Astronauts at work on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

One of my earliest memories is sitting on my mother’s lap and watching the launch of the last Mercury flight, Gordon Cooper in Faith 7. I was so young that it’s just a sliver of a memory, but I think it was at that moment that I, like most boys of my generation, decided to become an astronaut.

Of course, like most boys of my generation, I never did.

But the space program remained a fixture in my life. I watched Gemini, I watched Apollo. I watched Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz and the Shuttles and the ISS. And I watched them through a childlike filter, not really thinking about the business of space exploration, budgets and politics and hidden agendas.

Like me, you may not think about the space program the same way after listening to Space Chronicles Parts 1 and 2.

In Part 2, which will be available this Sunday at 7 pm ET, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and Professor John Logsdon talk a lot about the ISS and the post-cold war space program. And these are two guys who know what they’re talking about. Neil served on both President George W. Bush’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry in 2001 and the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy (the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission) in 2004. And John is a current member of the NASA Advisory Council, and was a member of the Columbia space shuttle Accident Investigation Board, as well as holding the first Chair in Space History at the National Air and Space Museum and founding the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

So when they talk about the real reason the Russians were invited to participate in the International Space Station, it’s not with the starry-eyed wonder of a kid who believes that it was just the first step towards a United Earth on the path to the eventual United Federation of Planets.

When Neil and John discuss the value of the experimentation on the ISS, it’s with this question in mind: if you offered the scientific community $3 billion for experiments, would they choose to spend it out in space, or here on Earth? ($3 billion is the annual cost of the ISS.)

And when Neil gets around to discussing President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union speech, AKA America’s “Sputnik Moment,” the little boy that remembered that flight wanted to curl up in a ball.

Listening to these two reminded me that it is sometimes nice not to be an insider, to not know how things really work. To be able to watch Chris Hadfield sing David Bowie and not think about the politics of the space program, or the money, just what it would be like to be an astronaut.

But of course, that is naïve. We are all StarTalk Radio fans because we want to know how things work. We want to know the science, not the superstition. We want to base our worldview on facts, not fiction.

Listen to Space Chronicles Part 2 tomorrow night at 7:00 pm ET and you’ll get plenty of facts and a healthy dose of reality.

But one suggestion: If you have a 3-year-old who wants to be an astronaut when he or she grows up, listen to this episode without them. Leave them their childhood for a little longer.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up.
–Jeffrey Simons

In this case, the era ending was Commander Chris Hadfield’s two expeditions on the International Space Station, first as a crew member of Expedition 34, and then as Commander of the ISS for Expedition 35.

The song, of course, was Hadfield’s cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” which as of the writing of this post had gotten over 11,270,600 views on YouTube in the three days since it was posted. (Now I’m not a big fan of cover versions, but I have to give Chris credit for infusing Bowie’s tune with new meaning and an unfathomable depth of emotion.)

As StarTalk Radio’s Social Media Director, I have watched Chris take the Twitterverse by storm, tweeting @Cmdr_Hadfield and amassing over 947,900 followers in a short period of time. His tweet-exchange with William Shatner, and eventually George Takei (on Facebook), Leonard Nimoy, and Wil Wheaton, is now famous. And while I didn’t catch Chris’s AMA on Reddit, I hear it’s one of the best ever. According to Reddit, “I Am Astronaut Chris Hadfield, currently orbiting planet Earth” is the #8 AMA of all time. (A small part of me remains proud that Neil’s AMA is still #3 all time, behind Barak Obama and Bill Gates.)

Tweet exchange between Chris Hadfield, commander of the ISS, and William Shatner, who played James T Kirk, captain of the Enterprise on Star Trek.

Chris wasn’t the first astronaut to tweet, mind you. That honor belongs to friend of the show @Astro_Mike Massimino (1,261,799 followers) who sent the first tweet from space at 4:30 pm ET Tuesday, May 12, 2009: “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”

And he may not have sent the most famous tweet from space, which most likely belongs to NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover (1,348,569 followers), which tweeted from the planet Mars: “I’m safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL” and received 70,583 retweets.

But what Chris Hadfield did was extraordinary. To a greater extent than anyone else before him, Chris took all of us up with him to the International Space Station, and he let us see what he saw as he saw it.

I have often wondered if David Bowie’s song inspired anyone to become an astronaut. But as I watch Chris Hadfield sing it, strumming a guitar and floating through the ISS as he prepared to say farewell to space, I have no doubt in my mind that somewhere, out there, there is more than one future astronaut thinking, “Someday, that’s going to be me up there.”

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

The Bumper V-2 was the first missile launched at Cape Canaveral on July 24, 1950. Image Credit: NASA

By the time NASA cancelled the Apollo program, most of America had stopped caring anyway. So it’s easy to assume that the reason they stopped was public indifference and a lack of support for funding.

But what if that wasn’t the reason?

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit, ushering in the “Space Race,” it is logical to think that the reason Eisenhower started NASA was to put a man in space, and on the moon, before the Russians, to establish US technological and military supremacy.

But what if the former supreme commander of the allied forces in WWII, a military man who’d watched his nation caught by surprise when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, had different concerns than national pride?

When you listen to StarTalk Radio: Space Chronicles Part 1 (available Sunday, 5/12/13 at 7pm ET), the answers may surprise you, or they may not. But one thing is for sure: listening to Prof. John Logsdon, who founded the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and is currently a member of the NASA Advisory Council, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who runs the Hayden Planetarium, and has served on two presidential commissions, you get the distinct sense that the public wasn’t always on the same page as the government when it comes to the exploration – and exploitation – of space.

Take Operation Paperclip. It was the secret program that brought Nazi German scientists to the United States after World War II. At a time when the world was prosecuting war criminals, and in spite of President Truman’s orders that Paperclip should not recruit former Nazis, the forerunner of the CIA created false records for the scientists and snuck them into the US. Among the Paperclip scientists: Wernher von Braun, the technical director of the German rocket facility at Peenemunde, where his team developed the V-2. Can you guess what the first rocket to ever take off at Cape Canaveral was? Von Braun went on to become the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and develop the Saturn V, which took the US to the Moon.

