October 20, 2016 10:49 pm

Friday, Get Lost in Time with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, Christopher Lloyd, Michelle Gomez and Chuck Nice.

Photo of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice and Michio Kaku on the StarTalk set at the Museum of Natural History. Image courtesy of National Geographic Channel.

Image courtesy of The National Geographic Channel.

I’m not going to try and pretend that I understand everything theoretical physicist Michio Kaku tells astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in tomorrow night’s episode of StarTalk.

Because the subject is “The Physics and Fantasy of Time Travel” and along the way, Neil and Michio discuss both Einstein’s special theory of relativity and his general theory of relativity, “whirlpools in the river of time,” multiply connected spaces, Stephen Hawking’s “Chronology Protection Hypothesis,” black holes, wormholes, timeless photons, multiple universes, the energy of The Big Bang, and, of course, time travel.

In fact, on one level, guest Christopher Lloyd’s explanation of how Doc Brown created the Flux Capacitor in Back to the Future, and guest Michelle Gomez’ explanation of how Missy (the current incarnation of The Master on Doctor Who) travels through time via Vortex Manipulator, actually make a bit more sense – but only because I know they’re science fiction and I don’t have to worry about the math working out. (“1.21 gigawatts.” “It’s bigger on the inside.” Okay, got it.)

But when Michio digs into his bag of quantum mechanical tricks to explain how there’s nothing about time travel that contradicts the laws of physics, and that the math doesn’t prevent someone from traveling back in time to become their own parent, my brain starts to hurt just a bit.

And I have a feeling I’m not alone.

Towards the end of the episode, Neil tells Michio, “I think you’re invoking parallel universes to make everything you say work out okay.”

In response, Michio turns to co-host Chuck Nice and says, “Hey, I think he’s got it. That’s exactly right. We believe in a unification of all physical law. And we think quantum mechanics is the framework that even unites Einstein’s theory to quantum mechanics, and the highest version of quantum mechanics is string theory….This is a great time to be a physicist…We get to play god. We get to change the laws of physics because the old ones don’t quite work right.”

Change the laws of physics? As Chuck and Neil both say, “What could possibly go wrong with that?”

Join us for “The Physics and Fantasy of Time Travel” at 7pm EDT October 21, right here on our website, or on iTunesPodcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher and TuneIn.

All-Access subscribers can listen ad-free (no video for this one), along with two extended interviews, one with Neil and Christoper Lloyd, and the other with Neil and Michelle Gomez.

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

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