Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Physics of Size and Life

Have you ever just sat back and thought about life? On this StarTalk explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice investigate the physics of size and life.
You’ll learn why physics sets the rules, not biology. Neil explains how and why the laws of physics don’t manifest equally at all size scales. We explore the science of A Bug’s Life and what the creators got right about surface tension.
We discuss how our size as humans impacts what we can and cannot do. You’ll learn why you won’t find tiny creatures with really thick legs. We also discuss why whales can get so big. All that, plus, Neil tells us why Sylvester Stallone isn’t a believable rock climber in the movie Cliffhanger.
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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#StarTalk #NeildeGrasseTyson

[@sylviovezzali8339]

Started in the beginning of the pandemic, out of curiosity, now watching your videos is a must every week! Thanks guys!

[@inderjeet7633]

Welcome aboard!

[@kosdas]

Yeah this some sort of "guy" seems to be cool, nah? Man... humanity will miss him bad one day. Cheers friend :-)

[@artiruswandi4739]

My people

[@shinjutsu4235]

I forgot about that actually 💀💀💀

[@dvinxism]

Same as me

[@vdiitd]

"Physics sets the rules" Every superhero movie: We don't do that here.

[@UCjNrKLyRJI-abFA8qiNo92Q]

This is why AntMan is strongest superhero, when he is smaller than atoms with the mass of a human the density is in the millions

[@evocatus.]

@@UCjNrKLyRJI-abFA8qiNo92Q I think Spawn is strongest. He isn't necessarily a hero, but he is stupidly overpowered.

[@ViratKohli-jj3wj]

@@UCjNrKLyRJI-abFA8qiNo92Q he can become a black hole

[@snakemasterthorno]

That is why it is called "science fiction" and not just "science"

[@real.Life.Stories]

🤣🤣🤣

[@aliardasoydan124]

I am watching a video every night before i go to bed u guys made me addicted.

[@thatflatdude4451]

Enjoy your daily dose of Neil Tyson

[@indianaleal]

Same

[@Thezombiekiller06]

Same lol it helps me sleep

[@v.k.2320]

Yeah can relate to that. Watching at least 3 of them every day.

[@manjirijoshi1619]

ikr!! me too!!

[@leonardojmartinez4526]

Science & Comedy goes well together.

[@angmathew4377]

You linked both hosts in one liner

[@chaosmarklar]

Spiderman spiderman does whatever a spider can....... I've never seen him eating insects

[@chaosmarklar]

@@Shenmasterzen communion wafers?

[@gustavofigueiredo1798]

Well, to be fare, he could...

[@SAJe_53]

Nor has he ever crawled inside me ear while I slept and laid his eggs.

[@chaosmarklar]

@Unfolding Ideas Leela - theres already a soda made out of people, soylent cola Fry - how is it? Leela - it varies person to person

[@jorgepeterbarton]

Spiders eat spiders. Often their children, mate, parents...depends on the spider. Might just be the bear equivelent spider eating a mouse equivalent spider.

[@bk8mom]

"lions...remember those elephants with the skinny legs?" 🤣🤣🤣

[@fire_tower]

Around 6:30 Chuck is talking about Alex Honnold in 'Free Solo'.

[@informaldeviant7751]

Yup. Freaking love that movie/documentary. Dude's a legend!

[@brettlansing178]

Combining comedy with something as deep as physics is such a brilliant idea. It pairs like cheese and wine in this podcast.

[@awilmymartinez3707]

He forgot the Fact that when you’re big or small you perceive time differently

[@kylekyle1805]

Some don't perceive time at all

[@jett3197]

That would only occur if you're moving at speeds nearing the speed of light. If you're referring to the galaxy sized being and it's reaction time then yes, but he did mention that.

[@Life_42]

A mosquito would see humans as slow moving living beings but a tree would see humans as fast moving living beings.

[@anonymususer1728]

@@jett3197 He's probably referring to the fact that mass also bends space-TIME. More mass = more time dilation.

[@gustavofigueiredo1798]

Since I was a kid I always thought the droplet drinks on the bar scene in "A Bug's Life" fascinating. I'm so happy it's scientifically accurate, haha. Thanks for the awesome content Neil, Chuck and everyone else involved.

[@nirabhradas6375]

This Episode should have been called "The Square Cube Law"

[@lionman8523]

This episode was about a repeated topic that they did talk about already at least a half a dozen times along with surface tension. Of course Chuck doesn’t remember any of it.

[@nirabhradas6375]

@@lionman8523 Was the said yesterday a live session?

