"Hey Bill Nye, Should We Throw Our Trash Into Space?" | Big Think

"Hey Bill Nye, Should We Throw Our Trash Into Space?"
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On this week's episode of Tuesdays With Bill, Rachel from Columbia University asks two questions for the price of one: What would happen if a human being went the speed of light, and why don't we just eject our trash into outer space?
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BILL NYE:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.
In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.
While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children’s books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.”
Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.
Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.
Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest organization.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Rachel: Hi, I’m Rachel and I'm a student at Columbia. What would we see if theoretically a human were able to travel at the speed of light. My teacher told me, somewhat confusingly, that we might see the past and the present or maybe the past and the future, I can’t remember, simultaneously. But whatever his response was it didn’t make a lot of sense to me so I was wondering if you could give me a better clarification.
Bill Nye: Rachel this is a great question. So about what happens when you go the speed of light. I mean this is a great - we love to ask this question in physics class. It’s big fun here on Big Think. But if you have mass, which we all do - we are not pure energy, we are not beams of light, we are not electrical fields. We’re not gravitational fields. We have mass. It has been shown beyond any doubt that you cannot go the speed of light. You can go arbitrarily fast, approaching the speed of light, but you can’t quite go the speed of light. All the energy you pump in just adds to your mass. And this seems incredible. It adds to your mass relative to something you’re going to run into in a particle accelerator or an atom smasher like at CERN in Switzerland. We call it a target that you run into. That said, you can’t help but wonder what would happen if you go the speed of light. You’ve got to figure the only light you’d see is the light that you’d run into either light that you happen to cross paths with or light that was beamed straight at you. You wouldn’t see anything else. About the change in time. There’s been a lot of talk about that. Can time have a speed effectively? Can you go backwards in time? Apparently not. People love to speculate about oh, they can’t get enough about this. What happens if you fall into a wormhole and then you like end up in another part of the universe like in another...
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/traveling...

[@bigthink]

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[@manny8786]

hello how is ur day going

[@Rvxnge]

@@manny8786 mine is good

[@EventHorizonPrdctns]

I just had the saddest realization possibly of my life: When I was 6, I sat in front of a screen and learned from Bill Nye. I am 30. And I am sitting in front of a screen learning from Bill Nye. I have accomplished nothing. I have gone nowhere.

[@ElectricFXMotionDesign]

lmao

[@Zghost276]

No that's just means you have a really good determination to watch Bill nye

[@lleheaven]

I am in the same boat as you. I'm now 29 and still watching him lol.

[@svenondabeat1133]

you can't have been 6 watching this if you are 30 now. the show first aired in 1993. you would have been 6 in 1992. #Research

[@lleheaven]

+AKA Snaps Wtf, haha! Too much time on your hands to find out if a stranger was 6 or 7 years old on a KZbin video. Take it 1 step further, he might have been 8 years old if his birthday was before September 1993. BAM!

[@lightsidemaster]

2020: Humans on Earth shoot ALL their waste into space... 2100: A huge Trash Asteroid is heading straight for Earth xDD

[@lightsidemaster]

jo l LOL! Yeah that sounds like us.

[@vane00kn]

jo l It's a legit scenario. I saw that in an episode of Futurama, I think.

[@lightsidemaster]

***** LOL yes or that. Upset aliens are never a good thing xD

[@lightsidemaster]

***** lol xD It doesn't look so shiny to me! xP

[@NatSPlay]

vane00kn you are right

[@twgann]

"It would stretch you into a piece of spaghetti, which would also make you dead " bill nye is amazing

[@shalee767]

LiquidMotion lol

[@invschematics]

As Chuggaconnory says: *Spaghettification!*

[@mael-strom9707]

All hail the Spaghetti Monster ...bow now.

[@pinterakos3349]

@Barry Lab no, if you get close to a black hole, your feet gets pulled alot harder than your head, and it stretches you so much, you will be thousands of meters in lenght, but very very narrow. This is called Spagettification.

[@rohananil1266]

Literally this part came on as I was reading this

[@Jer_Schmidt]

He has clothing made from water bottles. Most water bottles are transparent. I'm really upset that my brain combined these facts...

[@brianstrutter1501]

Lol

[@lynxhere6934]

Lol

[@Liuhuayue]

I assume condensing plastic will make it less see-through.

[@wintersknight9411]

May it bring you peace of mind knowing that water bottles are not only transparent/ translucent because of the type of plastic they are made of, but also mostly due to how thinly they are stretched. And bear in mind that the composition of the plastic was likely changed greatly during the process of turning it from old water bottles into clothing. !!Science Rules!!

[@musa2775]

I'm not mad about it. Bill Nye's cute af 😌

[@sebastianortiz-trejo964]

Spaghettification is my favorite word since i heard about black holes doing it

[@jupiter6412]

Mitt Romney stands with BLM uhhh clarification please?

[@HypersonicWyvern]

@@jupiter6412 what did he say? He deleted his comment

[@cortster12]

2:00 I freaking love you. The fact that you said a black hole is just a star that has so much gravity that light can't escape is great because there are so many people who think of black holes as actual holes in space because of misconceptions!

