Bill Nye Warns about Problems Colonizing Mars
Vložit
- čas přidán 22. 03. 2016
- Do plants need to be genetically modified to grow on Mars? How will plants grow with the extreme temperatures and dim sunlight of the Red Planet? Bill Nye The Science Guy and comedian Chuck Nice discuss this Cosmic Query from a fan on Twitter. They note that certain plants like mushrooms don’t require photosynthesis to grow.
Bill Nye has doubts about sustained human life on Mars, comparing it to life in Antarctica: very cold, very dry, and hard to breathe. That's what makes Antarctica is a great place to study the greenhouse effect, the ozone, ice sheets and more - but no one stays there for an extended period of time.
This "Behind the Scenes" video was shot during the recording of our episode, " Cosmic Queries: GMOs with Bill Nye (Part 1)." If you'd like to listen to the full podcast, click here: www.startalkradio.net/show/cos...
Support us on Patreon: / startalkradio
Subscribe to StarTalk: czcams.com/users/startalk...
Follow StarTalk:
Twitter: / startalkradio
Facebook: / startalk
Instagram: / startalkradio
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 #BillNye - Věda a technologie
Venusian floating cities for the win!
Only if the guy in charge of them is named Lando Calrissian.
+Nathanael Ries until they stop floating
Stupid
+unematrix breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus. Any leaks would be slow since the air pressure will be nearly as similar outside the inflatables as they are inside the inflatables. Unlike on earth where a helium or hydrogen balloon has to contain a lot more pressure inside than it does outside to float. The atmosphere of Venus is mostly CO2 and we already have machines capable of splitting the carbon away from the oxygen, which means we don't need to take as much with us.
+Nathanael Ries Yeah, that's cool and all, but unless you setup a trading hub there, there's nothing else to do. It's like Dubai in space. Minus the oil. You could, perhaps make greenhouses and grow plants there and if you are very persistent, perhaps you could get cows, sheep and pigs to the floating cities, but that's only survival. You can't mine (infinite pressure on the surface coupled with acid rain isn't really an ideal place to do anything), so, idk, you could also make a Singapore in space, making things from imported goods, but it would be ridiculously expensive to transport raw materials from Earth to Venus and then the goods from Venus to Earth.
So, yeah, Venus can theoretically work as an idea, but only in an intergalactic civilization where Venus (or alike) is the only inhabitable planet in some star system strategically placed on the main road. Even if we were an intergalactic civilization, Earth would make Venus a ridiculous idea (unless we nuke Earth, which isn't so far fetched).
Bill Bill Bill Bill!
+HighKing
Bill Nye the science guy!
+HighKing Inertia is a property of matter.
Science rules!
T minus 7 seconds.
... Wilkins
Easy ... look at Boreal forests for temperature hardiness and the chlorophyll pathways of seaweeds ... they grow in low oxygen environments and low light conditions .
+Johnny D Someone has their Thinking Cap on.
Do they grow in a near vacuum at -97°F? because if they don't, that is a poor comparison. while we are at it, do they grow while being bombarded with unfiltered solar radiation, because Mars has no magnetic field to bend the solar radiation towards the poles. Those are the conditions on Mars. it is a sterile rock, if there is any life there it's below the surface, protected from radiation.
Shawn Wales I don't know , do they ? Solar radiation is not really an issue for plants so I would guess that could be overcome . As for the soil it would depend on the nutrient / mineral makeup .
+Johnny D Solar radiation isn't just sunshine - without the Earth's strong magnetic field the surface of the Earth would be sterilized with ultraviolet radiation, and Mars has no magnetic field to protect it, practically no atmosphere, temperatures lower on a good day than we ever see on earth in the worst arctic wasteland.
All these facts have to be taken into consideration when talking about colonizing Mars.
Microorganisms will save us. There are microfuckers who can live even in open space. If scientists will be able to modify them for different tasks, then we're all set.
here from cinemasins.
too
Same
+kitrana meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
+kitrana Bill Nye will be excellent at cinema sins.
+kitrana Yeah.
i think a science base on the moon would actually be really useful. also really cool
Too much cod zombies and griffin station?🙊😏
+Robert Sanders it has no atmosphere and way less gravity that Earth, it would be way easier to launch spacecraft from. It would make a good refueling station, or something similar.
