: idea there that you're trying to understand how the insect 447 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: does it by repeating it, or you're just trying to 448 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,639 Speaker 1: have the advantages of the insects, like you want a 449 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:31,920 Speaker 1: tiny robot that can fly into a window and spy 450 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,960 Speaker 1: on your enemies. Well, I think it's mostly engineers doing this. 451 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 1: But I don't think they think too much about the 452 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:41,280 Speaker 1: Engineers don't have enemies. Engineers just you know, facilitate the 453 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,399 Speaker 1: supervillain stuff. Stop asking why I just do it. No, 454 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 1: it's a combination of both. You know, you want to 455 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: understand how flies do it and what's going on, and 456 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: if you can replicate it, if you can make a 457 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,400 Speaker 1: robot that does it, that means you understood it pretty well, 458 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,320 Speaker 1: so that that's kind of the theory. And also, you know, 459 00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: to make better robots like little you know, flies are 460 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,919 Speaker 1: super efficient and super fast and they they're super like 461 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: good at turning corners when they fly, So if you 462 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: can make a robot they can do that, that would 463 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: be you know, super useful. And how do you power 464 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: these tiny little robots? Obviously Brian is imagining some super 465 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,359 Speaker 1: tiny little arc reactor, but in reality, how do you 466 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,480 Speaker 1: power a super tiny robot? Yeah, that's always the question 467 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 1: in robotics is like how where do you get enough 468 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: power to like carry it around and have it enough 469 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: to last in a while. That's kind of the core 470 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:28,840 Speaker 1: issue robotics. Well, I think that's a question kind of 471 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: for you. I mean, he's asking about nuclear powered ants, 472 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:35,320 Speaker 1: like what's the smallest nuclear reactor you can make. Can 473 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: you make one that's like the size of an ant? 474 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:40,439 Speaker 1: Depends on the size of your aunt, you know. I 475 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,199 Speaker 1: think the current existing smallest nuclear reactors are things like 476 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:48,280 Speaker 1: on submarines, and those are tend to be small and quiet, 477 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,200 Speaker 1: but definitely bigger than an ant since you have people 478 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:56,919 Speaker 1: inside of them. So if we go warlord size riding 479 00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 1: on top of ants, then maybe you could fit in 480 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:01,920 Speaker 1: nuclear reactor inside of them. And I know that people 481 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:04,920 Speaker 1: are working to make these things smaller and smaller because 482 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: also we have nuclear reactors on satellites, though those tend 483 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: to be much lower power. That's the kind of thing 484 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 1: where you want power for like fifty years, but you 485 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: really only need a trickle, not like you know, I'm 486 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,960 Speaker 1: going to climb up this building and shoot laser out 487 00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,560 Speaker 1: of my eyeballs kind of power. Right, But things like 488 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,200 Speaker 1: the Mars are over, the robots we sent to Mars, 489 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:27,399 Speaker 1: those have nuclear powered reactors, right, or not reactors, but 490 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,600 Speaker 1: at least they have like a you know, radioactive material 491 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: and then they's decaying and you capture all the energy 492 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:34,639 Speaker 1: and then that's how you kind of fill up your 493 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 1: battery exactly. That kind of thing is not really a 494 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: nuclear reactor. It's more like a nuclear battery. You have 495 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:42,560 Speaker 1: some kind of material there which has a lot of 496 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: energy in it, and you know it's going to decay 497 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,639 Speaker 1: and release heat, and so it's sort of like just 498 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,360 Speaker 1: gonna gradually give up some of its energy, which then 499 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: you can use. You can turn it into electricity and 500 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: use it. But you know, a nuclear powered submarine, for example, 501 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 1: has a real reactor in it that's undergoing fission all 502 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,520 Speaker 1: the time. This control old, sustained nuclear reaction. That's a 503 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,359 Speaker 1: huge amount of energy. It's much much more powerful than 504 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,160 Speaker 1: one of these like nuclear batteries that's on the rover 505 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: or on some of our satellites. But theoretically you could 506 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,320 Speaker 1: make a tiny version of it, right, Like, couldn't you 507 00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: just miniaturize everything and make a little tiny reactor that 508 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,679 Speaker 1: they is doing fission. You could, although it's a challenge, 509 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: right because for fission, you need these neutrons to fly out, 510 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:24,639 Speaker 1: and you need them