[@garfoonga1]

***** actually black holes destroys all matter and warps many physical forces like gravity, while simultaneously emitting energy so immense that stars are usually born from black holes. Worm holes are where people get this whole teleportation idea. Worm holes, as far as I know are purely theoretical, where as black holes have been observed for nearly a century. In fact scientists are observing the black hole at the centre of our galaxy using every telescope available and then combining the images to create the very first photograph of a black hole. And yes matter indeed is destroyed and created all the time. There are electrons popping in and out of existence all over the universe. Next time you try answering someones questions; actually know at least one single fact about the subject matter

[@UnorthodoxlyEsthetic]

***** The Law of Conservation of Mass is something very basic we teach in high school, it's something we say to explain that the water has turned into water vapor. Otherwise, on quantum levels, new quantums are always created

[@cortster12]

***** Go? it doesn't go anywhere. It just slowly gets more massive, so the event horizon gains a greater radius. Its just like an actual star, except it has an event horizon because of its escape velocity being c at a certain radius. It also is so dense and hot that we don't actually know what the matter would be like inside, be it quark-qluon plasma or other, or what the singularity is, if it exists. The only thing about black holes that is really physics breaking is the singularly, and that is because we just don't understand how quantum mechanics and macro physics come together in the core of a black hole.

[@garfoonga1]

***** the public school system is about as valid a source for information as reddit. Sometimes youre taught something thats true, most of the time youre learning something outdated, biased, or wrong. I doubt you did any research yourself, sounds to me like you remembered about half of what your teacher said and filled in the blanks with your best guesses.

[@garfoonga1]

***** well I would like to say that I said NEARLY 100 years, which is entirely acurate since the date you refered to is just over a decade shy of a century ago. Also, you should look in to the electrons popping in and out of existence thing, it's intriguing to say the least, and as far as I'm concerned is complete proof that matter can indeed be destroyed and created, just on the sub atomic scale. I don't personally enjoy a macaques company, though I am particularly fond of the great tit. Also, you as well should actually read up on what youre about to talk about, otherwise you waste time and look silly.

[@spineshivers]

Haha. This girl watched too much Futurama with the trash part.

[@unmorcipan]

spineshivers or Futurama watched too much of this girl

[@CorazonCorazon59]

It is actually a great solution, not to throw it in just space, but directly to the sun. The only problem is the cost and the risk of having a rocket that blows. When we will have reliable rockets, we will be able to send radioactive things out of earth

[@9393jack]

@@CorazonCorazon59 it's a terrible idea. You want to keep throwing away the stuff thay we very well may need in the future? We'd be acting just as selfishly as the Boomers had

[@FeeshCTRL]

Nobody *needs* plastic, one of the only things on the planet that doesn't biodegrade and collects and collects as we keep making more

[@CorazonCorazon59]

@@9393jack I'm not saying that we should, i'm just saying that in the future we can throw away dangerous things out of the planet if we wanted to. If we can re use them, great, but if we can't, throwing it at the sun is 100% durable

[@Archangel10123]

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". I remember that episode!

[@Primalxbeast]

Who down votes Bill Nye? He wasn't even talking about anything controversial.

[@RyanRyzzo]

Primalxbeast It's those blasted Flarblorkians! They're up there in their trash scoopers trying to get bits of plastic from our orbit. You see, they don't want to enter our atmosphere - it's against the law.

[@TheHarryPlinkett]

The "speed of light" is not a scientific fact. It's a theory... And an incorrect theory at that.

[@a7i20ci7y]

***** Oh for.. please look up the definition of scientific theory. It is not conjecture. It is not speculation. Until you can come up with a theory that makes better and more predictions than existing theories, please leave it to actual scientists to debunk them.

[@TorturedNacho]

***** Please link us to your Big Think video, or educational/professional keynotes or conferences. Perhaps you're a foreign scientist with a t.v series explaining the universe? Go watch more Ken Hamm videos ya nerd.

[@jrm48220]

Primalxbeast People might have down-voted him for saying that we can't leave Earth. We can't. . . yet. A time may come when we can.

[@iamhell2u]

"Earth is a closed system." There you have it.

[@Xenderman]

a few lines later... "There's no place to throw your trash," Saying that there's no place else to throw your trash except earth, he's talking about a closed system of garbage, not this flat earth nonsense

[@itzplant3196]

The more you know

[@DiscoScottie]

No, there you obviously DON'T have it. He was talking about the impracticality of launching garbage into space. The man is CEO of The Planetary Society, a foundation dedicated to advancing space exploration. Why would someone leading the charge to travel to other planets say we're can't leave the earth? Do you have no reasoning abilities or simple common sense?

[@AzBboy]

@@DiscoScottie Its called a freudian slip, he literally said we cannot leave the earth there is no place to go, idc HOW much you try to save your little space fantasies you heard it from the horses mouth himself. Obama and nasa THEMSELVES are on camera saying we cant even leave low earth orbit and you can look it up yourself, yet somehow we supposedly went to the moon...stop buying into the bs and trying to rationalize their truth slips just cus you are too mesmerized by your little outer space fantasies.