This is just Part 1. I can’t wait to hear Part 2, and find out what else I thought I knew about the exploration of space.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Members of the Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society at a star party last year in Savoy, MA. — with Elliot Severn, Stacey David Severn, Jim Cortina, Eric Baumgartner and Katherine Baumgartner at Shady Pines Campground.

As many of you know, our Social Media Coordinator, Stacey David Severn, is an amateur astronomer. She’s also spearheading our StarTalk Radio Cosmic Community outreach to academic and scientific organizations, programming groups, schools and astronomy clubs that will help promote excitement and interest in STEM education. Here’s her guest blog post about local astronomy clubs in the Northeast, including her club, the Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society, which is a charter member of our nascent Cosmic Community. (For more about the Cosmic Community, or to sign up your own group, click here.)

Astronomy clubs in our area came into their heyday in the 1950s, when Sputnik was all the rage and sending people into space to discover what surrounds the earth became humankind’s passion. In 1953, the Boothe Memorial Astronomical Society in Stratford, CT completed their construction of the “Big Eye,” an enormous telescope housed under the observatory dome in Boothe Memorial Park. That same year, the Astronomical Society of New Haven, in existence since 1937, became incorporated.

The public was quickly swept up in wonder, and fueling a growing thirst to know more about what lay beyond our Earth’s horizon, the clubs quickly gained popularity. Area astronomy groups continued to thrive through the Mercury, Gemini, and early Apollo programs, but by the time the Shuttle program came around, space travel was taken for granted, and the skies were largely ignored by people outside the scientific community.

Enter John Dobson, a former monk and founder of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers. In the 1960s, John designed an inexpensive, easy-to-build telescope mount that revolutionized amateur astronomy. He began a movement to bring telescopes out into the public, to street corners, National parks – anywhere there were people – and show them the heavens. Dobson, now 97, has regularly made visits to Connecticut and spent time with members of local clubs teaching, building telescopes, taking them out to the streets, and has been a fixture at the Connecticut Star Party (sponsored by ASNH) for many years.

At a time when science education is really missing the mark, members of our local astronomy groups follow John Dobson’s lead, spending a great deal of time doing public educational outreach. This involves regular observing at area parks and beaches, along with meetings and observing nights at our local observatories.

In June, Venus crossed in front of the sun (Venus Transit), an event that won’t occur again for over 100 years. Club members brought their telescopes to various public locales for people to view this special event, while my son and I chased clear skies all the way to the shore of Lake Ontario, where we set up two telescopes equipped for solar viewing in a school parking lot. In no time, much of the small town of Kendall, NY joined us to view this amazing celestial event, including a theater troupe and 3 vans of Cub Scouts.

This fall, members of both clubs joined together and set up telescopes at the annual PumpkinFest and at two local schools, where over 1000 sets of eyes were treated to views of both the sun and the night sky.

After many years associated with our astronomy club as publicist and event coordinator, it was my first time flying solo, running a telescope all by myself. I arrived with a car filled with a big blue 126-lb. telescope, some eyepieces, a chair, a smile, and crossed fingers. Since there were a lot of members with telescopes, I decided to make it my mission to find the moon and keep it in clear view all night. This is probably not a great feat for most, but for me it’s like making contact to the ball with a bat. (If you’ve seen my level of athletic prowess, you’ll understand!) I sat there proudly trained on the moon until it went down, as my friends surveyed the sky, showing our guests a variety of different celestial objects.

Just a few nights ago, our club hosted an open house to view Saturn, Jupiter, and various deep sky objects. In one night, through our combined efforts, guests were able to view many more objects than someone with a single telescope might ever see on their own.

If you want a treat, visit your local astronomy club and take in the night sky. And if you’re thinking of getting your own telescope, talk to the members before making an investment. If you decide to pursue astronomy with your own equipment, their knowledge and guidance can help match you up with the setup that is right for you; one that will yield maximum enjoyment.

At John Dobson’s 90th birthday celebration, a friend said something like, “The value of a telescope is not determined by what you paid for it. Its value comes from how many people have looked through it.” I’m feeling pretty rich right now.

Artist’s concept illustrating a dead star, or “white dwarf,” surrounded by the bits and pieces of a disintegrating asteroid. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Back on February 15^th, we put up a blog post called “Asteroids, Meteors, Meteorites…What’s the Difference?” in response to the sometimes confusing media coverage a few days earlier of the twin events of a meteor exploding over Russia on the same day that asteroid 2012 DA14 flew past Earth.

A few of you read that post expecting it to explain the differences between the three, and were annoyed that we didn’t. Some of you even let us know. (Which, by the way, is one of the great things about you, our audience. You let us know what you’re thinking… sometimes in colorful detail. Can you say Bill Maher? Or Janeane Garofalo? But I digress…)

When it comes to this Sunday’s episode,” Cosmic Queries: Asteroids, Comets and Meteor Storms,” astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson leaves no extraterrestrial stone unturned. Not only does he explain the difference between comets, asteroids, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites, but he also throws in planets, dwarf planets and rogue planets for good measure. In answering questions provided by you, he travels from the Asteroid Belt to the Kuiper Belt, and beyond, to the furthest reaches of our solar system. He goes back in time to the formation of our Moon, and even earlier, to before our Sun was born, to discuss presolar grains found in asteroids that have impacted with other asteroids from outside our solar system.

This being Cosmic Queries, Neil also tackles a few of your most unusual questions. “Would it be possible to use an asteroid as an interplanetary bus service?” “Why would the government tell us if an extinction-level asteroid impact was imminent?” “What amount of trajectory modification can be achieved by painting an asteroid white?” “Would you rather be a pirate or a ninja?” Is it possible to have a planet made of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana), and, therefore, an asteroid?”

As comic co-host Chuck Nice says, “Where else but Cosmic Queries can you connect Able Lincoln with meteor showers?” (Oh yeah, there’s a story about Abe Lincoln, the Leonid Meteor Storm of 1833, and a doom-predicting preacher that you’re going to love.)

“Cosmic Queries: Asteroids, Comets and Meteor Storms” will be on our website and on iTunes Sunday night, May 5^th, at 7:00 PM ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Did you get a haircut? Grow a beard? I know what it is: you got new glasses. No, that’s not it. There’s something different about you, though. I know there is.