+Magmafrost13 sure, but where are the spacecraft gonna come from? the Moon isn't exactly rich in construction materials. as for the overhyped fuel... deuterium reactors aren't exactly common, and i don't think we have a working prototype for space travel yet.
also, there's not that much science you can do on the Moon which you can't do at the ISS. until the need arises, a Moonbase is really just a cool concept with very little practicality.
Gregory Samuel Teo The idea is you can use it as a refueling station. A rocket can get off the moon using a lot less fuel than it takes to get off earth
Bill Nye is a Nats fan?!?!? I KNEW I liked that guy!
Hahaha, Chuck's shorts.
Tell Chuck I love him.
The problems would easily be solved in time. You could use artificial light to grow crops, for example.
+pavolon I think he's more concerned with the practicality of colonizing, not so much the possibility.
And then you need a lot of power to keep the lights running
Yeah, good point. We can supply plants with a simulation of the sun's light on earth with modern technology, but we're a long way off making a plant survive without photosynthesis. Of course, mushrooms are still easier
+Magmafrost13 It's a cool idea, but mushrooms probably wouldn't work because as fungi they offer a significantly lower nutritional value than most plants due to being made out of more chitin than carbohydrates. A quick google search shows that most of the commonly eaten varieties of mushrooms offer around 0.2 calories / gram, as opposed to the 0.75 - 3 calories/gram of carbohydrate rich plant products (bread, potatoes, etc). This means you would need to eat up to 15 times the food (by mass) you normally would in order to function. The best bet is probably artificial light from solar or nuclear power.
lizard455
Make that nuclear then. Bill just said it is dim and cold there. So not much in sunlight to operate with. Even the probes being sent there are carrying nuclear "batteries"
I have a question for Star Talk: Is it possible to adapt high speed camera technology for use in a telescope or a microscope? Would there be any merit to it? Would being able to view things through a high powered microscope/telescope in high speed lend to any new discoveries? Or is it even possible since telescopes and microscopes rely on magnification only rather than taking images in frames?
Thinking about quantum entanglement, and how entangled atoms can seem to teleport makes me wish for a way to see it in slow motion to see if there's more to it than that. However, I guess we can't even see things that small yet can we? What is the smallest thing that we can see? And would being able to see it in super slow motion be advantageous to scientific discoveries?
Honestly, I think the dry valleys of Antarctica are highly underrated. One could easily build a paradise settlement there. The constant high winds provide extraordinary power through wind turbines. We can make palaces of beautiful ice that would not melt in summer. We could build large indoor areas well heated with palm trees and beautiful gardens inside, including artificial ponds and beaches. There is little better for an economy than the wealth of both minerals and electrical power for a metals industry. Only a fraction of the pathogens exist to get people sick. There are no mosquitoes! It would be fast and easy to build and grow a beautiful metropolis of unparalleled wealth, only for the high cost of bootstrapping (initial costs of getting people are supplies).
Mars could have much of the same. The only difference is that it will take a lot more to gain electrical energy. I strongly advise wind turbines. The air is only 1% as dense as Earth but is consistently around 15 mph night and day..... a lot more during dust storms, which solar won't work at all. An initial colony of 50 people and maybe 5 to 10 tons of supplies is all that would be needed for complete independence and unlimited growth potential. It takes up to 25 mating pair to be sufficient genetic diversity to bring a species to unlimited population growth (actually less for humans--people in southern India have being marrying first cousins for thousands of years). Metal ores are rich and easy to collect with Martian rocks having roughly twice the metal contents (same metals) as on Earth. Mostly, we'd need a small smelter/foundry and metal shop. There are different ways to do it but imagine making sheet metals 1/8th of an inch thick and corrugating it, then cold welding together to make habitation modules (very similar to shipping containers but can be larger). Make the roofs overhang so no radiation shielding in required on the sides then put a foot or so of regolith to shield the roof. Mars gets very cold but the thin air means you loose heat much slower. You can make electric generators with a wire mill, make permanent magnets for it by running DC current through red hot iron, and make the large wind turbines. That's the hard part, the turbine blades have to be extra large due to the thin air. The bright side is that the wind is highly predictable and very consistent. Inside the main garden room(s), using water batteries to store power. That is, us your water reservoirs for both water pressure to sinks, toilets, etc. as a backup source of hydroelectric power... Once build, most of your work would be gardening, making and repair clothes, and maintaining plumbing, air, and electrical systems. So you'd have plenty of time to add music, art, family fun, and exploration. When the time comes, you'd also use that excess time to expand the habitat for your children.... or building a sport arena or whatever you all like.