to be not too hot and 511 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,399 Speaker 1: not too cold, and so you need some sort of 512 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 1: moderating thing and the surface area to volume is very 513 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:33,119 Speaker 1: important for keeping the reaction going. And so you know, 514 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: you can't just scale everything up and down, which is why, 515 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:37,959 Speaker 1: for example, like if you take an ant and you 516 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,439 Speaker 1: scale it up, the physics doesn't work because the surface 517 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,879 Speaker 1: areata volume changes and so the physics changes. So shrinking 518 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,639 Speaker 1: things the physics also changes, and you might need a 519 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: completely different design. But I don't think there's anything in 520 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: principle preventing it. I think you could probably design the 521 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,200 Speaker 1: super tiny nuclear fission reactor. You just need really tiny 522 00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,159 Speaker 1: tweezers to kind of put it together, basically. Yeah, And 523 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,560 Speaker 1: the good thing about it is that the energy lasts 524 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: a long time, right, A little bit of fuel can 525 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,960 Speaker 1: last you for years or even decades. Wow, So this 526 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: would be nuclear powered radioactive ants to the list of 527 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,320 Speaker 1: potential dangers. Well, what about like the computer you would 528 00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 1: have to put into an ant like that we make 529 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,879 Speaker 1: computers that small or what does? At some point? You know, 530 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 1: we're limited by how much processing power we can fit 531 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: into its brain depends how smart you want the ant, 532 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,200 Speaker 1: I suppose, But we can make chips really really small 533 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: these days and pretty powerful, and so I don't think 534 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: that's really going to be an issue. All right, Well, 535 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: and then I guess the answer is that you can 536 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 1: make a tiny nuclear powered ants and giant wants for 537 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,920 Speaker 1: that matter, because all the problems are kind of about scale. Yeah, 538 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: it's much easier to make them big than to make 539 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,200 Speaker 1: them small. But you know, good luck Brian with your 540 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: WiFi connection. You know, I'm sure you can debug that. 541 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,639 Speaker 1: It's funny how he's gone in this far, but the 542 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: problems are in WiFi. Well that's because he's a theoretical physicist. 543 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 1: He tackle all the hard problems. Now we're stuck on 544 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,560 Speaker 1: the easy one. He's like, why am I only getting 545 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,680 Speaker 1: three bars and not four bars? They can't figure that out? 546 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you Brian for that question. Our 547 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,640 Speaker 1: next question is a pretty traditional supervillain weapon. I think 548 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,880 Speaker 1: you always see it isn't in comic books. So our 549 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: question is from Mark and he has a question about 550 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,719 Speaker 1: freeze raise. My supervillain weapon of choice would be a 551 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,120 Speaker 1: freeze ray. And there are really two types of devices here. 552 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,520 Speaker 1: One device would just let me freeze an individual person, 553 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: turn them into a block of ice like that, sort 554 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: of like the old Batman shows or the Incredibles. The 555 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: other choice is a device that would let me select, 556 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,800 Speaker 1: say a thousand square miles and either cover it in 557 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 1: five feet of ice or freeze everything down to thirty 558 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,359 Speaker 1: below zero in that space. And there must be a 559 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 1: way to do this, because if Duluth, Minnesota is thirty 560 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: below zero, Indiana is not thirty below zero. So there 561 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,440 Speaker 1: are ways to contain it using high pressure or low pressure. 562 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,360 Speaker 1: Or could we get rid of the ozone layer that 563 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,240 Speaker 1: trap the heat, Like, couldn't you cut that out into 564 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,359 Speaker 1: above a space and just let space freeze it up? 565 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 1: I don't know. Oh boy, Yeah, Mark has ideas. Mark 566 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,159 Speaker 1: does have ideas. He wants options. It seems like he's 567 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: thought about different angles and a lot of different ways 568 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,480 Speaker 1: in which he could use this. That's true. He's very creative. 569 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: I happen to also know that Mark is a cartoonist, 570 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:24,200 Speaker 1: and you know you have to watch out for those. 