The fact is, our audience has grown so much in the last few months, we don’t know who most of you are. Some of you were sent to us by IFLS on Facebook. Some of you found us on iTunes. Some of you have come from Google+. There are the multitudes that have come our way from @neiltyson on Twitter. I’ll bet a few of you even came over from Pinterest.

Please take our StarTalk Radio Listener Survey. It should take no more than 10 minutes. (That’s all it took me, and I filled in everything!) It’s administered by Podtrac (the people who serve our podcasts) so don’t worry when you see their name. They’re friendly, and not out to steal your personally identifiable information.

Click here to take the survey now.

Thank you for taking the time to help us better understand our community.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Simulation of Planetary Planetary Resources capturing an asteroid in preparation for mining operations. © Copyright 2013 Planetary Resources.

I never got to listen to Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller describing their visions for the future of America. They were way before my time. But it’s hard not to get excited listening to Peter Diamandis explain exactly how Planetary Resources is going to find and mine near-earth approaching asteroids. His vision for a future where precious metals and technology-enabling minerals are abundant, where the scarcity of natural resources is no longer a factor in causing wars here on Earth, seems right out of a Gene Rodenberry future.

Except that, when you hear Diamandis describe the Arkyd-100 spacecraft which will find ideal candidates, and the Arkyd-200s which will approach them and determine the presence of Platinum Group Minerals (PGM) – ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum – it doesn’t feel like science fiction anymore.

It’s really going to happen… soon… now.

Another thing that helps me believe that this is real is listening to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson asking the questions. This isn’t some color commentator on a 24-hour cable news network gushing over the hot space story of the week. And one look at the Planetary Resources website’s “Team” page tells you that the people behind this operation are serious: Larry Page, Eric E. Schmidt and Sergey Brin of Google, Charles Simonyi (a 2-time space traveler and the Microsoft superstar responsible for Word and Excel), James Cameron… the list of people who achieve what they put their minds to goes on and on and on.

I’ve replayed this episode twice now, because, even though I’m a big science fiction fan, I get much more excited about our real forays into the final frontier.

You can listen to Neil, comic co-host Chuck Nice, and Peter Diamandis yourself on “Eureka! Asteroid Mining” this Sunday, April 28th at 7:00 PM EDT, here on our website and iTunes.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

A picture of the Moon taken with a home-built telescope by StarTalk Radio fan Carlucho Paris. (For a video of him grinding his mirror, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBuWG32Py1A)

This weekend I was at the Northeast Astronomy Forum, along with our Social Media Coordinator Stacey Severn and another StarTalk Volunteer, Susan Ranis.

This was my first NEAF, so I didn’t know what to expect. But many of the attendees who’d been there before, some of them year after year for many years, remarked that the show had fewer attendees, and many of those were older. (Note: I have since been told that the Sunday attendance was the highest attended day since the inception of the show, and vendor sales on Saturday equaled both days last year. See Dom’s comment below.)

I did notice that the vast majority of visitors and exhibitors were men, and older, rather than younger. Yes, there were couples, and families, but not as many as I would have liked to see.

It reminded me of the model railroading shows I attended in the past. Each year, the average age of the attendees got older, and their numbers grew smaller.

Sad for a hobby. Scary for something as important as astronomy.

All is not lost, however. I met Jupiter Joe, a sidewalk astronomer from the Bronx. He’s one of the current crop of stargazers in the grand tradition of Sidewalk Astronomers like John Dobson (founder of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers and designer of the inexpensive Dobsonian telescope mount that revolutionized amateur astronomy).

He talked about how much fun he has when he sets up his telescope on a rooftop in the Bronx (not a borough known for it’s stargazing) and draws a crowd, eager to look up and see Jupiter with their own eyes or to get a close-up tour of the moon. He talked about the “aha moment” when the person looks into the eyepiece, then looks up, then back into the eyepiece, and something clicks in their brain.

The gleam in Jupiter Joe’s eyes as he described this was similar to the one I saw in Mark Rosengarten’s eyes. He’s a storm chasing, self-described “crazy chemistry teacher” at Washingtonville High School in Washingtonville, NY. Mark’s got to be something of an expert at delivering aha moments to kids, too, whether it’s through his classic chemistry songs like “Rock Me Avogadro” and “Schrodinger’s Cat Strikes Back” or his YouTube videos, which have over 4 million views.

I’m not going to get on a soapbox, and I’m not going to extrapolate the doom or salvation of our planet based on two days in an oversized gym in Suffern, NY.

But I am going to say something that I’m willing to bet most of you believe, if you’re a StarTalk Radio fan. (And why would you be reading this blog if you’re not?)

It is important for each and every one of us to do what we can to give the kids in our lives an “aha moment” when it comes to science, and to astronomy in particular. We’ve all heard Neil deGrasse Tyson’s passionate arguments that space exploration fuels education, discovery and achievement far beyond its narrowly defined parameters. But more than hearing Neil say it, we know it ourselves.

Looking up, looking out, looking beyond is not new. It was not born with the telescope and it will not end if shortsighted politicians choose to spend money on something else. It is an attribute of being human, and will remain so, as long as we pass it on to our children and teach them the joy and wonder of looking up.

What did I take away from NEAF? I bought a necklace made from a piece of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite that fell in Siberia in 1947. I also bought a couple of books filled with sky maps, beautiful drawings of the constellations along with their legends.

First I gave the books to my eight-year old daughter and she loved them. She went straight for Orion, which we had looked at countless times over the last few months.

Then I gave her the necklace. Her eyes went wide when I told her she was holding a piece of the universe that is thought to be 4.6 billion years old… maybe older than the Earth itself.

I could almost hear the click.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Rapidly growing sunspots observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Feb 19-20, 2013. Image Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center.

This Sunday, we’re revisiting a classic episode of StarTalk Radio, Revolving Around the Sun. And if you’ve never heard it before, you’re in for an illuminating episode about our favorite ball of plasma, Sol.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are joined in their solar sojourn by Steve Keil, director of the National Solar Observatory, and Judith Lean, a solar scientist in the Space Science Division of the Naval Research Laboratory. Bill Nye the Science Guy even drops by to discuss the shadow of the Sun and the work of the ancient astronomer Ptolemy.