[@carultch]

@@nirabhradas6375 It's really more like a 5th-power/4th-power law, when it comes to the strength of bones in large mammals. Because the failure mode of buckling matters more than the failure mode of direct rupture. Buckling scales with the square of the length of a structural member in compression, and weight scales with the cube of linear dimensions. So on net, the potential to buckle scales with the 5th power of your linear dimensions. Resistance to buckling depends on the Young's modulus and second moment of area of the structural member. A property of geometry, that is analogous to moment of inertia, and often called that as a misnomer. This property scales with the 4th power of the linear dimension. If you consider two otherwise-identical solid rods, one twice the diameter of the other, the larger rod will support 16 times the load, before it buckles.

[@turkishboyMLT]

I was binge watching Star Talk than I see a new video... yesss sirrr more of these please!!!!

[@lghammer778]

The message in this episode, at least 1 of them anyway: Don't Skip LegDay 😅

[@kenbee1957]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@kenbee1957]

Never skip leg day

[@gujikujtutu2330]

Uncle dom would disagree.

[@bigsherk42069]

Dislike bc leg day.

[@ramkumarr1725]

Completely agree with Dr Tyson on the limits part, especially for mammals. There is a law called Kleibers Law :which has physical roots in biology of mammals.

[@ramkumarr1725]

@Aditya Pratap Singh I passed out in 1999 in Chemical Engineering. I had two papers in Microbiology. Further, I have competed courses in Animal Welfare, Astrobiology, Brain Chemistry on Coursera in near term (for HR minded questions : previous 4 years). So, I think it gets me enough credit to comment on this topic. Further, I quote The American boy learns unspeakably less than the German boy.Inspite of an incredible number of examinations, his school life has not had the significance of turning him into an absolute creature of examinations,such as the German. Max Weber

[@ramkumarr1725]

@Aditya Pratap Singh You asked me about NEET exam. I am active out of sincere interest and not specifically for an exam. If we pick subjects for our exams : for example people pick anthropology and psychology for UPSC exams, as they are easy to understand and get marks, instead of maths or Physics. That person is a "creature of the exam".

[@shakesrear7850]

Thanks. Looking it up

[@jaclyn.jenkins]

i learned the weight and size and strength stuff in a basic algebra course - and the instructor used it to prove why giants (how we imagine them to be) couldn’t physically exist. that was probably 15 years ago, and i still remember that lecture.

[@nikhilsomvanshi9960]

7:52 Chuck’s all high and vibing dude Sunday morning goals🤣🤣😍😍

[@heath2109]

Neil’s smirk when Chuck is talking about size makes me laugh every single time I watch this video. 😂

[@ektoraskontos3384]

Very nice video Neil again. Moreover Kurzgesagt has 2 fantastic videos for the the size and life for everyone who wants more about it.

[@anubhabmaiti9658]

They have three now

[@boadicea5856]

I love Neil’s sign off, “Keep Looking Up” (Especially now with everything going on)

[@psalmer5690]

It's a nod to the show, Star Gazer, which preceded Star Talk. Here's an example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4SlZoV5hrqZhaM

[@patriciarowan4104]

Cool explanation of the square / cube law...also covalent bonds.☺️

[@kshitijdave1337]

There should be test for each topic to know how much chuck remember !!!!🔥🔥🎉🎉😅

[@courtlaw1]

If everyone could have a teacher like Neil we would have a Star Trek like Civilization already.

[@RAVITEJA-ge8zo]

You two are the best. Priceless videos.

[@marce8760]

Brilliant talk. Makes so much sense.

[@Rajivpsn]

As a biochemist I have to say this to all physicist: It's true that the platform is yours but the performers are us 😎

[@marianfrances4959]

LOL!!!

[@ramkumarr1725]

With this one sentence, you have changed my way of looking at things👍🙏

[@mohammadmansournejad]

That was interesting, an amazing explainer video like every single time.I love star talk explainer videos. I watching a least two videos per day.

[@IfYouKnowYouKnow.]

Love the chemistry between these two.

[@niveshutube]

The injection of Chuck is genius, he makes science so much more palatable. Your interaction is beautiful chemistry in keeping us engaged.

[@rogerokon9821]

Love these guys. They make Physics fun!

[@chiranthanmr]

But, with huge spikes coming out of his hand and legs, spider-man might be real. But it would look weird though.

[@Kleyguerth]

I'd go with gecko-like limbs

[@chiranthanmr]

@@Kleyguerth You'll get free car insurance at least 😂

[@besserwisser4055]

they have to be tiny in diameter in order to make use of the effects

[@shinjutsu4235]

Dr Oct was more accurate to what spiderman should have been

[@jorgepeterbarton]

"The fly" is a more accurate film. Or a true spiderman would look like the xenomorph from alien a little bit. But also spider-woman would be twice as big, five times as strong and prob eat him.