Can anyone tell me what their podcast schedule is?
I've always wanted to go to Antarctica ever since I was a little first grader. When I heard about a place that's always snowy and where temperatures can go as low as -120F I thought it was imagination. Winter has always been my favorite season and I always hate it when the snow melts and it gets hot outside, I start to sweat when the temperature even gets up to 70F. Don't know about Mars though.
Bill nye the star talk guy.
It will happen, just not for a some time.
Yeah, when we need more stuff to mine and the asteroids have run out, maybe we will colonize Mars.
+Algiark It will become cheaper and easier to do so and one day it will happen.
When do you think we will colonize Antarctica?
+Algiark There's at least one colony there already.
Do people have kids there?
Can we please get longer clips of the whole podcast ala Joe Rogan Podcast? I would love to just watch the whole podcast without clicking short curated clips, it's all gold!
The whole podcasts are on their soundcloud. No video, but it's just people talking anyways.
Cakevspie94 Yeah I follow it, but I like to sit and watch on youtube sometimes. Bill Nye and Chuck Nice are very expressive. There's just something nice about watching sometimes.
(believe me or dont) but ill possibly be working at the mcmurdo base the summer of 2019 to the winter of 2021 as an hvac technician there are still two spots left and its a big decision and it requires alot of training so maybe i will find out what its like on mars
question: do you believe in parallel universes? if so, I'm confused. how would anything turn out differently and make a parallel universe? if a phone is dropped and the screen is shattered, how could there be a parallel universe where the screen is fine if the situation was exactly the same? if the scenario is the same, why would anything make a different decision or be a different way? please explain
I would love it if we were more capable of doing paleontology on Artarctica. I'm sure it's been carved by glaciers plenty, but there must be some amazingly well-preserved, undisturbed rock there - never dug or dynamited by people, just full of fossils from when Antarctica was warmer and closer to the equator millions of years ago. Imagine a whole continent worth of basically pristine fossil layers... IF we had the technical capabilities to study them.
Could we use mining equipment to make a subterranean installation under the lunar surface? Possibly build larger exploration vessels and launch from lunar surface to avoid the problems involved in launching from earth such as gravitational and atmospheric resistance?
As cold as Mars is, it can get balmy, temperatures around the equator of Mars can go up to 70°F. If you could breathe there, it would be pretty nice.
But...there is no "hole" in the ozon layer. Its much thinner for some in some areas.
i dont get it
bill seems to imply there's no such thing as life support? or habitats?
What's crazy is that the real reason to colonize Mars is deeply rooted in our DNA, because all of us have the relentless desire to survive. As a species, we now acknowledge the fact that Earth may one day become uninhabitable, leading us to strive to colonize Mars, a different planet, to survive. I feel like we are some sort of advanced bacteria spreading, evolving.
Sort of like manifest destiny if you will
+Lil Oak what's crazy is that colonising any other world would cost thousands of times more than it would take to simply fix Earth's problems. the only real time limit we have is until the sun burns out in 5 billion years.
we do have the technology to undo the damage caused by pollution (just really expensive and requires a LOT of cooperation from everyone). heck, we even have the technology to defend Earth from asteroid impacts (detection, deflection, elimination, all with multiple viable solutions). unless some super advanced hostile aliens wish to destroy us, we can FAR more easily survive here on Earth if we wish to.
colonising Mars (or the Moon or Venus) requires an absurd amount of resources and would still not be anywhere near as safe as even the hottest deserts or the coldest tundra on Earth. i mean, you're talking about building cities in a place colder and dryer than the poles, all without oxygen, ozone layer or even atmospheric pressure. and building a city means you need a sustainable population of people, so it's not just a bunch of scientists playing survival games. you need a functioning government, an economy, healthcare services, and even waste management. it is folly to even try that before we have ever successfully trialled any form of long-term society off-Earth -- say, in a larger orbital space station first, perhaps?
intelligence is also in our DNA. maybe we should figure out some of the easier obstacles first before skipping ahead to certain doom.
More like a virus
deep....
In reality, it's all because we actually came from Mars when it died and want to go back kek
Wait a minute, mushrooms aren't plants! They are in the fungi kingdom. Did someone else notice that? I got nothing but love and respect for Bill Nye, but that was a mistake in the description.
