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StarTalk Radio

StarTalk Live! Evolution with Richard Dawkins (Part 2)

StarTalk Radio

StarTalk Radio

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

4.614.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2015

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our evolutionary journey concludes with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Eugene Mirman, Jim Gaffigan and Maeve Higgins, recorded live at the Beacon Theatre in NYC.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Star Talk.

0:04.0

Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide.

0:09.0

Star Talk begins right now.

0:13.0

Live from Beacon Theater, Star Talk begins.

0:23.0

So Richard, when I was in college my freshman year, I attended a full year course on art and design.

0:36.0

One of the more influential courses of my life.

0:39.0

And we spent the first month or two drawing news.

0:43.0

And that was fun, I thought.

0:46.0

But it became clear to me immediately that the beauty of the human body is a highly overrated concept.

0:56.0

These are like regular people coming and taking off their clothes.

1:00.0

And so...

1:02.0

You can peck who you draw.

1:06.0

As I saw this, I'm thinking if I had control of the body, I would have made some changes.

1:11.0

Evolutionarily.

1:13.0

So can I get you to comment on the difference between how much praising we do of the human body and how much critique should go alongside it if we were honest about ourselves?

1:23.0

The famous case is the things like the retina being backwards.

1:27.0

It's a historical accident.

1:29.0

But the retinal cells, the light-sensitive cells in the vertebrate retina, but not in the octopus retina.

1:35.0

They all point backwards.

1:37.0

So it says though you designed a digital camera with the pixels and the forest of wires, the photosels, they're all pointing backwards away from the image.

1:47.0

And the wires have to run over the surface of the light-sensitive screen.

1:53.0

With that said, Richard, I'm not sure that's what Dr. Tyson was driving at.

...

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