[@nickhudson9379]

AzBboy this guy disco doesn’t understand a thing you said

[@katebator5633]

2015:no 2016:no 2017:no 2018:no 2019: yeah, let’s put this into her recommended

[@zeuskf62]

This

[@brandonwhite9270]

Is

[@shibes4jesus105]

HahahahahahagagahagaggagsjaAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA seeing this for the 8582nd time makes it funny, right?

[@Akkhinus]

I'm in your recommended ;)

[@alexbeerune]

Kashados simp

[@Liuhuayue]

"There's no place to go." 2020: *Training people to go to Mars*

[@daysnottime999]

the deception is so rampant.

[@awatchman5945]

“Earth is a closed system”…..

[@eyyewgveskaojev]

@@awatchman5945Watch the full video idiot

[@M111771]

Looked like he was holding back a burp at the very end.

[@CookiePower197]

M111771 I feel like that was just hiccups.

[@Schmaiden1]

M111771 Why? What did he do? Killed them all of course.

[@M111771]

Schmaiden1 Killed the burps? What? :/

[@Schmaiden1]

M111771 And the burping....

[@M111771]

Schmaiden1 No idea what you're trying to say haha

[@ericpa06]

"We cannot leave the earth" Yet

[@WeKnowTheTruth2012]

Yeah i think by the time we even invent rockets that barely even need fuel we might already blown our selves up i mean what are we gonna do with all these nukes?

[@HeIljumper]

WeKnowTheTruth2012 We disarm them. Wars are fought between nations without nuclear power for a reason. Don't be so cynical. :P

[@brod2man]

***** I think he wasn't just referring to humans but to the material on Earth. You can't just shoot waste off into space indefinitely. Eventually you will run out of stuff. Or before then, you'll reach a point where the whole Earth is unbalanced. Imagine we shot all our food scraps into space. They wouldn't have the chance to rot and breakdown, returning to the Earth to continue the cycle.

[@SyukriLajin]

***** it depends on how you define "we". do you mean you, and, say, another 5 person? or the entire 7 billion+ of us?

[@sapitch]

***** Yup, you're right. We will have no choices but to leave Earth some day. You don't want to be on Earth when it'll burn & blow up (in less than 5 billion years). If we don't leave, we'll die. All. By then, the best thing to do is..... Rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle. AND put big money in space exploration :)

[@gunz300]

I can already see creationists quote mining him saying, "The earth is a closed system" as part of a flaw second law of thermodynamics argument."

[@ammelr]

Tsukuyomi27 The Earth is an open system, powered by the Sun, so f**k those damn creationists! Doomsday, get my gun. ---M.C. Hawking

[@Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa4523]

Tsukuyomi27 I think by "closed system" he may be referring to us ever leaving and living elsewhere. However, that's just my interpretation. I am a creationist who believes some parts of evolution works with creationism. That is, God created evolution. Regardless, other than the cost, I don't see a problem throwing our trash into space, like in a black hole. However, I have thought the very same way with Bill in that we can reuse the trash to make some sort of fuel or at least find use of the trash. I am optimistic there is a way that has yet to be discovered. One can only hope.

[@gunz300]

David Stone First, of course that's what he was referring to, hence, I can see it being quote mined. The earth is NOT a closed system and Bill Nye knows this. Second, what you described isn't creationism. The whole evolution was put in place by a god of some sort is nothing but a tremendous cop out, and it's just not an intellectually honest position. No parts of evolution "work" with creationism. One is a fact backed by the most comprehensive set of evidence as we have in any field of science and the other is a fairy tale with no evidence supporting it whatsoever. They are mutually exclusive propositions. I actually have more respect for the true creationists who admit they don't believe evolution at all because at least they have the honesty to admit they don't care about evidence.

[@Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa4523]

Tsukuyomi27 It's not that I am using it as a cop out. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, believing one way or another on creation does not really affect whether a person is going to Heaven or not. Romans 10:9 somewhat affirms this notion. Obviously the person would have to accept that God is the ultimate creator. Anyway, God created everything, according to the early chapters of Genesis. God also be behind an evolutionary process, such as microevolution. There is no scientific evidence of macroevolution, but microevolution has been observed, studied, and proven. I do not see why God could not be behind this. For all my life I had thought that it was evolutionism vs. creationism, but only recently from studying a little evolutionary background I have come to the conclusion that some evolution of animals, for example, could be the mechanics of God. In the end, we shall agree to disagree. I am not here to persuade you, but rather discuss our beliefs in a docile manner; as well as somewhat defend my case and clear up confusion. Thank you for your time.

[@13strandquistc]

David Stone No evidence of "macro-evolution"? Surely you can't believe this while accepting "micro-evolution. They are the same thing, organisms having their genetic code altered over many years. Its just when this compounds over many years, biologists decide the accumulated changes are something to notice as well. This term is so misused by creationist's, that when you go to Wikipedia, it has a specific section on creationist's misusing the term to deny evidence of species changing. I don't mean to attack you for this or anything, but I'm guessing you learned your "evolutionary background" from creationist sources?And of course I don't think I, of all people, will change your mind. It just seems like you're just clinging on to creationism for whatever reason, and having them both wrong now.

[@MrManmark559]

"It would stretch into a piece of spaghetti, which would also make you dead." ROFL!!