[@btaylor9788]

Love these star talks

[@brorjordas1979]

Got really excited to find this clip. Started immediately again to think of the insanely massive lava-like stuff spraying bugs from the movie Starship Troopers..

[@Toyoben_]

"Size is everything." ~ Dr. Tyson

[@funent2563]

I got you

[@eli_paule3804]

10:48 there must have been a dead air here. Cmon Chuck

[@jeffsiegwart]

Great stuff! Thank you.

[@ramkumarr1725]

Not specifically to the episode but advertising material often shows a 3d bar chart or pie chart comparision, when 2d is appropriate. The 3d tricks us because we see the volume of the bar chart when in fact we need to see the area in 2d, thus, deceiving us to make differences larger then they are.

[@ronaldlogan3525]

Love this conversation. My question: If a human were born in zero gravity , out in space somewhere, in a spaceship at constant velocity, how big would an individual grow ?

[@SergioCastillo87]

Possibly not much at all, even in space astronauts tend to lose muscle weight because the body, being an adaptive living thing, detects that very little strength is needed to do all things and small muscles work just fine. Besides this is mostly determined by genetics, gravity did its work during the evolutionary natural selection.

[@leatherface4133]

Can we get more cosmic queries? I love those.

[@swimm3rcity]

This is the first StarTalk im catching early.

[@5SMA]

1-1-1 2-4-8 3-9-27 4-16-64 5-25-125 6-36-216 7-49-343 8-64-512 9-81-729 10-100-1000 - Just to emphasise Neil's point about how rapidly the cube of a number diverges from it's square.

[@paulcombs-bomuse6172]

Thanks, as always, Neil and Chuck: knowledge with some laughs as a bonus. What more do you want.

[@ToyaF82]

I wish I was as smart as Dr. Tyson.

[@DoubleDsp]

You probably are! What's holding you back?

[@Dontbustthecrust]

Intelligence is 90% perspiration

[@g4m3rguy86]

@@DoubleDsp we need people like dan

[@twonumber22]

I wish I were as smart as Chuck.

[@stonehenge6630]

@@g4m3rguy86lol

[@hawkfpv4950]

love these videos!

[@HeaDzmold]

My vote for Chuck Nice, as a permant guest host!

[@yeshayah4443]

That's the first time I've seen Neil compliment a movie 😂

[@RandomVideoApparatus]

Uh-Oh! Another StarTalk video!

[@tims.440]

Great clip

[@gundam00able]

Wow. This felt like 2mins It was too short Thanks Chuck and Neil 🤓

[@jorgea.garzav4650]

Say Uh oh again, I dare you, I double dare you!!!

[@NatrajAthreya]

The Amazing Rock-climber! Rock-climber: Far from home 😂 🤣

[@mubariz_mahmood]

Neil i love your podcasts

[@Spacedoubt7]

My school book fair came today and I decided to buy the StarTalk book it seems interesting so far

[@hareecionelson5875]

Feed your curiosity, people will think you're clever, even if you don't think so. try to blow your mind once a day.

[@ChillfoLife100]

Neil teaching me just like Chuck not what I need to know, but love knowing. Also why there's no real life Spiderman.

[@killco1971]

that was fun

[@Ghostelmalo44]

Best Show Ever !! love it !

[@botein]

Tyson, you're amazing as ever. Thankyou

[@anastasisparastatidis5479]

The fact that if life was the size of a galaxy it would literally collapse under its own gravity and become a sphere 😂😂

[@TerryGrancho]

So planets were once... Titans?

[@anastasisparastatidis5479]

@@TerryGrancho Never thought about that

[@thequietknitter9107]

I was lied to in my childhood. . . "Spider Man, Spider Man. Does whatever a spider can." I feel so betrayed. 😂😂

[@isetmfriendsofire]

The source of his powers are only like that in the Raimi film, it's much weird in the comics hahaha

[@gersonboav1]

you guys are the two most amazing guys on the universe!

[@aurilightsong6330]

Chuck is absolutely hilarious! And this channel is just amazing, period. ☺❤

[@princeofallnegros4035]

He's funny but I would rather just let Neil teach without cutting him off mid sentence. He never gets to finish his points. 🤕

[@MegaSkills9]

@@princeofallnegros4035 - I totally agree. Science is cool enough and not everything is a joke. I take science seriously. No need to joke about it every minute.