571 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,520 Speaker 1: M Y's right. Don't let him near physics. It's a 572 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,479 Speaker 1: dangerous combination. Don't mix cartoons in physics exactly. It's an 573 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,480 Speaker 1: explosive cocktail. But yeah, his idea is the freeze rate, which, 574 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: like he said, you can see in a lot of 575 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,720 Speaker 1: comic books like Batman, Mr. Freeze or Froz Oh. I 576 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:43,640 Speaker 1: think wasn't in The Incredible the movie? Isn't that something 577 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,480 Speaker 1: you eat a frozen like like a chocolate froz. Oh, yeah, 578 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:49,560 Speaker 1: I think that was the joke. But yeah, I guess 579 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: he wants like some kind of device that shoots a 580 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: ray that whatever it touches it freezes, like it lowers 581 00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: the temperature immediately. Yeah. That sounds super cool, and you know, 582 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,440 Speaker 1: I'd like to have one in my kitchen, sort of 583 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: like the anti microwave, so I could like super quickly 584 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,080 Speaker 1: cool something down rather than having to just let it 585 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:12,040 Speaker 1: gradually diffuse out into the air. But it's a difficult proposition, 586 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:14,920 Speaker 1: and the biggest obstacle is that if you're shooting a 587 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 1: ray at something, a ray is typically like a beam 588 00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 1: of energy, right, it's particles, or its waves or it's something, 589 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: but it's energy. So if you're gonna shoot a ray 590 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,440 Speaker 1: at something, you're basically always going to be adding energy 591 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,680 Speaker 1: to that system. Interesting, yeah, because like anytime you're admitting something, 592 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: you're probably putting energy out into the world. Yeah. Even 593 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,920 Speaker 1: if you shine a flashlight on something, you're heating it up. 594 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,120 Speaker 1: I mean a really small amount, because the amount of 595 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: energy in your light beam is small compared to the 596 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,960 Speaker 1: energy at that rock or whatever is holding. But you 597 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: heat something up every time you shine light at it, 598 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 1: or shoot electrons at it, or any kind of ray 599 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:54,000 Speaker 1: is going to heat something up. So it's almost like 600 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: you need like a vacuum ray, like a ray that 601 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,840 Speaker 1: sucks energy out of something and that will cool it down. Yeah, 602 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:01,720 Speaker 1: that's right. And there is one exception. There is one 603 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 1: way that people have figured out how to cool something 604 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 1: down by shooting a laser at it. Interesting. You can 605 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,200 Speaker 1: use the laser, which normally would heat something up, to 606 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,640 Speaker 1: cool stuff. Yeah, And this is a cool technique that 607 00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: people invented to try to get materials really really cold. 608 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: People interested, for example, in like the quantum state of 609 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: objects when they get really close to absolute zero, things 610 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:30,240 Speaker 1: like Bose Einstein condensates invented this really cool technique called 611 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,680 Speaker 1: laser cooling. And it seems weird because you're like shooting 612 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: a laser beam with something and that seems like it 613 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: must heat it up. But if you set it up 614 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: in a very very clever way, then it can actually 615 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: result in overall cooling. I have to spectrum in my 616 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: head that it's a blue laser. Is it a blue 617 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:50,000 Speaker 1: laser because it's blue is cold? Yeah, and the red 618 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: red ones are the hot ones, right, yeah, and it's 619 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: got like ice crystals all around it the laser beam. Yeah. 620 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:57,720 Speaker 1: So how did these cooling lasers work. Well. The idea 621 00:30:57,800 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: here is that you have a very specific kind of 622 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:03,960 Speaker 1: at of atoms that can absorb energy at one specific energy. Remember, 623 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: the atoms can't just absorb all kinds of energy. They 624 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: can only absorb it if there's like the right spacing 625 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: between energy levels for their electrons. Electrons zooming around them, 626 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: for example, can't just be at any arbitrary energy. It's quantized. 627 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: It's like a ladder there. So if you shoot energy 628 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,000 Speaker 1: at an atom and the energy corresponds to exactly one 629 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: step of the ladder, then it can absorb that energy. 630 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: If it's too much, if it's a little bit more 631 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,760 Speaker 1: than that, it can't absorb that energy. So that's something 632 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:32,640 Speaker 1: you have to know about atoms when you think about this. 633 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: So you start with a bunch of atoms and you 634 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: shoot a laser at the atom that has energy just 635 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,200 Speaker 1: below what the atom can absorb. So then only atoms 636 00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,959 Speaker 1: moving quickly towards the source of the laser will be 637 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: able to absorb it. They can do that because they 638 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: will see the laser energy Doppler shift it up, it'll 639 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,320 Speaker 1: be blue shifted to just the right energy. Then they 640 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,480 Speaker 1: absorb that energy and admit it in a random direction, 641 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,880 Speaker 1: and this has the overall effect of lowering their speed 642 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,360 Speaker 1: because it takes their speed in one direction and sort 643 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: of bends it in another direction, and so that overall 644 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: their magnitude of their speed has decreased a little bit. Well, 645 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: that's a pretty interesting scheme there. It sounds like you're 646 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: sending in light through this laser that's just at the 647 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: right frequency for only some of the atoms to give 648 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: off their energy, whereas the other atoms ignore it exactly. 