Mars' lack of magnetic shield has to be exploited as an asset by harnessing the energy carried by cosmic rays and UV reaching Mars' surface. If plants can't be grown inside greenhouses whose windows and atmospheres scatter the UV into blue light that can be photosynthesized, then the UV and cosmic rays can be used by solar panels to generate energy to run grow lamps and heaters for the plants. Probably whatever system ends up being actually designed and engineered will incorporate a combination of (scattered) natural sunlight and cosmic ray power.
Also, since cosmic rays are protons, they may be able to be captured to produce water when they are harnessed for their energy. Probably by pressurizing CO2 from the Martian atmosphere, cosmic ray protons can be used to convert CO2 molecules into hydrocarbon molecules and/or water molecules. CO2 + 5H+ + energy = CHHH + 2H2O, for example.
“It’s like LA I gotcha” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don't know why, but I swear Jake Roper (VSauce 3) could be Bill's son. They look alike and seem to have the same kind of humour. Anyway, I love 'em both.
There are plants without photosynthesis ... and there are places on Mars where temperature can get to 25 celsium ... Colonization is very important, and terraforming is vital, though not necessary ...
There are no plants without photosynthesys and colonization, at this moment in time, is plain stupid.
This makes me think that it would be better to have a base on the moon, as you could just go there for a few months and come home, as it's only a few days to the moon as opposed to months. I'm guessing the main point would be to do experiments you can't do so easily on earth, maybe set up radio astronomy outside the noise of Earth's radio chatter?
All these years and we still wears those adorable bowties.
Bill Nye the Mechanical Engineering Guy!
Weird that I enjoyed chuck for years and then find out hes from the city I am.
Most of the pro-colony posts here seem to describe supply dependent artificial environments equivalent to prisons that you can't escape from.
In theory, couldn't you grow enough plants to produce the oxygen you would need to survive on Mars (assuming you could grow the plants, and had a bio dome big enough)?
+TheJamesthe13 The whole red surface is iron oxide (rust) that you can derive oxygen from.
+TheJamesthe13 what makes you say that?
Bill's a real downer when it comes to space exploration. Why bother going anywhere? Why climb Everest? It's cold and dangerous too.
finally someone with common sense, people are so stupid they have no idea how dangerous space is.
lets save our planet the only home we ever know.
Mushrooms are not plants!
+ozdergecko yeah, what was up with that?! Bill should know that...
+agenerichuman he didn't say they were 9lants, he just said we have something else to eat
I believe his point was that, in the event that someone had to eat on Mars, they could grow something to eat. Plant or not.
+ozdergecko they're in Plants vs Zombies, so they're plants! unless they're zombies. or zombie plants.
Gregory Samuel Teo -- I watched boogie2988 review this - seems to be a fun game!
Bill Nye the science guy!
"crazy cold", just like Canada! hahaha.
It would make Canada feel like Mordor
I like his "Mario Sound" attempt... wasn't quite right, to put it mildly, but cute anyway.
Only a quarter as bright? That sounds perfect. I mean sure the cold part of that difference would suck but the sun is way to bright from earth for me to see properly anyways.
what do you think about venus?
pavolon look into the cloud city's that nasa is thinking about.
But a bio dome city would be nice and fun. Sure it'd cost a hell of a lot to build, but living there wouldn't be so bad, or try the cloud cities of Venus.
Right on. We should invest more into new technologys to save us from asteroid impacts.
The equator is 70F during the day time
when watching this, who remembered the ERB: Bill Nye vs Sir Isaac Newton :D :D :D
so could you colonize mars by genetically modify plant to survive the cold, and the deal with the nutrients, so that we could convert the CO2 to O2 thus making it breathable?
A rover on the moon please with 24/7 local access channel please
Magnetic field? Isn't anybody worried about the lack of a magnetic field?
And I agree that Venus might be a more interesting challenge but Venus has its own major problems.
Apparently nobody seems worried about radiation but I think it's the biggest problem with living there. Without some shielding technology that's far beyond what we know, you won't be able to spend more than one cumulative month exploring the surface. The entire rest of your time there will need to be spent underground. We'd be better off genetically engineering mole people.