[@mariomguy]

"...it would stretch you into a piece of spaghetti, which would also make you dead." I'm learning so much right now...

[@benjaminclement8437]

"One thing I really want this generation to embrace. We cannot leave the earth. There is no place to go. Its a closed system" Could not have said it better myself yet still most dont have eyes to see or ears to hear :(

[@YMAzteca]

Exactly, people just do not listen.

[@psycho_maniac2343]

3:55 i love that the lighting on his face presents the thought that he had a very long skull, and his highly knowledgeable brain warped the upper skull through turbocharged evolution. Making him look alien. Or his parents just used an Aztec Binding ritual on his skull.

[@quahntasy]

When I was young bill nye was there to teach stuff. Now I am older and here I am again

[@tonycampbell1424]

"The solution is increased efficiency," said the engineer, surprising no one.

[@truman5838]

"One thing I really want this generation to embrace. We cannot leave the earth. Theres no place to go. Its a closed system" Bill Nye

[@GuardianSoulkeeper]

Yup.

[@sum5clynn470]

Noticed that too 🤔. The earth is a closed place? And we can't leave??

[@TruthSeeker-uo5uf]

That's because of the Firmament that separates the waters from the waters.

[@woah2507]

Ohh no.. he slipped some truth in there.. I'm watching because I heard it's taken out of context.. sure people can believe that. "There's no place to go. There is no place to throw your trash".. for sure he's just talking about the trash.. right after he told people that the earth is a closed system 🤔🤔 ohh that's the reason we can't throw trash in space. Because the earth a closed system. We can't go anywhere. 😅😅 he just told us..

[@Cleocyde]

@@woah2507 we cant throw trash in space, because it's a closed system, because of gravity. if we throw shit in space, it will either come back on earth because of gravity, or crash into some of our satelites. and throwing it further would just be WAY too expensive to even be considered. that's all it meant.

[@honestreview9000]

Did he just say we can't leave the Earth?

[@garfoonga1]

Big think should just stick to these types of videos. Instead of getting wealthy ignorant types to tell us that we're not paying politicians enough.

[@MrChadd990]

garfoonga1 Maybe we're not paying Big Think enough.

[@garfoonga1]

***** Not only have I not said that, I didn't even imply such a statement.

[@MrChadd990]

***** Are you a creationist? Because you argue like one.

[@garfoonga1]

***** no way man. My bridge is accepting of all creatures. trolls deserve attention because theyre the most emotionally broken. But, this guys doesn't seem trollish, just silly

[@ArttuH5N1]

garfoonga1 I thought the point of Big Think was to make us actually think. And a great way to make people think is to introduce to them ideas that are foreign or contrary to their own.

[@Horrortelltales]

Bill Nye looks like an older version of Cooper( Mathew McConaughey) from interstellar lol

[@johnirby8847]

Lol what!?

[@m4r797]

Kinda .

[@TheRealFlenuan]

2:54 "We might be able to… shit it elsewhere." - Rachel, 2015

[@RinoaL]

3:37 YES!! i've been saying this for a while and this is the first time i've heard it from somebody else. glad it was from Bill Nye.

[@zbyszekkopec908]

The Earth is flat with Firmament.

[@RogueRaven117]

Me: So Bill Nye, May I see your degree in science Bill Nye:

[@NW-sm8xq]

So engineering isn't science?

[@pissbaby2870]

@@NW-sm8xq Bill Nye isn't a real scientist. He only has a Bachelor Degree in science.

[@amr-bw4gf]

College doesn’t mean shit

[@SkorpioVenom]

Bill: Bachelor of SCIENCE in Mechanical Engineering scientist [ˈsīəntəst] NOUN a person who is studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences. Morons: Bill isn't a scientist!

[@stevenyang7616]

we're all scientists . anyone can access peer reviewed journals if they want

[@TheCodingDuck]

1:44 I love that impression so much

[@WorthlessDeadEnd]

1:48 - I love his surfer dude impression there.

[@atgblue1]

Bill nye. "Earth is a closed system" Also bill nye. "Earth is not a closed system" Okay.

[@GuardianSoulkeeper]

Context.

[@DiscoScottie]

@@GuardianSoulkeeper - absolutely. The ignorance of some people is bewildering.

[@TerellTheG9697]

It's always "context" when your beliefs are shaken lmfaoo.

[@elguapo1690]

I love how sick Bill Nye is of stupid questions. His misery gives me life.

[@Batman-cu3vp]

there not stupid questions

[@elguapo1690]

@@Batman-cu3vp *They're not stupid questions.* I guess it's all relative.

[@mackvenom1]

I can listen to this man speak and teach without end. It’s probably been 30 years in different media.

[@devindaamarathunga]

did he just say "the earth is a closed system. We can not leave the earth. There's no place to go." , so what the hell is NASA / Space X even doing.

[@findalefinnie]

Lying to us.

[@patrickburns6955]

trying to make it so we are not just a closed system with nowhere to go..

[@PunchAPeach]

He means that we cannot move a large industry like waste removal off of the Earth, out infrastructure is stuck here. Sending robotic devices into orbit is very different from humans living and operating off-world. The ISS is our best attempt at that so far, and it is a monumental feat.