You’ll dive into the core of the Sun to explore its magnetic fields, the causes of sunspots and solar storms, solar faculae and solar plage, solar maximums and solar minimums, and the movement of the Sun through the galaxy. You’ll learn about plasma, the fourth state of matter (and, as Chuck points out, an important part of many flat screen televisions). You’ll even look at the Sun from an entirely different perspective: ultra-violet.

Back on Earth, you’ll find out why the U.S. Navy is the biggest user of space, and why the Sun is the driver of their “extended operational environment.” From Stonehenge to Manhattanhenge, mini-ice ages to global warming, and sundials to geo-engineered solar umbrellas designed to block photons, it’s a journey of discovery into a subject that we see every day but are just beginning to really understand.

In fact, you don’t need to wait until Sunday night to satisfy your solar curiosity. You can listen right now.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

First American to Orbit the Earth: John Glenn at The Explorers Club, 3/16/13. Photo Credit: © 2013 Elliot Severn. All Rights Reserved.

The following blog post is written by StarTalk Radio’s Social Media Coordinator, Stacey David Severn.

I was recently lucky enough to attend The Explorers Club Annual Dinner weekend in New York City, which proved to be one surprise after another. Through the club’s “Exploring Legends” interview series, we were treated to an intimate first-hand history of the early space program through the eyes of John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, the last two remaining Mercury astronauts. This blog post will give you a front row seat to interviewer and adventurer Jim Clash’s insightful conversation with John Glenn, which took place in a packed ballroom at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Clash knows Glenn well; he interviewed the senator in his recent book, “The Right Stuff: Interviews with Icons of the 1960s.”

I first saw Senator Glenn and his wife, Annie, as they arrived outside the ballroom and stopped to chat with Mt. Everest climber Jim Whittaker (the subject of an “Exploring Legends” interview just two nights before). Then Senator and Mrs. Glenn entered the back of the ballroom for the program, stopping numerous times as they made their way to the front, posing for pictures, shaking hands, signing autographs, and smiling. The picture below is one I snapped of the Glenns when they first entered the room, where they stopped to greet Scott Carpenter and his wife Patty. It was great to see these lifelong friends together, and to witness beautiful moments between the two over the course of the day.

The Carpenters and the Glenns at The Explorers Club. Photo Credit: © 2013 Stacey David Severn. All rights reserved.

Senator Glenn had such a kindness about him, and his aura and carriage were, well, senatorial! He is warm, eloquent, younger at age 91 than many people I know who are half his age, and has a great sense of humor. He read us the following excerpt from a letter from a child who wrote a report about him, which left the audience laughing:

“I’m glad you’re still alive because a lot of my classmates’ biographical choices are already dead. I hope you write back.”

Glenn smiled and said, “That kid got the fastest reply ever.” The audience roared.

Clash’s interview questions and Senator Glenn’s responses gave us a good feel for the Mercury era, capturing the excitement and uncertainty of the time. Although Glenn wanted to fly other missions after becoming the first American to orbit the earth, he was never put back on rotation. Years later, a biography of President Kennedy revealed that Kennedy passed word to NASA that Glenn would not be used again. It’s been speculated that Kennedy did not want to risk the life of a national hero by sending Glenn back up into space. Senator Glenn ultimately realized his desire to return to space in 1998, as a member of the STS-95 crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.

Glenn’s pioneering orbital flight in the Mercury program came at a time when America’s rockets were still exploding on the launch pad. His quick-witted response to the question about how it feels when you’re getting ready to launch was, “How would you feel if you’re about to blast off sitting atop two million parts all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract?”

Asked about the differences between his Shuttle flight and his early Mercury mission, Glenn talked about how in the early 1960s we had no experience to fall back on; rocketry and space travel was all new territory. As we were learning, there were concerns about how the body would react to prolonged weightlessness. Would the eyes change shape? Would weightlessness affect the inner ear, and ultimately affect vision? There was actually a small eye chart on the control panel of the spacecraft, which Glenn had to read every 20 minutes. Concerns and unknowns included how the digestive tract would work in space, and Glenn related a story about how as kids he and his friends would try to swallow uphill. By the way, he told us it can’t be done!

Jim Clash interviews Mercury Astronaut John Glenn at The Explorers Club as part of the Exploring Legends series at The Explorers Club Annual Dinner weekend. Photo Credit: ©2013 Elliot Severn. All rights reserved.

Glenn talked about gazing back at the curvature of the earth from space, and how the colors of the spectrum looked during the frequent sunsets and sunrises. In space, for a few seconds when the sun is going down, the earth’s atmosphere breaks up the light spectacularly, revealing a “very different luminosity” than we see on earth, which Scott Carpenter described after his flight as “a campfire.” Glenn said the colors are something that can’t be described or captured – but something very special that has to be seen. He also talked about viewing the earth’s atmosphere from space, and how apparent it is that we (mankind) had better be careful, because that very fragile film of air is all we have protecting our planet.

There was also an odd sight outside the window during Glenn’s Mercury flight aboard Friendship 7. At the first sunrise, he glanced out and saw thousands of particles outside the spacecraft, with a glowing, luminous color reminiscent of fireflies. It was rather surprising, so he reported it. Scott Carpenter saw the same thing on the next flight as well. It was decided that these “fireflies” were moisture particles from the heat exchanger. Nobody ever figured out why the color was so luminous, and that part remains a mystery. By the way, if the Mercury spacecraft followed its original design, it would have had no window at all – and the fireflies, sunsets, and fragile atmosphere would not have been seen!

The Mercury astronauts used to joke that you didn’t ride in those early capsules, you wore them. Glenn made a point to mention how nice it was, on his Shuttle mission, to be able to move around and change clothes, and to participate in the wonderful science taking place in space. Much of Glenn’s role was related to the effects of space on the aging human body, and he had numerous experiments done to monitor him for the time he spent there.

Senator Glenn was very vocal about his dissatisfaction with the cancellation of the Shuttle program, and talked about the irony that the U.S. has to depend upon its cold war foes for transportation to the ISS. The focus of the space program has changed from the early Mercury days, shifting from the Cold War and competition to research, and he sees the research being done on the ISS as an immense value to all humankind.