Radiation is the least of their worries. Plenty of materials that could protect from radiation - from making the colony mostly underground to using water storage as a protective barrier (water is incredibly good at blocking radiation). There are plenty of other reasons to not bother with a mars colony.
You'd need a layer of water 10 feet thick, so that won't work to protect spacecraft. Yes, it would be safe to live underground once you're on Mars but you'd only be able to spend an accumulated 1 month on the surface before using up your lifetime's safe exposure, so colonists would need to live 99.99% of their lives underground. Not what most people expect.
Colonies on the surface of a planet, water works just fine.
For those interested in warming Mars, de-orbit Phobos. Then, colonize when the dust settles.
Building massive space stations would probably be more reasonable than colonizing a planet, at least at first.
BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY
Bill Nye the neck-tie guy!
Ionlymadethistoleavecoments bow-tie*
VENUS!
"with neil degrasse tyson"
I think we can cross the bridge when we get to it honestly...
why not modify the food plants to grow in climates they can't currently grow here on earth and plant them here on earth?
a bow tie
bow ties are cool
Wait...? Orcas grabbing penguins out of midair? Is there something I don't understand about penguins or orcas?
Could you just use natural selection and over generations you'd get the plant you'd like?
Why couldnt we genetically modify plants and such to make mars more livable? I dont necassarily know of many modifications we could do to make heat more available but ive seen multiple studies, specifically DARPA, creating and modifying microrganisms to release oxygen after taking in Mars' soil. Ive also seen studies where scientists have modified trees to be bioilluminescant, which would help with the light problem.
+Bilbo Swaggins The extremely cold temperatures, dangerous weather, and exposure to solar radiation are many factors we would need to account for. In addition to all those complications, bare in mind that Mars has no magnetosphere and will lose any thick atmosphere it might have to solar winds. That means the process must produce equivalently to what it loses, no more and no less.
Didnt even consider these thank you!
Second comment: WOuld you rather live in LA, or on Mars?
I think we have better chances on Titan or on the moons of Jupiter or Saturn
We will colonize Mars and it will happen sooner than later.
+The Liberator where does that joke come from?
When our sun becomes a red giant that's the places were going.
Robert Sanders We will go to them a lot sooner than that. That is billions of years from now! Not out of necessity but because we can.
+The Liberator do you realized that's not Christ correct name?...the letter J was made up many years later then Hebrew or Greek languages.
Bill Nye the Martian guy. Evolutionists: behold your prophet. Your future is either the moon or Mars, with a steady diet of mars-mallows (gmo of course)
I love Bill, I think he's a great guy. but I think his argument is somewhat weak on why we shouldn't colonize mars. Its something that we wouldn't be doing for fun. but just a matter of "could we do it?" first colonizing mars, then colonizing other planets, and its not saying that its time to leave Earth, oh this planet is doomed we should move. No, in Star Trek they colonized other planets to learn and grow, isn't that what us humans do? Live/Learn/Grow? Bill says we have a research facility in Antarctica, but I'm pretty sure the same thing was said about that! "why do we need a research facility in Antarctica?" and its not just there for the fun of it, its there to get a better understanding of Earth and why it does the things it does. I think colonizing mars would be awesome. Me personally, I'm gonna wait till they have internet.
But a boat ride costs a lot less money, and supplies, than a rocket
Huh I'm talking about Jupiter and Saturn's moons...the point being, we have better chances with them I think then Mars or Venus, our moon is like the tree house to ear, it's Fun to hang out there but to live oh boy that's nuts
*earth
I feel we have immensely less chance because it is much harder to get to them distance wise and trajectory planing wise plus they have even less sun than mars which would have trouble growing plants from earth.
+Anthony Merle yes but not when our sun becomes a red giant
+Robert Sanders by that time we could completely terraform Mars. It's not like tomorrow the sun will suddenly become a red giant and make those moons viable.
I WANT VENUS!!!!!
There seems to be no clear rule about the protection of possible life on mars. I'm talking microbiological life. Going to "colonize" mars seems to me to be an even bigger threat on our ability to identify previous or currant traces of life that could have been there. Contaminating the surface with our own life forms would make them indistinguishable from indigenous forms.
But what about terraforming?
takes millenias
It's still possible
Who's gonna pay?
Good Question...
+Tr8 Tor MEXICO!
/s
Would want to live on mars just for the bragging rights
Mars has no molten iron/nickel core, meaning no magnetic fields.