[@isetmfriendsofire]

Spider-Man doesn't actually use the same method to go up walls as spiders, at least in the comics. Raimi trilogy is a different story.

[@kylekyle1805]

At this point Spiderman is as diverse as Batman

[@isetmfriendsofire]

@@kylekyle1805 Definitely Even in the 90s we had pre-relaunch, post-relaunch, Ben Reilly, and 2099

[@spocklodgic]

Couldnt the universe be alive ,sentient working at a diferent scale of time.

[@JasonWW2000]

i'm sure you could stretch the definition of life to say Yes, but it would be life not as you or I know it.

[@mattwalter5184]

No.

[@andy_void]

The best channel to get entertained and yet get some values

[@The_Kestrel]

This is the first time I have seen Chuck. He is exactly how I imagined

[@robertgotschall1246]

It’s Jesus Lizard a basalisk, and it does have wide feet. But would someone tell me why paleontologists think that a pterasaur ten times the size of any modern flying creature can not only fly but at very high speed. I would think that the power to weight ratio could not be one tenth of any modern bird.

[@scottpeterson3712]

Hey Neil, at 13:50 you veered into the "sailboats on Jupiter" fallacy assuming galactic-sized life has human issues and limitations. Otherwise loved it.

[@theduder2617]

All physical matter in the universe has limitations. Those are the limitations set upon all life, including hypothetical life at this time because we have nothing else for reference. To presume physical laws would not apply to other life within this same universe is quite a bit short sighted, and is the reason why the attempted correction was flawed from the start. Remember, you are failing to correct a person with much more education than anyone found in these comment sections. Chances of failure are rather high given the topic. Now, sure. There could be life which has learned how to bend physical laws at will. But until we have evidence, we must consider that all life is tied to the very physical laws of which we are tied.

[@Phantom-bh5ru]

@@theduder2617 short sighted? You are quite sure life will be life as we know it

[@theduder2617]

@@Phantom-bh5ru I am extremely sure of the physical laws which govern the entire universe. That includes any possible life. Assuming there is any, just because life exists elsewhere in our universe does not negate those laws in any way. All physical matter is tied to those laws. To presume otherwise is short sighted.

[@Phantom-bh5ru]

@@theduder2617 you keep using shortsighted but I don’t think you know what it means because it makes zero sense to be used in this situation

[@theduder2617]

@@Phantom-bh5ru Well, I opted for a much politer word to be truthful. I wanted to use the words wrong or intentionally ignorant. But those terms do not really apply here as much as not seeing the bigger picture does. And that bigger picture is, physical laws are just that. Laws. There is no altering them to fit a hypothesis. It's called English. And in English, many words have ulterior meanings. Short sighted can mean one is not seeing all of the information, hence why it was used here and not some other more insulting word(s). His "correction" was incorrect from the start due to not considering all of the information. I.E. Short Sighted. Or "wrong" if you will.

[@shakesrear7850]

This was so good.

[@andreafonso321]

Thanks guys

[@skaface32]

THE JESUS LIZARD......and it's a great band too

[@U-Thought]

Neil, I really love hearing from you👊😂...wish you could interact with us little bit more often on the comments...But I Know you're busy "Astrophysicing"😂😂😂 it's okay!!!❤️

[@theduder2617]

It's not so much that he is busy, which he is. It's more the fact that he has no involvement in the social media accounts. Paid "admins" from different countries operate those accounts. Basically, we are not necessarily talking to the man himself. lol

[@ocping]

I believe the climber Chuck was talking about is Alex Honnold. The film is most likely Free Solo, which documents Alex's ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite without safety gear. If you're bored, watch it!

[@1st-Law]

Alex Honnold is the name of the climber Chuck was talking about if anyone was curious. He completed a free solo of El Cap in Yosemite. The movie is appropriately named “Free Solo” I encourage everyone to watch it and get a dizzying dose of vertigo.

[@Drahko12]

But what about dragons?!? Sorry wrong channel 😅

[@athecheat]

Dont get him started on dragons

[@antonioneto4493]

I see. You bring the mensage of king Shad here

[@akovenuh6130]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Ibrahim-co4uc]

Life is like a highway or a river There is always a choice

[@shaan702]

I like rivers but I choose highways because they are faster. But you’re right. Life is like the choice between a highway and a river. Thanks for your poetic analogies. Very creative.

[@howardOKC]

I believe Chuck was talking about Alex Honnold 6:30

[@marble25]

Chuck you are needed for a normal human perspective and normal human questions. Also to make the show much more fun.

[@elijahfox1ify]

What’s the Calculation for “Darkness” or nothing because it’s technically nothing something is always something D=L+IS just gonna leave that there...