649 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,120 Speaker 1: So it selects some of the atoms to absorb it, 650 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,720 Speaker 1: and they absorb it, and then they naturally re emit it, 651 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,360 Speaker 1: but they go in another direction. And so it takes 652 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,640 Speaker 1: like all the atoms that are moving at the laser 653 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: really fast and it points them in other directions. This 654 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: has the effect of overall slowing down the atom because 655 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:45,040 Speaker 1: it takes like some of its speed in one direction 656 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: and points it in another direction. And I guess you 657 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:49,840 Speaker 1: take that energy that goes off in the other direction 658 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: and you absorb it or you take it away another way. Yeah, 659 00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:56,200 Speaker 1: it just gets radiated off exactly shoots out as a photon. 660 00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: And so you can do that, but only with a 661 00:32:58,080 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 1: certain kind of atom, Like if you shoot it at 662 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: a person, it wouldn't have the same effect. It has 663 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,960 Speaker 1: to be like a specially tune atom and laser to 664 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,600 Speaker 1: work together. Yes, and you need a bunch of atoms 665 00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:10,200 Speaker 1: that are already pretty cold. You need them to be 666 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: happy to absorb this laser. So you need a laser 667 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 1: that's very finely tuned to the kind of atom, and 668 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,160 Speaker 1: you need a pretty pure like cold gas, and this 669 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,240 Speaker 1: will help you cool it even further. Like nobody starts 670 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,240 Speaker 1: with like a hot hamburger and laser cools it down 671 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: to room temperature. That's just not something that's practical, but 672 00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 1: has anyone We're all working on that all the time. Man, 673 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,200 Speaker 1: It's like the biggest open problem in physics. Forget dark matter. 674 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: How do you cool down a hamburger? No, it's something 675 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,400 Speaker 1: like if you have atoms at ten degrees kelvin, this 676 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,040 Speaker 1: can help you get them down to one degree kelvin 677 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,000 Speaker 1: or microkelvin or mill kelvin. But it is an example 678 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,600 Speaker 1: of a real ray which can actually cool a material. 679 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:51,360 Speaker 1: But if you shoot it at a person, even if 680 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: they're pretty cool, it wouldn't work. It would just heat 681 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,280 Speaker 1: them up. Yeah, exactly, would just heat them up unless 682 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,680 Speaker 1: there happen to be you know, exactly the right gas 683 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: of sodium atoms. But otherwise know and Mark wants to 684 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:03,640 Speaker 1: do more than that. He wants to freeze like an 685 00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: entire square mile of earth. But what if I'm just 686 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 1: using my imagination here, What if you have like some 687 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,560 Speaker 1: special ray gun, you know, that looks at what it's 688 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: shooting and tunes the laser just right for each adam 689 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:16,840 Speaker 1: it's shooting at and to maybe get to use the 690 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 1: same cooling effect. Is that possible? I suppose it would 691 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:21,840 Speaker 1: be possible on the surface, But you're such a complicated 692 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:24,600 Speaker 1: mix of stuff. You need so many different kinds of beams, 693 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: and I think that those things might interfere with each 694 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: other because you need objects that would only accept with 695 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,600 Speaker 1: one kind of laser light and at the other laser 696 00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:35,520 Speaker 1: lights that you mean for you know, a different kind 697 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,400 Speaker 1: of material hit the wrong kind, then they might accidentally 698 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:40,880 Speaker 1: heat it up. What if you kind of expand the 699 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,080 Speaker 1: your imagination a little bit, like what if you should 700 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:47,000 Speaker 1: make a ray that shoots a process during kind of particle, 701 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: maybe that when it hits you it absorbs your energy. 