The Glenns are passionate about education, and are actively involved in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University. Their mission is to inspire citizenship and adult leadership, and to improve the level of education in the United States.

When his gracious manner was mentioned, Glenn said he doesn’t feel very humble. “I go along with Benjamin Franklin’s statement. ‘Humility is a great thing. If I was humble, I’d be so proud of it, I wouldn’t be humble anymore.’”

About exploration, Glenn said: “To explore is curiosity in action…If you’re a curious person, you’re curious not only about the geographic exploration (looking at the macro), but you’re also curious about the micro, which is laboratory, medicine, food, curing….exploration goes in both directions…the basis of the whole thing (exploration) is that you’re exercising curiosity about the world around us and what we can do about it.”

Just a few hours later, Glenn and Carpenter were introduced on- stage by parachute/balloon icon Col. Joe Kittinger, to receive The Explorers Club Legendary Explorer Medal from Explorers Club president Alan Nichols to thunderous applause by a capacity crowd. I thank them for their curiosity and courage, and feel so fortunate to have met these great men!

Scott Carpenter and John Glenn receiving their Legendary Explorer Medals from The Explorers Club president Alan Nichols. Photo Credit: © 2013 Elliot Severn. All rights reserved.

Anthony Bourdain

We all eat. Some of us even cook. And some of us think we know more about cooking than we really do because we watch way too much Food Channel.

But listening to Anthony Bourdain talk to Neil about food, I got the same sense I get when listening to Neil talk to anyone about astrophysics. There is an insight into what’s really important about the subject that cuts through expectation or supposition or pseudo-knowledge to real mastery forged from data and experience.

For instance, in the conclusion to A Seat at the Table with Anthony Bourdain, Neil asks Anthony about the secret to being a great chef. And I know I’ve heard plenty of chefs on TV talk about their secrets, their tricks that if we all could just learn from them, we’d all cook like top chefs in fancy restaurants. Do you know what Anthony Bourdain said? Professionals learn from getting it wrong, and getting it wrong, and getting it wrong until they get it right. He said there are no secrets, and that normal home chefs should approach cooking the same way.

It’s also interesting to hear Marion Nestle talk about it. She says the kitchen is one of the few places in real life where we can run experiments and take notes on what happens.

But as I noted in the blog post about Part 1, Marion and Anthony definitely come at food from two different directions. I don’t want to say that it’s the difference between science and art, because that would sell both of them short at the same time. But when Professor Nestle talks about food safety, she discusses misfolded proteins, bacteria and viruses. And when Anthony talks about it, he speaks from practical experience: “Do what the natives do… if they’re not drinking water from the tap in Russia, you shouldn’t either.” When they’re discussing the molecular food movement, Anthony describes technique and process where Marion sees “boys with chemistry sets.”

There’s a lot of fun in this episode, and I don’t want to ruin the surprises, so I will leave you with just two intriguing morsels from the show: “Live cobra blood” and “Don’t eat brains.”

If you want more, you’ll need to listen to the show. A Seat at the Table with Anthony Bourdain (Part 2) will be available here on our website and iTunes this Sunday, April 14th, at 7:00pm ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Great news!

Season 1 of StarTalk Radio hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson  is now available for digital downloading. We’ve taken it out of the vault, and, even better, it’s advertiser free. No more ads interrupting your science, comedy and popular culture.

To help keep new StarTalk episodes coming, we’re adopting the same model as many programs these days which air current programming for free but sell older episodes on CD, DVD, or on iTunes.

You can now download any Season 1 episode for $1.99. Even better, you can get all of Season 1 for only $17.95 – that’s over 30% off!

EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR STARTALK RADIO FANS

To thank you for your patience, take an EXTRA 30% OFF the Season 1 boxed set. That’s the entire season for just $12.56, or under $1 per episode!

Use Promo Code: LAUNCH30 at checkout. Discount expires 11:59 PM ET April 16^th.

For the entire Season 1 collection as a Boxed Set, click here. For individual Season 1 episodes, just visit the specific episode page on the website, and click on the link to purchase.

We appreciate your understanding and support in keeping us able to produce educational and entertaining programs.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Anthony Bourdain, World Traveler, Author and Chef
Image courtesy of The Nerdist Channel

How long could you live on just Diet Coke? Why do vegans do better in non-industrial cultures than in industrial ones? Could we really fund a mission to Mars on the money that obesity costs the US each year?

No, it’s not an episode of Cosmic Queries. It’s A Seat at the Table with Anthony Bourdain, and believe me, you will definitely learn a few juicy facts about food, nutrition, cuisine and culture.

In Part 1, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts a multifaceted exploration of cuisine and nutrition, mostly because his guests Anthony Bourdain and Marion Nestle come at food from two different directions.

A celebrity chef, author and world traveler, Anthony explains how getting a job in the food industry and writing his first book changed his life and gave him the freedom to see the world. It’s also given him a wide-ranging understanding of the role food plays in people’s lives. He describes some of the most disgusting things he’s ever eaten, and how desirable flavors and textures vary from culture to culture. For instance, did you know that in the Philippines they add bile to some dishes to achieve a bitterness we tend to dislike here in the U.S.? His descriptions are heavily flavored with personal experience, and in some cases, you can feel yourself gagging on their realism. He and Neil also discuss the business of food, the worldwide embracing of fast food culture, and the impact that regional diets have on health.

Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, as well as a professor of Sociology. She focuses more on the scientific aspects of nutrition and diet, such as the way that evolution and physiology encourage us to make unhealthy food choices. Together with Marion, Neil and co-host Eugene Mirman touch on some of the more political aspects of food in America, from corn and soy subsidies to NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s attempt to limit the serving size of soda. Marion discusses cultural relativism and the nutrition transition occurring in developing countries, from the older problem of hunger to the newer problem of Type 2 Diabetes.

Thanks to these differing perspectives, the episode provides a rich and well-balanced meal of science and personal experience. And this is just Part 1. Part 2 will be available next Sunday night.