[@devindaamarathunga]

PunchAPeach I think you are missing the point, before ISS NASA claims to have gone to the moon. If that's true that will be the biggest achievement in human history. but now they cannot get pass the van allen radiation belt. I hate to say but flat earth is making more sense, the further you dig, and I think he accidentally lets the cat out of the box.

[@PunchAPeach]

+devinda amarathunga The Van Allen radiation belt is not an impenetrable "moat" of radiation that cooks organic matter upon contact. It is a region of Earth's magnetic field that contains higher concentrations of charged subatomic particles than the space around it. The Apollo astronauts were exposed to about 1 REM of radiation during each trip through the belt, because the orbital path on their 3-day trip to the moon means that their time spent in the belts was no longer than an hour or two. The radiation belts are only a problem for crewed spacecraft if the vehicle is in an orbit inside the belt, or passes through the belt, over a period of weeks. At least 100 REM of rad exposure is required to induce symptoms of radiation sickness. And a flat earth is obvious nonsense if you've ever been on a plane.

[@VictorMartinezg]

I think: If we throw our trash into the space, that is a huge problem, not only because is too expensive but also is like ripping apart the world. The trash is also part of the earth, sooner or later almost everything is going to be re-used, us or the earth (by decomposition). Is like the water, if we start throwing the water to the space, sooner or later we wont have enough water to live. NICE VIDEO!

[@blzahz7633]

I love the Bill & Ted impression at 1:47 :D My view on the subject of leaving earth is that if we can't leave the star system with the current planet we live in (like attaching a giant rocket to its side) we can't do it with a spaceship made out of a part of that planet. (reducing the size and ratio of energy/people) If you grow plants on the ship, where does the alternative sunlight for those plants come from?(and they need much more than that) And if that is produced with lights, where does the energy for those artificial light sources come from? The energy sources on the ship has to last for the entire trip, because there is no way of charging it e.g. sunlight, because leaving the star system kinda rules that one out. There are other problems as well, like how to generate heat without running out of energy or how to get rid of excess heat if that builds up. And of course the ever present time, how long does it take to travel to someplace else, like the man said: *No place to go* So the only way seem to be those wormholes, or some other "unconventional" mean. I don't why there is this urge to leave this planet, it's very sustainable compared to the others around there. What is it that we can't have here? What is it we are trying to escape or reach, ourselves? But I guess the grass is always greener..

[@blzahz7633]

Tl;dr: Why don't we fix the problems here, before going somewhere else (and taking the problems with us, spreading them thus running away and escaping them forever)

[@leslielam3901]

1:48 omg that imitation HAHAHA

[@lindsayg3073]

Bill you are always great to listen to. You’ve been great and taught me well since I was a kid. Thank you

[@thelonelyghosts9004]

Idk why but I laughed when he said “the earth is a closed system... we cannot leave earth... THERE IS NO WHERE TO GO...” Musk-like Humans: “Who wants to buy a $65 million one way ticket to Mars and die there?”

[@FoolsGil]

Hey Bill, Battlebots is back on tv and there is no science guy or science gal to smart things up. Can you help?

[@awkwardsaucce9387]

I love the smile Bill Nye gets when he gets asked stupid questions. 🤣

[@eddienajera5762]

I like that: "rethink" absolutely loved it! that would great for future generations in regard to trash

[@discodench]

Amazing that a college student knows so little about basic rocketry. Space = expensive. Elementary level education.

[@ziroth12]

Sometimes people overlook the obvious. No reason to be pompous.

[@discodench]

Theres plenty of reason to be pompous. She wasted her one chance to ask Bill Nye a good question. She asked a question that any person, herself included, could of figured out on her own had she actually thought about it more than casually.

[@gobdovan]

So are you saying that not all the young Americans are like that? Don't they all wonder if a spacefish will choke with a plastic bag? Or what happens to the space atmosphere if we throw junk in it?

[@patrickburns6955]

Such an interesting answer tho. it was far from a wasted question in my opinion because of the golden Bill Nye answer

[@zeke1220]

Rockets are expensive, but cannons are less so!

[@Keefus88]

The earth is a closed system? We can't leave? So we didn't go to the moon?

[@ottomais]

Yes Buzz Aldrin said it 3 times, even in TV.

[@noobsc0uter1]

"the earth is a closed system" bill nye 2015 Flat earth confirmed lol

[@Teeb2023]

Nope. You just need it to mean that. The rest of us know different.

[@noobsc0uter1]

i was joking but ok

[@Teeb2023]

Joshua Irish C'mon, you can't do the Poe thing with flat-Earthers... they're so ridiculous they can't be out-dumbed.

[@pepinillorick5741]

yeah there's "people" that actually believes that. and the flyig spaguetti moster.

[@darno8863]

“The earth is a closed system we cannot leave the earth”

[@hyperlyne8282]

Bill Nye The Science Guy Not scientist, not tv star. “The Science Guy”.

[@SkorpioVenom]

Why do you think he isn't a scientist? He has a bachelor of science.