First solar flair = your veggies turn to dust.
you know, they won't be planted outside
Who owns Uranus ?
I mean humans need to solve the problems they have created on planet earth, live together in peace snd after that they can start thinking about surviving on other planets.
If we wait until we've solved every single last problem on Earth then we'll never colonise space. In colonising space we will discover things that will help those back on Earth.
Mushrooms are not plants....
Shhhh, don't let the laymen hear you; they understand jack-all about biology, and actual facts only confuse and anger them. We don't really need them to know this, we need people like Nye and Tyson to seduce them into giving their sweet, sweet tax dollars to people who'll actually make the world a better place, instead of these chucklefucks who'll spend it on Twinkies, vodka, and porn; sometimes all at once.
When you make something that is like a plant that doesn't need sunlight, you got basically a fungus. There exists bioluminescent fungus. That's a thing.
Patrick Merritt There's several very significant differences between fungus and plants besides photosynthesis.
Also, bioluminescence isn't the same thing as photosynthesis, and none of either mechanism have anything in common. I'm not really sure what mentioning bioluminescence does in a conversation about growing crops on Mars.
A Martian day is only slightly longer than an Earth day, so plants wouldn't be able to take advantage of a more time in the sun to compensate for the dimmer light from being farther away. Thus any crops or plants in general brought to Mars would either have to be ones that don't require a lot of sunlight, or those that have been modified to do more with less sunlight.
Now maybe that does mean you bring something like mushrooms and yeasts that don't need sunlight to grow, but without photosynthesis, there's no natural process to turn carbon dioxide back into breathable air, so the colony would have to have CO2 scrubbers, and a means to replenish/regenerate them longterm, otherwise the colony would fail from asphyxiation.
LabTech
What I was getting at is fungus are something you can grow and eat. They are not the same thing, but they have same value to humans as plants. They still need organic matter. As far as bioluminescence goes. The idea is you could feed light to some sort of organism that needs light with bioluminescence. The atmosphere on mars is carbon, but not carbon dioxide. The surface though has a whole lot of iron oxide. You pretty much have to do some experiments with a mars simulated lab room and try to develop a custom ecosystem. Most likely you wouldn't have to go as far a genetically altering(although there isn't a legitimate reason you shouldn't) microbes and plantlife. Likely you could select existing things to terraform the surface.
Microbes have a nice factor going in that they reproduce at an exponential rate. If you were to find a good location you could create a "seed". This seed would be filled with a cocktail of life which would leak from the seed and spread. The biggest hindrance of this is the lack of hydrogen on mars. However, certain bacteria can free the hydrogen molecules from the rocks.
Also, by "seed" I mean something that would be like the equivalent of a dead elephant in a cave. You need something to incubate this stuff in before it can spread. You couldn't just spray this stuff on the surface. Ideally you would have a couple thousand seeds.
Patrick Merritt I'm going to be charitable here, and just appreciate the fact that you're a supporter of the efforts to colonize other planets, without explaining in detail how woefully unknowledgeable you are about biology.
You're punching a bit above your weight class with your scientific understanding here, because the idea that you'd breed bioluminescent fungus (which are almost universally toxic and/or inedible) so that their light would be used to grow crops is so laughably absurd, that it's essentially the biological equivalent of a perpetual-motion machine.
Just focus more on the 'why' of colonization, rather than the 'how'; leave that to people who know.
Seems like Bill nye hates chuck Haha. Anyone know of any longer length astrophysics / astronomy / science podcasts?
+nickolaguez Startalk is lengthy lol, these arent full episodes.
+MadFluffyster Xaines I guess I should have clarified, I don't like the traditional star talk stuff. This is the format I like, where it's deep science. And not talking to celebrities and how it plays a role in their life. All this short snippets are what I like. If that makes sense.
nickolaguez Ah, so pure science pretty much is what you're looking for?
+MadFluffyster Xaines yeah, like radiolab or anything bleeding edge. Quantum physics, astronomy, rockets engineering, crispr, biology etc.
nickolaguez Season 2 episode 7 of startalk is mostly science talk. :)
Other than RadioLab I cant really help you lol
There is no need to gen-modify crops, some plants are capable of growing normal with Lunar and Martian soil.
Its like LA! xD that was just mean lol.
"Mars is cold, guys."
Let's warm it up...with thermonuclear devastation.