702 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:54,080 Speaker 1: It hits you and absorbs your energy and interacts with 703 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: you somehow, does some sort of like fusion. Yeah, I 704 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: suppose you know, fusion absorbs energy above of a certain element, 705 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: as we were talking about earlier. So imagine you're shooting 706 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:08,600 Speaker 1: like really heavy elements at somebody hard enough that it 707 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,080 Speaker 1: creates fusion and that eats up some of the energy. Well, 708 00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:13,719 Speaker 1: I think that you're going to end up putting in 709 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,320 Speaker 1: more energy in the beam still than it's going to 710 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,520 Speaker 1: get absorbed by the fusion. All right, Well, it sounds 711 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:21,600 Speaker 1: like it's not really possible, But here you have an 712 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:24,279 Speaker 1: idea about maybe using liquid nitrogen. I think Mark has 713 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:26,360 Speaker 1: to give up on the ray idea. But if instead 714 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,040 Speaker 1: you're willing to do things like shoot a tube of 715 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:32,440 Speaker 1: liquid nitrogen as somebody, that could very effectively freeze them. 716 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:34,719 Speaker 1: It's not exactly a ray, it's like, you know, it's 717 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,359 Speaker 1: a cylinder of matter you're shooting at somebody. But still 718 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,440 Speaker 1: it could really effectively cool something down, right, And that 719 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,040 Speaker 1: works because the nitrogen in your liquid nagen is so 720 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:47,479 Speaker 1: cold that when it hits you, it absorbs energy. Right, Yeah, 721 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,200 Speaker 1: the energy that is in you spreads out into you 722 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:52,759 Speaker 1: and the liquid nitrogen, and since it has essentially no 723 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,640 Speaker 1: heat in it, it's a huge sink for energy, and 724 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:58,080 Speaker 1: so it spreads out very rapidly. And so I did 725 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,880 Speaker 1: a little back up the envelope calculation, and for example, 726 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,600 Speaker 1: to freeze a person pretty rapidly, you would need about 727 00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 1: a ton of liquid nitrogen, about a thousand kilograms of 728 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 1: liquid nitrogen. Wow. Yeah, let's be specific. We can be 729 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,880 Speaker 1: as helpful as possible. The superheroes and supervillains have to 730 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,800 Speaker 1: have budgets also, right, everybody has operations and legal fees 731 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:20,920 Speaker 1: and stuff. So you've got a plan. The devil's in 732 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,320 Speaker 1: the detail and in what you do with those details. 733 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,520 Speaker 1: All right, So I guess liquid nargen And well, I mean, 734 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,919 Speaker 1: if you have something that shoots liquid nigrogen, you could 735 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,359 Speaker 1: call that a ray, right, technically because there it's atoms too, 736 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:35,640 Speaker 1: particles in it. Yeah, I suppose so may Technically the 737 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:39,760 Speaker 1: definition of radiation is any kind of energetic particle or matter, 738 00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:43,640 Speaker 1: and that includes things like helium, nuclei, and electrons. So sure, 739 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:48,560 Speaker 1: why not liquid nitrogen? Sure that's radiation? Now? All right, 740 00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: I guess it's past FDA approval here. All right, well, 741 00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:56,359 Speaker 1: thank you Mark for that cool question, and so let's 742 00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,480 Speaker 1: get into our last question for supervillains here on the podcast. 743 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:15,640 Speaker 1: But first let's take another quick break. All right, welcome 744 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:20,239 Speaker 1: back to Daniel and jorgez Academy for Supervillains and or Superheroes, 745 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: Academy for Marvel Movies, how to Guide for Destroying the 746 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,279 Speaker 1: Human race. And our next question comes from Andreas, who 747 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,280 Speaker 1: has a question about televisions. Yeah, this is a question 748 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:33,880 Speaker 1: from Andreas on Twitter. He wanted to know if it 749 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,759 Speaker 1: would be possible to invent a remote control that could 750 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:43,200 Speaker 1: control simultaneously all of the televisions on Earth, presumably to 751 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: then brainwash people or just to sell them, you know, 752 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,800 Speaker 1: late night products. I think to drive them crazy. Imagine 753 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:52,200 Speaker 1: you're sitting down for your favorite show and boom, the 754 00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,200 Speaker 1: TV switches to something else at the most exciting moment, 755 00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: or your sports team is about to score, and boom, 756 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:01,000 Speaker 1: the TV switches to something else that could drive people 757 00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,480 Speaker 1: crazy and basically sparking apocalypse. You think the supervillain is 758 00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:08,280 Speaker 1: more like a super prankster. I think the right pranks 759 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 1: could definitely push humanity over the edge. I mean, we're 760 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,919 Speaker 1: all a little bit nervous these days. So, like you're 761 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,000 Speaker 1: watching the season finale of like Tiger King, and some 762 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,240 Speaker 1: of you cut to an endless commercial decided would crumble. 763 00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:23,600 Speaker 1: We're hanging by a threat already, man, That's what I'm thinking. 