[@SkorpioVenom]

@Renagadde IKR ... Which is a bachelor of science. His degree is literally "Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering", BSME, a field which involves a very large amount of math, physics, and chemistry.

[@eboy4032]

Not to be mean but that space junk question was kind of dumb. Id like to see bill answer more complex questions. You're average joe could have answered that one or the amazing google

[@Altrantis]

levy G. Yeah, but the point is -he- puts it in a way even the simplest of minds can understand. Most people can explain it, but not explain it clearly.

[@theextinctsurgeon310]

levy G. I think the question in itself is great. I mean: it would be a perfect solution, but as Nye said: making it happen is difficult.

[@AnhTrieu90]

levy G. The only dumb question is the question hasn't asked. At the very least, that young lady was concerned about something and she had the gut to seek the answer. That is what need to be encouraged!

[@DaedricNZ]

The Extinct Surgeon I dunno about it being the perfect solution. The earth has finite resources, and if we were able to somehow throw our trash into space cost efficiently we'd essentially be throwing earths resources away never to be retrieved again. I imagine after many centuries/milennia of doing that we'd have some serious issues down the line.

[@justsomeguy8385]

Anh Triệu There lots of dumb questions that do get asked.

[@Zugems]

Thank you very much for your insight. Most of us don't have the means to spend time on things like this. We have to do what we do and just trust the experts like you, but unlike many others, you have always had a knack for explaining things in a way that most can understand.

[@karlgustafson7213]

We already mine landfills, I worked at a recycling plant that scavenged cars from old landfills.

[@stephentaylor6726]

I don't recycle plastic...I roll up a photo of me and stick it in every bottle I throw away so in the future when someone's mining those landfill for plastic they'll find my stash and build monuments of my likeness for leaving them such an easily accessible treasure trove. Bam...immortality secured...also sometimes I hock a lugie into the bottles so they can clone me if they want to.

[@falloutman3424]

Stephen Taylor or maybe they will just drink your loogies and burn the pictures because it’s a wasteland

[@tmsnssto6375]

Mr. Nye, you made science my favorite part of the day when we got to see a video of you, just amazing stuff. I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in science during middle school if it weren't for you, and it's great to see that as a recognisable person in the scientific community you are taking advantage of your fame and likability to deliver important knowledge to all of us even today!

[@143yaknow]

I love his bursts of enthusiasm!

[@jakewatson668]

I really like how he explains things. I get his stuff with my rudimentary understanding of science

[@EpicAwesomeWin87]

Why should we even think about sending trash into space? In Sweden we buy garbage from other countries to power our city central heating and some powerplants. Think about it, recycle and smile :)

[@Erik_Caballero]

@EpicAwesomeWin That's really cool! Does burning it contribute to emissions and air pollution?

[@mormemen]

@@Erik_Caballero It unfortunately does, since much of the trash being burnt is made from non renewable materials (like plastic which is made out of oil or natural gas). Burning that contributes to climate change through an increase of CO2 in the air. However, large parts of the trash are actually made of renewable materials, paper for example. They can therefor be seen as a form of biofuel that does not lead to a net increase of CO2 in the air. But the best arguments for burning trash to harvest energy are that it replaces other energy production that is worse (such as coal for heating) and that landfills are avoided, sparing the environment from toxic waste and methane emissions, which contribute to climate change even more than CO2 does (per weight unit).

[@Erik_Caballero]

@@mormemen That's a shame. I wonder if they have research grants out for finding ways to fix this problem without breaking their national budget.

[@jay14k32]

No one: My classmates: *BiLl nYe tHe RusSiAn sPy*

[@AylaPersephone]

I've heard "Refuse, Reduce, Re-use, Recycle". I like putting re-think on the end there.

[@Ikiratuki]

If I were in Bill's position, I would drown in the ignorance streamed at me. I have so much respect for that man.

[@Arygua]

"It'll kill you which will also make you dead" Thanks for clearing that up, I was wondering if being killed and dead were the same thing.

[@cmd2tuts]

So... She's in university right? Don't they have some type of entry exam?

[@AAfif-gd4px]

THANK YOU!

[@Groaznic]

***** Picking on a random person, calling him as ignorant as the person in the video for absolutely no reason, that's very clever of you, have you literally replied with your ass? Because the brain couldn't have had a part in it.

[@hellotheresunshine]

I wondered this too, these are high school questions.

[@cmd2tuts]

***** With hard work and dedication you too can be as cool as me one day ;)

[@herculesrockefeller2984]

Druidtton Darksun I think i asked the 'Launching Trash into Space' question when i was 8 to a kid in middle-school, and got the correct answer.. This was before the internet even existed.. What the hell are they teaching you kids?!

[@drsolo7]

If a hooman travel in light speed, he is light

[@worldends2]

Bill is so straight forward I like that

[@BitterSweetUnfolding]

3:24-3:35... boom, enough said. Only those with a brain will know.

[@rafaelfrias9416]

Where are the satellite s???? Why can't I get reception on a mountain??? When we get our feed from satellite s??? Shouldn't we get stronger reception at mountain tops??? Since we get our internet from satlites?