A Seat at the Table with Anthony Bourdain (Part 1) will be available here on our website and iTunes this Sunday, April 7th, at 7:00pm ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Tape a Cosmic Query for Neil deGrasse Tyson and StarTalk Radio. Visit StarTalk Radio at booth #310 at the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show April 20-21, 2013.

Are you going to the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show April 20-21, 2013?

We are!

Well, the show is, anyway. Not Neil. But he’ll be there in spirit… or at least, in the form of a digitally autographed picture we’ll be handing out at our booth.

We’ll also be raffling off an autographed StarTalk Radio baseball cap.

More importantly, we’ll have a video camera at the booth to tape our fans who stop by. You’ll get a chance to ask your very own Cosmic Query to Neil deGrasse Tyson. And, through the magic of video editing, at some point in the future, you might end up on YouTube in a Cosmic Queries segment with Dr. Tyson.

We’re at Booth 310, which I’m told is impossible to miss. Apparently, it’s near the food.

In case you don’t know about the show, it’s run by the Rockland Astronomy Club, and it’s in its 22^nd year. RAC says “It’s the largest astronomy show in the United States, world-renowned speakers and America’s biggest exhibitor floor with more than 130 vendors from all over the planet, astronomy workshops, daily solar observing, and much, much more!”

Here’s the Featured Speakers listing:

• Dr. Mike Brown, CalTech, Astronomer, aka ‘The Pluto Killer’
• Dr. John M. Grunsfeld, NASA Science Director, Astronaut
• Yuri Beletsky, Astronomer, Carnegie Institute Chile
• Tony Flanders, S&T, PBS/SkyWeek Host – Light Pollution
• Alan M. MacRobert, S&T Senior Editor – Exoplanets
• Dr. Richard T. Fienberg, AAS – ProAm Collaborations
• Bob Berman, Astronomy Magazine – Comet ISON
• Dave Eicher, Astronomy – Astronomy’s New Frontier

Over 4000 people are expected to attend the expo, which is being held at Rockland Community College, aka SUNY Rockland Campus, thirty minutes north of NYC at 145 College Road in Suffern, NY. Sponsors include Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazine.

If you’re interested in going to the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show, you can find out more information at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAF/index.html.

And make sure you think up a really great Cosmic Query to ask Neil on video tape.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Invasion of the Saucer-Men. ©1957 American International Pictures.

Little green men. Greys. My Favorite Martian. Venusians with a third eye in the center of their head. There was a time when the easiest way to get labeled a crackpot was to say you believed in aliens.

How times have changed.

In his book Death By Black Hole, Neil deGrasse Tyson writes that “most astrophysicists accept the probability of life elsewhere. The reasoning is easy: if our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.”

Of course, we still have no proof of alien life, let alone of sentient aliens capable of communicating with us or visiting our planet.

Whether you believe in the existence of aliens or not, or even if you believe that proof exists but it’s been kept secret, I think you’re going to like this week’s podcast, Cosmic Queries: Aliens.

Why?

Because it’s a chance to hear the Director of the Hayden Planetarium and a noted astrophysicist answer your questions about aliens: What senses might an extraterrestrial have beyond the ones humans possess. What laws of physics might limit the forms alien life could take? How near would an alien civilization have to be to detect life on Earth? Is the “Wow!” radio signal recorded by a SETI researcher in 1977 alien in origin?

The answers are grounded in science. From a discussion of carbon vs. silicon as a building block for life to how far radio waves have traveled, Neil informs his answers with chemistry and physics, not science fiction and fantasy. (Although Neil does answer a fan question about whether it would be right to destroy an alien species if it were like the one in the movies Alien and Aliens.)

My favorite part of the episode comes when comic co-host Leighann Lord asks Neil a question a mother submitted for her  9-year old son about what he would want to learn from an alien if he ever met one.

You’ll have to wait to hear his answer yourself, though. The episode will be on our website and on iTunes Sunday night, March 31^st, at 7:00 PM ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

©1957 American International Pictures

Jim Clash interviewing Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter at The Explorers Club, March 15, 2013. Photo Credit: © 2013 Stacey David Severn.

The following blog post is written by StarTalk Radio’s Social Media Coordinator, Stacey David Severn.

Something I’ve noticed about meeting people who have accomplished great things is that they are very accessible. Having “done it all,” they have nothing to prove, and they’re not out to impress.

This past weekend, I was privileged to attend two “Exploring Legends” interviews as part of The Explorers Club Annual Dinner (ECAD) weekend. The interviews, which were conducted by Jim Clash, were with the last two surviving Mercury astronauts, Scott Carpenter and John Glenn. A long-time adventure journalist, Clash is on the Board of the Explorers Club, founder of the “Exploring Legends” series and author of “The Right Stuff: Interviews with Icons of the 1960s” and “Forbes To The Limits.” Most of the members of the audience were Explorers themselves, with accomplishments and stories worthy of their own interviews, and I hope I get to hear each of them tell their stories someday soon.

I arrived at The Explorers Club for the Scott Carpenter interview on Friday afternoon. On the staircase, I ran into moonwalker and Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke and his lovely wife Dottie, and Scott Carpenter and his wife Patty. Shortly after that I found myself having a conversation with Duke and Carpenter about using Photoshop to make everyone at the family picnic seem like they’re looking at the camera, and I remember marveling at how cool and natural it was to have an ordinary conversation with these extraordinary men. (By the way, I did use Photoshop on a photo of Duke to open his closed eyes, but that’s our secret!)

Counterclockwise from bottom left: Charlie Duke, Scott Carpenter, photographer Elliot Severn and StarTalk Radio Social Media Coordinator Stacey David Severn. Photo Credit: © Stacey David Severn.

Carpenter’s interview began with laughter when the astronaut-turned-aquanaut was introduced as having seven children and “living in Colorado with Patty” – to which he said “She’s my wife, too!” Jim Clash then greeted the veteran astronaut with the phrase “Yatsesool,” which sounded like a different language to me, but in fact was early test pilot jargon used in code over the radio in times of difficulty. Yatsesool is “Stay loose” spelled backwards.

Jim’s first question was one that had a poignant answer: “Can you tell us about the origin of the famous phrase, ‘Godspeed, John Glenn’?”