[@sambourizk86]

without light from suns then its darkness. light is energy thats in something

[@theduder2617]

Darkness is merely the absence of light. Matter can exist without light. While there is no calculation for the absence of light, light itself does have a calculation supporting it. If you are talking about before there was matter and energy, you might as well use a big 0 because all physical laws break down at the initial point of expansion. (big bang)

[@sambourizk86]

Light is energy like the energy in atoms

[@jorgepeterbarton]

Hmm you can measure how much a body radiates or reflects light. They say black-body even if its a bright star because it doesnt reflect. But if you want to measure how black an object is thats positive amounts of absorption and not a nothing its absorbing all the light.

[@elijahfox1ify]

@@jorgepeterbarton okay but like the universe is expanding what’s that space beyond the universe like right before it comes into our existence, what is that nothing that our universe consumed, what if 3D is what we see the line is 4D and outside is a 5D with laws of physics we can calculate yet? Because we can barely describe the line 🤯

[@jimbaker4931]

“ A priest a rabbi and a mosquito went into a bar....”

[@AJD...]

The Lion elephant joke made my day

[@brooklynbrand6982]

Man! I actually thought you had changed your camera equipment for this one because the B drops are pretty neat. Until I saw the iPhone in driver’s mirror

[@mattduncil]

I cant really see it well enough but is Neil degrees tysons cabinet behind him, is it the golden ratio?

[@Smo1k]

Naw, it's brown ;)

[@LeftHandLane5]

@@Smo1k 🤩🤩🤩

[@thatflatdude4451]

Where science collides with comedy

[@HarshaVardhanJ]

Love these Thumbnails

[@caribbeancaraudio8940]

For years I have been thinking about this I always believed that the bigger things get the slower it becomes and it actually is true

[@ShawnNac]

Jesus spiders lol we called them water skeeters.

[@Rotrokas]

He is mistaken a lizard with an insect. Is called green basilisk and it is also known as the Jesus Christ Lizard.kzbin.info/www/bejne/opa2f2mNfpZ-rbc

[@ramkumarr1725]

Water Skeeters? We call them water striders. I have seen a lot of them in India. I came to know of surface tension and then looked at them afresh.

[@Annie.xx-xx]

Clicked that notification so fast . Great channel 🌏 🌙 ⭐️

[@StaticBlaster]

yep. I work at a museum and we have a gecko in our animals area and there's a reason the gecko can attach itself to the side of the glass enclosure. I believe the force is called the Van Der Waals force.

[@ciperable]

This is so entertaining!

[@sassoleo]

I'm amazed how you guys can turn trivial, ordinary things into interesting and informative topics.

[@martf4701]

Even if i know that neither of those 2 guys will answer, or even take the time to read this comment, i will still right it... Massive heavy body animals with skinny legs: Horses Mooses Camels Girafes ...

[@theduder2617]

Their mass is nowhere close to the mass of the animals mentioned in the video. Their mass is much less, therefore they can have smaller diameter legs. And even if they do not see the comment, those running the social media accounts are paid or at least motivated to go through the comments looking for questions for future episodes.

[@darryldamour278]

I thought giraffe too, genuinely curious 🤔

[@mattwalter5184]

@MartF - you are so write!

[@realtorforlouisiana]

It's all about the tone Chuck "Uh ohhhhhh" in a happy tone is the same as "Okayyyyy" in a happy tone. It means exactly what you said. I'm excited or intrigued.

[@Tito-sq1kb]

If you haven’t seen Free Solo which is about Alex Honnold climbing El Captain in Yosemite, go watch it!!

[@stephanienirenberg7426]

Thank you. You fellows brighten my day.

[@dustinseabrook4957]

So. Is surface tension a strong or dense molecular bond at the top or something else? Ice seems to me to be just really great surface tension lol

[@christiannoelbunao3037]

Liquid*

[@sambourizk86]

when you spoke about quantum physics and molecules you said that was the 101 of that. Where can i learn more about it?

[@sundevil2230]

2 quick comments: 1, I’m a biologist and I love physics, especially Van der Waals forces keeping spiders on glass, and 2, they are Jesus lizards, the common basilisk, that can run on water without sinking.

[@vernontorbett515]

The water striders and Jesus Lizard

[@marianfrances4959]

The Jesus foam sandals !!!!! 😉💥💣🇨🇦

[@DRiungi]

i 🤣 so hard

[@lexy304]

How exactly does surface tension come to be? Like, what is it made of? The bonding force between water molecules on the outside surface of the bead?

[@richb4gone524]

A Bugs Life is my favorite childhood movie💯