[@landenheine7645]

Watch the fucking video bro

[@fireriffs]

I've said the same thing about future generations mining land fills. Plastics aren't breaking down and we're going to run out of oil to make them eventually. As bad as they are for the planet they are incredibly useful and some day we're going to have to dig them up. Probably a lot of metals too.

[@kittengurl220]

Y’all are making me feel bad lol. I was half asleep this morning on my way to work and thought “why not just send our trash into the sun” and after a while I kind of realized the expenses. If the solution were that easy it’d be done already 😂

[@mmmmmmolly]

Lololol 1:48 :))))

[@daoi3095]

What if you were on a train going 5 mph away from lightspeed and you throw a baseball 30 mph

[@silverviz5600]

Due to my limited knowledge I would assume the baseball will be going 25 mph over the speed of light due to already maintaining the speed that you, the thrower, are traveling

[@Manu-se5tx]

noted that the faster you go near the speed of light the more your inertia increases, making it impossible to throw a ball since it would take infinite energy, you would see the ball being faster than you, but to the eye of someone out of your reference system, the ball would move at your same speed (if you were travelling at the speed of light). Now to your question: using the formula w = (u + v)/ (1 + (u*v/c^2)) where w = the speed of the ball for the external beholder u = your speed to the external beholder -> 299792453 (speed of light minus the 5mph(guessing it's meters)) v = the speed of the ball relative to you (30 mph) c = the speed of light we have that w = (299792453+25)/(1+((25*299792453)/(299792458*299792458))) so if I'm right w = 299.792.453,00000083391016150069631 which is just slightly faster than you (since you are below the speed of light, otherwise the speed of the ball and your speed would have been the same) If i said something wrong correct me, I'm a bit late to the party i know

[@edgunther8136]

Finally, good videos on Big Think again. Must be nice to have a dislike bar that is only slightly visible rather than to have majority dislikes.

[@Xerneas23]

00:50 noo😭😭🥲 1:50 exactly ！ lmaoo

[@tarstarkusz]

This has got to be the dumbest question I have ever heard, especially from a student from Columbia!

[@mustang6172]

That answer about seeing the future and past was dumber than the question.

[@tarstarkusz]

You might also wonder why a guy with a BS in Mechanical Engineering is answering these types of questions anyway. I'm thinking a physicist should be answering that particular question.

[@barakaobama9081]

Obviously he's smarter than you 😂

[@TheNicholascampbell]

This is true. Though, going back in time is impossible, going forward isn't. He didn't even give the Atomic Clock an honorable mention. I like his ideas regarding the mining of landfills though.

[@richardjordan7308]

All the best science-fiction ideas I first encountered (myself) in Star Trek, in one form or another. Landfill mining was in the book Left Hand of Destiny by J.G. Hertzler

[@Snipin]

We should start throwing murderers and pedophiles into space, sick of the thought that there are people beneath us that did such horrible things.

[@Snipin]

Literally don’t want them on this earth

[@Squishling]

'Which will also make you dead' LOL!!!

[@fuku7044]

I've watched this man since he pretty much dethroned Mr.Wizard, and I love how he went from being excited about science, to being annoyed at having to answer such simple questions several times over.

[@dr.nowzardan8980]

3:24

[@alexclarke7067]

"The earth is a closed system , we cannot leave earth," so HOW THE FUCK DID WE GET TO THE MOON??

[@DiegoRodriguez-vf6pp]

It's very simple, the earth is flat. Where is the curvature? I live in Scotland on the west coast (Ayr) and we can see perfectly Northern Ireland should be 680 meters below the curvature.

[@briansmith1830]

Nobody went to the moon. I thought this was common knowledge now. There is a lot of info about it, including the reactions of the 3 astronauts when asked to swear on the bible that they went to the moon.

[@zacklance484]

Take your telescope. Point it at the moon. Look at the stuff we left there. Checkmate

[@PunchAPeach]

He meant that we cannot leave the Earth as a species, with large-scale infrastructure and civilizations existing off world. Which here and now, is correct. But we will soon make the whole solar system our home, we just need to get a lot smarter about resource utilization until then.

[@eugeniorivera4818]

Closed system like we use what we have on earth, like we're not mining stuff from Mars and bringing it back to earth...yet.

[@osamabad3597]

Can we launch flat earthers into space so they stop using your videos to further their agenda?

[@Jaylio]

“Trash into space” like we have enough trash in space

[@Xenderman]

Indeed, that's why he called earth a closed system, it's because we have too much trash in orbit and if we take trash up there, it will put a lot more trash into orbit, therefore making earth into a closed system.

[@tristan.23]

“The Earth is a closed system. We cannot leave the Earth...” So we didn’t go to the moon before?

[@engineergaming5989]

The earth is essentially a closed system as it obtains energy from the sun but exchanging matter with the outside is almost zero.

[@engineergaming5989]

We can't leave by being exchanged as matter, but by flying rockets.

[@DiscoScottie]

He's talking about the impracticality of launching garbage into space. Go back and listen to his entire response instead of focusing on two sentences. It's called CONTEXT.

[@tristan.23]

DiscoScottie Why you so mad haha?!

[@DiscoScottie]

@@tristan.23 - not mad at all. Just extremely happy that I'm much, much smarter than you.