Scott Carpenter had the very last radio linkup to the Mercury capsule. It occurred to him that John Glenn’s experience wasn’t altogether new, but was different from his predecessors. Glenn was about to ride in a much different, bigger, more powerful rocket that would give him the speed (18,000 mph) required for orbit, and he had to endure the launch for much longer in order to achieve that speed. The phrase “Godspeed” was used as a bon voyage, a prayer, and in this event, the phrase was strictly pertinent to what John needed; he needed speed. In Carpenter’s words, “This statement (Godspeed) was appropriate because it was a conversation between me and “our maker” to give John the speed he needed. I didn’t think of it until it was spoken. It sprang from the issues of the moment, and was my way of saying good luck John.”

After John Glenn successfully completed three orbits around the earth, Carpenter’s mission was next. Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth, conducting numerous experiments during his flight. Near the end of his mission, a malfunction moved his vehicle off course, causing him to have to manually control re-entry. He splashed down about 250 miles off course, where he sat in his capsule for a long time, bobbing on the ocean, waiting for the USS Intrepid to arrive and pick him up. Jim asked Carpenter what he was thinking during that time, and this was his reply:

“I was not thinking about anything having anything to do with Intrepid, I didn’t even know Intrepid was part of that scene. That was immediately after the most incredible experience I’ve ever had and I was remembering THAT.”

Describing the physical sensations of his launch back in the early days, Carpenter told us, “A launch is just hard work. You don’t see much, all you do is feel the acceleration, and that’s manifested just by the increase of the sense of weight of your own body. It’s harder to lift your hand. Everything is heavier…All of that just goes to make the sudden onset of zero G all the more welcome. It’s a freedom that’s hard to explain. I think you need to have spent a lot of time under water to appreciate part of the sensation, but it’s the greatest relaxation that I’ve ever, ever imagined, ever experienced. It’s addictive too.”

After his NASA flight, Carpenter turned his attention from space to the deep sea. He lived on the ocean floor for 28 days doing research in SEALAB II back in 1965, and has been involved in sea exploration since.

Scott talked about how space and sea exploration are complementary, and how a lot of things in the early space program that were very important to the work outside of the capsule – footrests, for instance – are also used to work outside the habitat in the water. “And I think that’s where the first footrests were recognized as valuable as stirrups…Where war is concerned…the most valuable contribution of man to conduct a war is not the machine gun, it is the stirrup because it provided stability to a man aboard a horse, and it changed the nature of war. And footrests in extra vehicular activity in space and in the water revolutionized man’s capabilities both places.”

With regard to our current space program, Carpenter is an advocate who is convinced that our highest purpose in space now is flight to Mars. He frowns on our dependency on other nations for our space program, and talked about the motivations of the people in our early space program: patriotism, a need to excel, curiosity, and perhaps most powerfully, the competition of the Soviet Union. “That came from the fact that at that time, we in our program felt that pre-eminence in space flight is a condition of this nation’s freedom. That is what all of us felt in the early space program in this country.” He’s glad to see the U.S. cooperate with Russia now instead of competing. Although we’ve lost a competitor (Russia), Carpenter is consoled by the fact that China “lurks,” and that both nations are nobly inspired to explore the universe. He feels that if we could work out the differences between the two nations and relate to each other as brothers, that competition could do great things for expanding our knowledge involving the solar system.

When asked about fear, Carpenter’s words were similar to those of the other astronauts: “Fear, when properly used, is a welcome companion in any situation.”

Scott Carpenter was very happy when John Glenn went back into space on the Shuttle in 1998. His admiration and bond with Glenn was so apparent when he speaks, I found it extremely moving. Just as Glenn had ambitions outside of his profession (political), Carpenter had other ambitions (oceanic), although their journeys had no bearing on their bond, which remains as strong as ever.

Carpenter has seen the aging astronauts’ principal task shift to teaching, rather than doing. He ended his interview saying, “All kids need inspiration, and that’s what we’re in the business of.”

I extend my heartfelt thanks to Scott Carpenter, Jim Clash, and The Explorers Club for a weekend of inspiration, for providing the stage for education and inspiration for the past 100+ years, and for their continued efforts going forward.

One of the themes that emerged from this Sunday’s podcast, A Conversation with Alan Rickman (Part 2), is Alan’s deep-seated respect for his audience. Neil asks Alan if there is any science fiction character he’d like to play, and in his answer, Alan says that one of his criteria for choosing a role is that it has to be well-written and not insulting to the audience. He talks about his responsibility to that audience in a voice that is at the same time filled with responsibility, gratitude and humility.

If you’re an Alan Rickman fan, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. He puts everything he’s got into every role, whether he’s playing Die Hard’s Hans Gruber or the ghost of a dead lover in Truly Madly Deeply or Galaxy Quest’s frustrated Shakespearean actor who finally means his catch-phrase, “By Grabthar’s Hammer… by the suns of Warvan…you shall be… avenged!” as he utters it over the dying body of Quellek. And of all the wonderful actors who made their characters their own in the Harry Potter series, did anybody do a better job than Alan Rickman did as Professor Severus Snape? Could you imagine anyone else saying, “You have your mother’s eyes…” any more poignantly?

In a world where so many actors, and so many movies, so many shows on TV and radio, take their audiences for granted and insult their intelligence, this responsibility to and respect for an audience is laudable.

We share that respect for, and responsibility to, the intelligence of our audience here on StarTalk. It would be trite and ridiculous to say that our show wouldn’t exist without our audience – what show can? – but it is true to say that your involvement with our show, through your comments, questions, feedback, here and on our social media channels, makes StarTalk Radio a different kind of show than any other out there.

In fact, our new stand-alone Cosmic Queries episodes owe their existence to you, since they are made up entirely of your questions, asked by our comic co-hosts and answered by your own personal astrophysicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But before we started doing stand-alone Cosmic Queries episodes, we still turned to you for questions. Just before we recorded A Conversation with Alan Rickman, we asked you if there were any questions you would like Neil to ask Alan.

And one of you, Sharyl Madeloni, said this on Facebook:

Mr. Rickman loves roller coasters! “The bigger, faster, more dangerous the better.”

And because of Sharyl, when Neil sat down with Alan, one of the things they talked about was roller coasters. Neil explained their physics, and Alan talked about which ones are his favorites.