764 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: All right, Well, the question is, can you device something 765 00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,680 Speaker 1: that will control all televisions and then the planet? I 766 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:31,719 Speaker 1: think they have already, right, this has been done. It's 767 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: called Netflix. To me, this seems like a programming problem, right. 768 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,319 Speaker 1: You know, there's really no physical or technical barrier. All 769 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,720 Speaker 1: these devices are online, as you say, and they already 770 00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,520 Speaker 1: received messages, and so you just gotta somehow get through 771 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:50,319 Speaker 1: a few layers of security, which probably aren't amazing. I 772 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,960 Speaker 1: wonder if hackers out there have already tried this, have 773 00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: tried to like hack into your television to change what 774 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:58,640 Speaker 1: you are watching. I imagine it's probably not that hard. 775 00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,280 Speaker 1: I see, So you think it's just like a hacker problem. Yeah. 776 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,840 Speaker 1: I mean my television, for example, talks to everything with WiFi, 777 00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:07,880 Speaker 1: and so you have a laptop out there, you somebody 778 00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 1: get connected to my WiFi network. Not that hard. You 779 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:13,560 Speaker 1: could probably hack into my TV and upload new instructions 780 00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,399 Speaker 1: and a bot a boom, but a being you're in charge. Well, 781 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:18,400 Speaker 1: maybe the question is like, can you come up with 782 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:21,880 Speaker 1: a device that somehow admits some sort of wave or 783 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,239 Speaker 1: some sort of you know, signal that somehow overrides all television. 784 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:27,640 Speaker 1: That's usually what you see in movies. Well, in this case, 785 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:29,160 Speaker 1: I think what I would do is I would just 786 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,080 Speaker 1: have a program somewhere distributed via the Internet to everybody's 787 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,880 Speaker 1: WiFi in their house, right, so you wouldn't need to 788 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,760 Speaker 1: like reach everybody's TV from your own individual broadcast antenna. 789 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:41,920 Speaker 1: Who you just want to go over the Internet and 790 00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,120 Speaker 1: then do it locally. I mean, actually, this happens to 791 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,880 Speaker 1: me all the time. My son somehow has hooked up 792 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:49,640 Speaker 1: his phone to the TV, and when it's in his pocket, 793 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:53,560 Speaker 1: he's accidentally changing channels without realizing it. So, you know, 794 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,280 Speaker 1: it's tire. Your son sounds like he's a super villain 795 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,439 Speaker 1: hacker in the making. He's just like stumbled way into 796 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:02,120 Speaker 1: it without even knowing how he's doing it. I'm always 797 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:04,280 Speaker 1: calling out to him, like, hey, turn off your phone. 798 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,440 Speaker 1: I was watching that. Maybe he's trying to drive you crazy, Danny, Yes, 799 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,719 Speaker 1: maybe he is. Maybe this is him. Maybe his name 800 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: is actually is Andreas Torgersen. He's a domestic supervillain. And 801 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,759 Speaker 1: what domestic I mean in your house. Yeah, so I 802 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:18,680 Speaker 1: think if you're a super villain and this was your plan, 803 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,520 Speaker 1: probably you just need to hire a teenager, pay them 804 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 1: in pizza for a week and they could probably figure 805 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 1: this out. Done all right. Our last question here of 806 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: the day comes from someone on Twitter again and they 807 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 1: have a question about dark energy. This comes from somebody 808 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,120 Speaker 1: whose name we don't know, but they title themselves as 809 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:38,879 Speaker 1: hopeful Cynic on Twitter, and their question is whether it's 810 00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: possible to harness dark energy to power a Death Star 811 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:48,640 Speaker 1: style tripoint laser. Interesting, first of all, anonymous question that 812 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:54,040 Speaker 1: is suspicious, very sauce, and also great Star Wars reference 813 00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,319 Speaker 1: here death Star dark energy. I feel like you know 814 00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,799 Speaker 1: the power of the dark Side is coming through. Yeah, 815 00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,520 Speaker 1: this is the great question. This made me wonder. I 816 00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:04,680 Speaker 1: would like to know if that's possible. I wonder if 817 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,800 Speaker 1: that is possible. And one of the things that's exciting 818 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:11,480 Speaker 1: about this is the idea of harnessing dark energy. Dark 819 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,160 Speaker 1: energy is our description of the fact that the universe 820 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:18,480 Speaker 1: is expanding and that that expansion is accelerating, which requires 821 00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,759 Speaker 1: some enormous amount of energy. And the cool thing is 822 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: that when the universe expands, dark energy doesn't get like 823 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:28,440 Speaker 1: thinner or more dilute. When you make new space between 824 00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,239 Speaker 1: like here and another galaxy, that's what dark energy is doing. 