Maybe genetically modified plants that will slowly teraform mars into a breathable place
By the time Mars is breathable, we would have gone to other stars...
It has no magnetosphere, so you'd need to pump out more atmosphere than solar winds can strip away. Which would require _a lot_ of plants
Antarctica is more hospitable than Mars and yet we are not trying to colonize their.
there's not enough gravity on mars to live on
I guess we could use the moon as a storage place.
well could you terraform mars to make it more like earth?
What about the perchlorates in the soil? Even if you created a greenhouse that could control the climate and the air, you still wouldn't be able to grow things in Martian soil. Because of the toxic perchlorates, the plants probably wouldn't grow, and even if they did, if you ingested any of the soil, you would become extremely sick.
David Byrne???? 😨😱😁😂😰👻💀👽👾
what if you create a atmosphere
+JKJUNIOR95 can happen in ~100 years if started now.
+JKJUNIOR95 You cannot grow an atmosphere *At current technology, even with bullshit science on a Dead Planet.
- Cannot. Be Done.
I like the idea of going to other planets, but let's be real here. Hollywood Magic isn't real life.
Kat Clairmont We can terraform mars i.e. heat it up. Other option would be paraterraforming - domecity.
*You cannot terraform a planet which has no atmosphere, has no core.
Cannot be done.
Any scientist can tell you this. And look. There's one now! - Hi Startalk Radio! :3
Kat Clairmont www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~meech/a281/handouts/McKay_astrobio01.pdf nuff said
So I wonder. If we are prepared to have the *discipline* it needs to live there, and we would make all the efforts necessary, why can't we apply it *over here* and make this planet livable in the first place!? I know it's grand scale in comparison, but come on. It's like we already accepted that we destroyed&outgrown this planet and just go "oh well. time to leave".
Reducing population growth could be achieved somewhat. But it's still something. Enforcing international laws about pollution would be a great tool, as the pollution does not stay within borders, so you (say, China) are polluting the entire planet. It should be no different in principle than said country launching some toxic bomb over each country in the world. *That* would be punished, but not this? Just simple industrial pollution... the good old thing.What's behind it all? Goddamn money. That stifles scientific advancement. We could all switch to alternative energy in every part of our lives, but they still need to sell all those leftover shit that are 30 years old in its way of working. We could stop pollution any time. We, people of Earth. But we are controlled by a thin layer of greedy billionaires who couldn't care less.
+GaborBartal i can see where you're coming from, and generally i do agree that fixing Earth would be far easier than colonising Mars (like, duh).
but the reason why third-world countries are not committing to pollution limits yet is not so simple. sure, we could blame billionnaires, but it is ultimately the cost of energy production which drives greenhouse gas emissions. the argument is that first-world countries had their industrial age and have already polluted the planet enough to power their economies to the next technological age; but third world countries haven't, and they need to somehow still meet their populations' energy consumption needs in order to progress both economically and technologically.
the idea is that richer nations have to somehow "reasonably" share their wealth with poorer nations to offset the sacrifice of cheap (and dirty) energy (i.e. fossil fuels). but so far, both sides have failed to come to an agreement just how much the "compensation" should be, or even how it could be done.
meanwhile, the green revolution at the citizen level is moving along extremely slowly, and many people still find it okay to be dismissive about climate change or to be prudent with daily energy consumption. we could probably do more about the "consumer culture" here on the internet, but it isn't really happening yet.
+Gregory Samuel Teo (alveolate) Okay thanks, I realize that it's naive to expect every nation to just stop polluting, as advanced methods are not readily avaialble. However I meant bigger nations like China etc, who, while not rich, still big enough and contribute a lot to the Earth's pollution.
GaborBartal i don't get your reply... your op blamed populous countries (like China) for polluting and going unpunished, but in a very real sense, they DO punish themselves -- or more accurately, the people there do suffer the effects of their own pollution first-hand.
thousands die annually in both China and India as a direct consequence of (their own) pollution; but right now they either don't have the political will/freedom or their bureaucracy is just too inefficient/corrupt to manage/regulate polluters.
unfortunately, even if the UN gets its act together and imposes sanctions (pretty much their only non-violent "punishment" option), it would simply throw their economies into turmoil and make it less likely for their industrial sector to convert to cleaner energy.
in short, the key here is fixing government and enforcement. and there really isn't a diplomatic/international option to fix this.
the alternative is for business owners to consider sustainability a core moral responsibility, and consumers theoretically could "vote with their money" by avoiding unscrupulous companies. which is why i mentioned civil culture.
