Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks Down the Science in Marvel Movies
1,517,223
Published 2022-11-11
Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D., conservation scientist and National Geographic Society fellow, joins us to talk about the ecological impact of Thanos’ snap. Learn about resource loads, Earth’s carrying capacity, and the periodic table of fictional elements. Is the vibranium in Black Panther anything like a real element? Why is Neil such a fan of Captain Marvel? We explore quantum tunneling, entanglement, the EPR paradox, and the significance of a Mobius strip. Break down the science and the fiction of the Marvel Universe with us!
Get the NEW Cosmic Queries book (5/5 ⭐s on Amazon!): amzn.to/3dYIEQF
Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/startalkradio
FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE to StarTalk:
Twitter: twitter.com/startalkradio
Facebook: www.facebook.com/StarTalk
Instagram: www.instagram.com/startalk
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
0:00 - Introduction
0:32 - Scientific Backgrounds of Marvel Characters
1:54 - Periodic Table of Fictional Elements
2:30 - Vibranium
3:58 - What Happens if Half of All Life Disappears?
7:51 - Captain Marvel
8:40 - Quantum Tunneling
11:07 - Mobius Strip
14:01 - Biggest Scientific Inaccuracy
14:28 - Captain America’s Shield
15:23 - Antman & Thanos
15:36 - EPR Paradox
16:41 - Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
17:41 - Groot
18:04 - Closing Notes
All Comments (21)
-
There's science with Hawkeye. If he needs to shoot a far target, he has to shoot upwards to compensate for gravity.
-
In Endgame, when Hulk snapped his finger one of the first indicators that it worked was the appearance of birds outside the window so my opinion is that it's safe to say the other half of animal life returned. Not factual but just a thought.
-
13:35 This isn't true, in the first Guardians movie Rocket turned off the artificial gravity system in the prison as part of his escape plan. So it is just understood that all of the ships also have similar systems.
-
For Caps shield throw he does some very quick environmental physics to determine the best ricochet trajectory to have the shield return to him. Would love to here Neil talk about that one. The same with Spiderman's web swinging. The mentioned the same in the comics and the game.
-
They do reference artificial gravity in the first Guardians movie. When they are escaping the prison they turn off the gravity so all the guards float
-
It's still amazing to me how you can change the number of protons in the nucleus to get a different element and how crazy it all gets when you go down that road. And even more how you can make the same element or reaction several ways (for example acetylene gas can be made with calcium carbide and water or methane and oxygen, ect. ect..)
-
Neil is the only person that can make sounding like a nerd sound so cool that you want to be a nerd. Neil makes the word “nerd” a positive one
-
In the scene after hulk clicks his fingers, it focuses on the signing of birds and animal life. ( I guess that symbolises that thanos wiped out half animal life as well ). Sorry if some one beat me to this.
-
Neil always seems to be in a hurry and has no time. Love this guy
-
Neil is one of the few that actually connects the MCU with DCEU.
-
This was an awesome discuss!! 🤯 Please do a bigger podcast type version where you deep dive into the Marvel universe... Wud love to hear more!!
-
Not sure if comments already addresses this since Neil mentions not knowing how comics handled I believe the reasoning behind Thanos' actions - it was very different in the "Infinity Gauntlet" comic where basically Thanos is insanely in love at the time with the manifestation of the entity "Mistress Death" and culled the life of half the universe as a tribute to her (she wasn't particularly impressed).
-
Obviously an older video. Interesting and I like it because Neil & Chuck are together in the room rather than on separate screens. 👍👍
-
Unobtanium was first mentioned in The Core (2003) movie long before Avatar (2009).
-
Good lord this was entertaining and informative. These guys are a perfect match. I am always astounded at how quickly Chuck comes up with his own analogies for the concepts they are discussing, which show not only that he's perfectly understanding Neil's explanations, but also extrapolating to another concept, AND makes it funny. (see: "Captain America is good at pool".)
-
The Cap shield throwing. It has been explained that his mind (altered with the super serum) calculates the bounce (high level math) so that it comes back to where he is, or where he plans to be.
-
on Civil War when fighting Spidey, he threw the shield without bouncing back to him but still came back to him to which Spidey commented "that doesn't obey the law of physics at all" I wished Neil could talk about that
-
Taken from an episode we did on Avengers: Endgame. Watch the full podcast! https://youtu.be/wwEW08VDSTU
-
After watching this, I feel like writing a physics paper - Curious about Quantum Physics😅👍
-
I’d argue the gravity generator is implied through showing weightlessness in space till they are pulled in by ravagers or quill landing on the ship in the first one. That’s what I thought at least or remember 🤷 now I got to go back and watch all the guardians again lol