825 00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,000 Speaker 1: It makes new space that comes with new dark energy, 826 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,600 Speaker 1: and so it's constantly essentially creating energy, which means that 827 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,800 Speaker 1: whatever dark energy is, it's capable of creating energy out 828 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:46,280 Speaker 1: of nothing, out of the vacuum, of violating conservation of energy. 829 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:48,799 Speaker 1: So that definitely seems like an appealing way to like 830 00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 1: gather a bunch of energy. I don't know about focusing 831 00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,480 Speaker 1: into a beam that can destroy planets, but it definitely 832 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:57,040 Speaker 1: is a potential source of energy. Well, what's kind of 833 00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 1: interesting about dark energy is that it's sort of like 834 00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:02,160 Speaker 1: phys this thing. It's sort of embedded in the fabric 835 00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: of space itself, right, like it's somehow coming from space 836 00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:09,120 Speaker 1: itself and it's stretching it. So it's it's literally kind 837 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:11,760 Speaker 1: of all around us. We think, yeah, we really don't 838 00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:15,520 Speaker 1: know anything about the mechanism of it. One idea is 839 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,719 Speaker 1: that it comes from the nature of space itself, that 840 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,879 Speaker 1: the quantum zero point energy of space provides some sort 841 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: of repulsive effect which stretches space. That's like an idea 842 00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:28,520 Speaker 1: of an idea. That idea itself doesn't actually work because 843 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:30,719 Speaker 1: if you try to use that idea and calculate how 844 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,120 Speaker 1: much dark energy there should be, you get a number 845 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,440 Speaker 1: which is different from what we measure by ten to 846 00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,279 Speaker 1: the one hundred. So we're pretty far off from like 847 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: understanding the detailed mechanism of it, which makes it pretty 848 00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,759 Speaker 1: hard to know how to harness it. But we do 849 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:45,520 Speaker 1: know that it's out there and that there is a 850 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:47,960 Speaker 1: lot of energy stored in it. Yeah, I mean, it 851 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,239 Speaker 1: seems like what is it about. The two thirds of 852 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:53,000 Speaker 1: the energy of the universe is dark energy, so it's 853 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:55,520 Speaker 1: a lot the universe is mostly dark energy. The universe 854 00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:58,440 Speaker 1: is mostly dark energy. That's right, though it's weird to 855 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:01,040 Speaker 1: think about because sort of like dark matter. There's more 856 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,239 Speaker 1: dark matter than normal matter, but dark matter is much 857 00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,680 Speaker 1: more diffuse because it's spread out more like normal matter 858 00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:10,040 Speaker 1: is pretty dense like our planet and our bodies and 859 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,319 Speaker 1: our sun. And there isn't that much dark matter in 860 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,440 Speaker 1: our solar system because there's also dark matter between the stars. 861 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 1: It's spread out and in the same way dark energy. 862 00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:20,719 Speaker 1: Even though there's more of it than anything else. It's 863 00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:23,960 Speaker 1: not that powerful on a local scale because it's spread 864 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:27,960 Speaker 1: out throughout the entire cosmos. All that empty space between galaxies, 865 00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:31,319 Speaker 1: for example, has dark energy in it, and so dark 866 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:35,200 Speaker 1: energy doesn't seem very powerful, but it's just because it's everywhere. Well, 867 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,080 Speaker 1: I guess then that kind of puts like a boschi 868 00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,279 Speaker 1: of things because even if we did sort of know 869 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,600 Speaker 1: what it was and could harness it, I mean, you 870 00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,359 Speaker 1: would to get any significant amount of it, you would 871 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:47,600 Speaker 1: need to sort of like farm a huge volume of 872 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:49,799 Speaker 1: space just to get a little bit of energy, right, 873 00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,880 Speaker 1: because it's so diffuse and so kind of in the background. Yeah, exactly. 874 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,120 Speaker 1: I did a little calculation, and if you build a 875 00:43:56,160 --> 00:44:00,400 Speaker 1: spring that was one light year long, then dark energy 876 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:05,000 Speaker 1: would make it longer around twenty two millimeters per second. 877 00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:08,720 Speaker 1: So you know, that's not tiny, but it's also not huge. 878 00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,200 Speaker 1: You know, two centimeters per second. It's not that much energy. 