That wouldn’t have happened without you, Sharyl. Just like the incredible moment in the interview with GZA wouldn’t have happened without the deeply personal comment from Michael Rafales (It occurs at 23:45 in the video). Just like dozens of other awesome moments on the show and at StarTalk Live and in our Cosmic Queries wouldn’t happen without you, our audience.

A Conversation with Alan Rickman (Part 2), with guest astrophysicist Charles Liu and comic co-host Chuck Nice, will be available here on our website and iTunes this Sunday, March 24th, at 7:00pm ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal, Scott Adsit, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Alan Alda at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. Photo Credit: David Gamble

After attending our last StarTalk Live, the one at Town Hall in New York City with guests Buzz Aldrin, John Oliver and Andrew Chaikin, I decided to go back and listen to the very first StarTalk Live, recorded September 15, 2011 at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY. Actually, it wasn’t all that long ago, so it’s not like watching the first episode of The Daily Show and thinking, wow, everyone looked so young back then.

All of the elements we know and love were there. Eugene Mirman brought a couple of comedians, in this case Kristen Schaal and Scott Adsit. Neil brought a guest too: Alan Alda, who, it turns out, has some serious science literacy chops, from hosting Scientific American Frontiers on PBS to playing physicist Richard Feynman in a play. He’s even written his own play about science, The Passion of Marie Curie, a biographical drama of the scientist who not only received the Nobel Physics Prize in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity, but also won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for the isolation of pure radium, making her the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences so far (according to Wikipedia).

I’d be interested in your opinion, but I think this show had more comedy than most episodes of StarTalk Live. Perhaps because it was part of the 4th Annual Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, or maybe because Alan Alda was every bit as funny as the three comedians on stage.

Whatever subject astrophysicist and host Neil deGrasse Tyson brought up, the rest of the group on stage pounced on it. Questions like “How do we define life?” and “Have we ever been visited by Aliens?” turn into rapid fire quips about handsome Southern republican aliens, alien tourists and secret alien light babies. “Could life on Earth have originated on Mars” brings up the subject of stowaway microbes and panspermia… but let’s not go there here, shall we?

Neil matched comedy with poetry, quoting Robert Frost during a discussion of the many ways the Universe seems to be out to kill us. His blow-by-blow description of how Kristen Schaal’s theoretical “Death by Black Hole” would play out was riveting. (Can you say “Spaghettification?”) And his discussion of Apophis, the Rose Bowl-sized asteroid headed towards Earth that was named for the Egyptian God of Death and Darkness, was a blast. Literally.

Listen to StarTalk Live at the Bell House (Part 1)

Listen to StarTalk Live at the Bell House (Part 2)

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

And if you didn’t catch the show, I’ll hold off on saying anything more, since a couple of you already rightfully complained that my live tweeting and Facebooking during the show created spoilers for those of you in different time zones that hadn’t watched the show yet. (Again, sorry about that!)

Jon Stewart’s now famous statement to Neil deGrasse Tyson in the extended interview of The Daily Show on 3-6-13

The show was great, and the extended interview between Jon and Neil gave impetus to what has become a growing refrain. Not that Jon coined that phrase… there’s a Facebook page named IFLS that has over 4 million likes and is one of the most exuberant science loving communities out there today.

Click now to watch Part 1 of the interview and the extended interview Part 2 and Part 3. To see the opening credits, though – and you want to see them, trust me – you’ll need to click here.

There’s a long history between the director of the Hayden Planetarium and Jon Stewart.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jon Stewart backstage before the “Hot Pockets” drop-in on The Daily Show, 1-24-13.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Christopher Walken backstage before The Daily Show, 1-24-13.

Perhaps the most famous moment in their relationship came when, near the end of Neil’s February 27^th appearance on The Daily Show, he pointed out to Jon that the globe at the beginning of the show was turning in the wrong direction.

In fact, there are many StarTalk Radio fans for whom their first exposure to Neil came long before StarTalk Radio even existed, when he first appeared on The Daily Show back on January 30, 2007 and gave Jon a much-needed hug.

Now if you are a fan of The Daily Show, you also know that last week Jon Stewart announced that he’d be taking an 8-week hiatus from the show to go to Europe and direct a movie about an Iranian journalist who was thrown in jail and accused of plotting a revolution after he appeared in an episode of the show where Jason Jones pretended to be a spy. (During the hiatus, John Oliver, who was a guest at our recent StarTalk Live in Manhattan with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, author Andrew Chaikin and of course, Eugene Mirman, will be taking over the hosting job.)

So we thought this Sunday would be the perfect time to replay The Political Science of The Daily Show. In it, Neil talks with Jon Stewart about the impact of politics on science, his love for science, the difference between having scientists and politicians as guests on The Daily Show, and the cosmic connections that unite us all. Leighann Lord is the guest host, and guest astrophysicist Charles Liu provides a scientist’s perspective on the influence of politics on technological innovation and inquiry from the past to the present and the Earth to the Moon.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons

George Carlin at the Paley Center in 2008.
Photo Credit: The Paley Center for Media

Tonight was yet another night that weather prevented us from seeing PANSTARRS. We’re running out of opportunities. I don’t know about you, but I could use a good laugh or two.

So how about a few more Cosmic Quips and Clips from our Comedy Contributor, Dan.

First up, Science comedian Brian Malow tells us how he thinks nagging mothers played a role in evolution:

Next, Woody Allen, from his stand-up comedy days, describes a hilarious idea for a science fiction film:

Our last clip isn’t exactly a comedy bit, but we think you’ll like it anyway. It’s legendary comedian George Carlin, just a few months before his death, getting serious to discuss his fascination and love of science. As Dan says, “It’s cool to see one of the greatest comedians of all time — a known skeptic in nearly every area — profess his love for physics and science, in general.”

And here’s a quip from Neil deGrasse Tyson to make you smile and think:

“If you are pro-solar power, try not to hold up signs that say “No Nukes” because that’s exactly how the Sun makes its energy.”

Remember, if you come across a great Cosmic Quip or Clip, email it to us at CosmicQuips@startalkradio.net

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!

–Jeffrey Simons