[@EdwardScissorsHands1]

I was reading about a prominent scientist that has 95 years old in which I don't remember the name right now. He says that humanity is already doomed, because our efforts are too little, and we don't resolve the problem at all. He says that humanity has just some centuries ahead.

[@MrChadd990]

Eduardo Felipe NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo

[@Groaznic]

Eduardo Felipe That's Al Gore for ya. And he's right you know. Just look around :(

[@bupkis2714]

Bullshit that scientist doesn't know what technology has for us

[@EdwardScissorsHands1]

***** so what?

[@WhatsAfterThisPlace]

Eduardo Felipe I agree. Honestly the only real countries doing anything for the environment are Westernized countries and even then it is only a small percent of the population that is doing anything. Now put together all the other 6.5 billion humans that couldn't care any less about anything except themselves.

[@mushybakaton8555]

"which would also make you dead" Best quote ever

[@Syeal7]

I love to play these videos on speed 0.75 - it's like listening to your drunk Physics-student friend talking about physicy things

[@matth6762]

Bill, what do you mean by "the earth is a closed system. We can not leave the earth. There's no place to go." ???

[@goukisan2869]

yeah that made me raise an eyebrow too!

[@Blyter7]

special relativity gives us the means to wander the stars. bill knows that it will take hundreds, if not thousands of years to truly exploit special relativity.

[@goukisan2869]

i ask this question not in a negative way, but how does special relativity relates to him saying " the earth is a closed system"?

[@Gadget622]

I don't think he's referring to the second law of thermodynamics. He's saying that Earth is the only planet we have right now and we need to talk care of it

[@PrimeCarrot]

He's saying that we as humans (and every other animal of the Earth for that matter) developed and lived on this planet for a reason, that reason being because the planet had just the right factors to be inherited by life. The viewable universe does not have these factors. We are not meant to live out there. It will be too difficult. I also agree with Bill, that one day, VERY FAR from now, it may be a possibility. That is to say that we're not extinct by then.

[@FredGandt]

*I'm now **_"re-thinking"_** whether there is such a thing as a dumb question...* The Earth is doomed.

[@JZGreenline]

Fred Gandt Me and you both. Why don't we throw trash into space... I swear this was a scenario off of Idiocracy.

[@a7i20ci7y]

Fred Gandt She's got to be a liberal arts major.

[@FredGandt]

I was thinking _"beauty therapist"_ ;-)

[@FredGandt]

That also crossed my mind ***** but still - someone _asked_ the question(s) or at least thought them a good _jumping off point_ to expand. I mean seriously right, like she doesn't even know right like what it was her teacher said or whatever, and I mean right, like she's literally clueless. Right? Columbia? Isn't that one of the good ones? Yikes! And as for initiating an expounding of the virtues of efficient use of raw materials, via asking if we should throw our trash into space? O.o If that's set up, someone is being paid far too much. No - I think the girl is just a ditz. Possibly a very _nice_ ditz, but still...

[@charles67198]

3:33. hes making a statement about the importance of recycling. but in the context of the moon landing and the van allen belt its still an interesting statement.

[@Kyle-vb3fz]

All these years later, I’m still learning from this guy.

[@billy5592]

3:30 “One thing I really want your generation to embrace; that the earth is a closed system. We cannot leave the earth. There’s no place to go!” Genesis 1:7-9 “ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.” God is real and we live under the Firmament (Dome) there is no space! God Bless🙏🏾

[@TommyJ]

Amen

[@ayeeeitskev]

use the quote in context. lying is a sin, your god will be very angry with you if you keep spreading lies.

[@graalcloud]

Hey Bill Nye, should I enjoy a fleshlight in the cold moonlight?

[@PsoriasisChannel]

A huge question you are right... what are we to do with recyclable trash that our jurisdiction doesn't recycle. Like plastic with the number 4'? ...

[@thatwhichsmashes8261]

Could you build a device to stabilize the event horizons effect? What about the warp drive, could you use it to warp space to negate the stretching?

[@AbdulDelati]

Wow this is really good.

[@Danocaster214]

If you were going almost the speed of light, light would still be travelling the speed of light relative to you. Theory of relativity. So you would see everything as normal.

[@MrTamagotchiii]

Hello, from Germany. We have a great method here to deal with the trash, we recycle it. I know you didn´t here off that yet in the states but I highly recommend you try it!:)

[@FactChecking101]

I have always thought that mining landfills in the future would be a thing having never heard or read that anywhere, and here's Bill saying the same.

[@dank6617]

aww... cute question... wait, is she a columbia university student? *faith in humanity lost*

[@GoldenMechaTiger]

I dont know what they teach there but I hope she isnt in anything science related

[@maipad3186]

Hahshahdaa

[@maipad3186]

This is what happens when science becomes "cool" ... the sorority walks in...

[@primumdiscenti]

SPACE ELEVATOR!!! nuph side✌️

[@BETAmosquito]

"Do more with less" Exactly the sentiment that convinced me to turn my house into a permaculture system

[@maipad3186]

That's awesome! Please consider making a video about it

[@JetSkiBuyFixPlaySellChannel]

It's astounding that garbage isn't being sorted already on a larger scale.