879 00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:15,000 Speaker 1: I see. It's not something you could maybe put into 880 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:19,480 Speaker 1: a death star rate right away, not immediately. And also 881 00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:21,440 Speaker 1: I don't know how they got those lasers to do 882 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:23,719 Speaker 1: that where they come together at a point and then 883 00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:27,160 Speaker 1: change direction like that's pretty cool. That violates some lots 884 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,719 Speaker 1: of physics right there. That's the part that bumped you, 885 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,000 Speaker 1: Not how they're all standing upright in the same direction 886 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 1: in space. So many things to talk about there, but 887 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,360 Speaker 1: that's the part that always makes my physics brain go, what, 888 00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:43,719 Speaker 1: how do you bend the path of our laser with 889 00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:47,520 Speaker 1: another laser? Yes? Exactly, all right, Well it sounds like 890 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:49,759 Speaker 1: hopeful cynic. You will have to do some physics for 891 00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:51,759 Speaker 1: us to build this death rate, and you'll have to 892 00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:54,720 Speaker 1: understand what dark energy is, which currently we have no idea. 893 00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,480 Speaker 1: We have no idea, but it is promising because it 894 00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,040 Speaker 1: means that there are ways to create energy and and 895 00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:02,880 Speaker 1: if you really understood the nature of space and time, 896 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:06,120 Speaker 1: it might give you the power to extract free energy 897 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,400 Speaker 1: from the universe. Okay, I think that covers all of 898 00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:10,640 Speaker 1: our questions for today. Daniel. How do you think our 899 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,400 Speaker 1: supervillain students did? Would you given an A or an 900 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:15,400 Speaker 1: A plus? Well, we have to see we've given them 901 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,600 Speaker 1: basically assignments, and now what comes next to see how 902 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:23,360 Speaker 1: well they execute the Hopefully they get an F and 903 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,759 Speaker 1: if they get an A, then we're all toasted. If 904 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:27,799 Speaker 1: they get an A, you probably won't even know about it. 905 00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:31,719 Speaker 1: That's right, we'll be floating out in space, either frozen 906 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:33,880 Speaker 1: or mostly frozen. I think most of these seemed to 907 00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:35,880 Speaker 1: have would freeze this. I guess if you see me 908 00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,720 Speaker 1: and Jorge riding down the street on giant nuclear powered ants, 909 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:43,440 Speaker 1: then you'll know that Brian at least has succeeded. You 910 00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,040 Speaker 1: know that we coopted our students ideas and used it 911 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,640 Speaker 1: for our own purpose. What kind of professor would do that? 912 00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,359 Speaker 1: But I do think jokes aside that it is fun 913 00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:55,040 Speaker 1: to think about these incredible forces that are a play 914 00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,360 Speaker 1: in the universe that you know, all around us is 915 00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,720 Speaker 1: an incredible amount of energy bound in to the nucleus 916 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:04,759 Speaker 1: of atoms and created in space in between everything. We 917 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,960 Speaker 1: have only begun to understand the very nature of the universe, 918 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,880 Speaker 1: and we know that it is filled with incredibly powerful 919 00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:14,600 Speaker 1: forces and energy, some that we haven't even yet imagined. Yeah, 920 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:17,400 Speaker 1: because you know, it's amazing to think about the power 921 00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:20,880 Speaker 1: that comes from understanding these things about the universe. You know, 922 00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,440 Speaker 1: like once you understand them, that then you can do stuff. 923 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:26,360 Speaker 1: And you know, hopefully we want to just do super 924 00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:28,520 Speaker 1: villain stuff. But to think about all the amazing things 925 00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,080 Speaker 1: you can do with some of this knowledge about the 926 00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:33,359 Speaker 1: universe and some of the amazing technology that can come 927 00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:35,239 Speaker 1: from it. I mean, you can really, you know, get 928 00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:39,560 Speaker 1: humanity out to the stars or help our civilization live forever. Yeah. 929 00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:41,680 Speaker 1: It could be that in a thousand years people have 930 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,560 Speaker 1: a deeper understanding of the nature of the universe, and 931 00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,480 Speaker 1: that some of the problems that we are struggling with 932 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:49,440 Speaker 1: today will seem trivial to them. They will seem like, 933 00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,000 Speaker 1: why didn't they just figure this out? And so it 934 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:55,160 Speaker 1: could be that the obstacle between us and some utopia, 935 00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:58,279 Speaker 1: he's really just knowledge. He's really just figuring out the 936 00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,800 Speaker 1: nature of this crazy universe. Yeah. And so in the 937 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,480 Speaker 1: third movie of the trilogy, you know, all those supervillains 938 00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:07,600 Speaker 1: actually turned out to be the good guys. He told you. 939 00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:09,640 Speaker 1: You just have to wait for the third movie. The 940 00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:12,360 Speaker 1: arc resolves itself. All right. Well, we hope you enjoyed that. 941 00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:23,440 Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening, 942 00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:26,200 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is 943 00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:29,640 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio or more podcast For 944 00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 945 00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:41,719 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows yeah,