Appetite for Destruction

StarTalk Radio

Scientist, Nasa, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Climate Science, Earth Science, Nature, Astronomy, Science, Multiverse, Spacetime, Astrophysicist, Space, Education, Cosmos, Astronomer, Startalk, Quantum Physics, Physics, Universe, Astrophysics, Star Talk

4.6 • 14.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2013

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paleontologist Peter Ward explains how life's tendency toward self-destruction has led to massive extinction events in Earth's history. What does the past -- and the smell of rotten eggs -- have to teach us about the fate of humanity?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Star Talk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide.
0:10.6	Star Talk begins right now.
0:13.7	Welcome back to Star Talk, I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, I'm also
0:22.0	the director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium, accompanied by Lin Coplet's professional
0:28.4	comedian.
0:29.4	Today we're going to be talking, well, we titled this appetite for destruction, which
0:33.9	is all about ways, it's about all the ways Earth wants to kill us.
0:42.1	Now the astrophysicist, you know, we have our own list of ways, the universe wants to
0:47.7	kill us, and I don't think much about Earth as a hazardous place, but there are people
0:52.6	out there who do, like people who see the fossil record, like paleontologists, people
0:59.3	who dig up dead animals.
1:00.9	Awesome, we have some for the show, do we?
1:04.0	Indeed.
1:05.0	But I, you know where all the best people are now.
1:09.3	We dig them out, we find them, we know where they are, we know where they've been, we
1:12.7	know where they're going.
1:14.2	You know, in terms of planet-wide catastrophe, in astrophysics, one of the most deadly things
1:19.7	out there is an asteroid impact.
1:21.7	And people say, oh, they won't infect us, not happen in the next election cycle, or it
1:27.2	happened to the nine-inch source, or do you know how much we plow through every day?
1:31.3	We plow through nearly 100 tons of meteors a day.
1:35.3	Really?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from StarTalk Radio, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of StarTalk Radio and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.