+Gregory Samuel Teo (alveolate)
Yeah in my earlier reply I just acknowledged that it's not as easy as it sounds, indeed.
And I know I mentioned China already, but I meant to emphasize that I meant _China_ and bigger countries as opposed to what you said about third world countries. China is not a third world country.
So to sum it up, there are actual poor third world countries where not much can be done (for what I know naively), but there are growing big economies like Chine who _could_ do something for they are not poor, and also because they are 1/7th of the world so their pollution matters to everyone. Not directly e.g. I'm inhaling pollution from China, but indirectly as they pollute our shared planet in a huge share. They can't fix everything of course, but could use their own regulations or initiatives, whatever, to use _some_ green energy. As you said.
Or, over time, such technologies are getting cheaper already and will surely spread. It will find China earlier than actual third-world countries. Hell they will even manufacture it themselves.
GaborBartal my opinion is probably also somewhat naive, but i think China is also wracked with corruption in its ranks. being a largely authoritarian government, they are heavily reliant on officials coming up with the ideas and then actually implementing them. however, there is no real incentive if they don't do it.
in the west, there is the free press which could force accountability when government fails (although even that is an increasingly flimsy argument these days). in China, there is just the great firewall, propaganda and censorship.
add to that, the culture of reporting false figures in order to maintain the semblance of progress, and you have a bureaucracy that often doesn't even really know the true extent of their problems. that's why i mentioned "inefficient" government.
What about colonizing Venus? It's closer to the sun, has a similar size to Earth, and has an actual atmosphere (if a "tad" poisonous). Talk about the problems with colonizing there!
+chavamara
Because it's basically Hell. High pressure, hotter than Mercury temperatures due to global warming, and not just a poisonous atmosphere, but an acidic one. Colonizing Venus would be impossible, unless you stayed in the clouds like on the planet Besbin from Star Wars.
Mechaghostman2 Yes, I know this, but I'd like to hear Bill Nye EXPLAIN this, because it's cool to have things explained by Bill Nye the Science Guy!
Bill’s just a grumpy engineer who can’t be bothered to do something epic. It’s possible, so do it 😊
Here is an idea! Find a planet in the Goldie lock zone and inhabit it. There must be gold or a precious metal on Mars.
+Bryan Kye They've found plenty of planets in the Goldilocks zone, the problem is that the nearest one after Earth is lightyears away
+Bryan Kye
Good idea, Let's inhabit Mars!
Mars is in the Goldilocks zone, if you didn't know. Just closer to the far edge of it.
+AquaPhoenix Productions yes I agree, but I thought we borrowed the tech from the aliens, to fly at the speed of light. Going to Mars is just stupid when we haven't explored our own planet.
+BalisticChampion1 one problem. You can't breath on Mars.
Bryan Kye That's why terraforming was proposed. It makes sense to test it out on mars too. It's a relatively nearby planet that'll help us advance our technology for the future if we ever discover a planet in the green band that needs terraforming as well.
We could go find a place to is MAYBE still alive and in the goldilocks zone, but it's beyond us to try that for the next hundred years or so because of the simple fact they are so far away it's impractical to make that the first goal.
mushrooms aren't plants. they're actually more similar to animals, than plants.
All this talk about colonizing Mars, first of all can we just get there? All this talk of living there and we haven't even set foot on the damn planet, or how about we go back to the moon to get in the groove of manned space flight again. Everyone seems to be jumping ahead to step 106 when we haven't even covered step 3
What if step 110 doesn't work? I get your point, but we need to find the biggest, impossible to solve flaws before nitpicking..
Shrooms
Burning fossils will not change the lack of light from the sun... i love sunglasses lol
team occupy venus~
Is this a project to brainstorm how to terraform mars?
Colonizing is a necessity. These problems of cold, no air, food production, and what have you can be resolved. Elon Musk says he will put humans on mars by 2025. I'll believe Musk before Nye on this.
Me too, Elon is the bro.
Sorry Nye, Musk's ahead of you.
Capitalism wins!
+Frank Sang What about the problem of mars' inability to hold its own atmosphere.....
Where are you going to get the extra mass, and how will it effect the orbits of the other inner planets...
At this point we will be fucking with the only solar system we have, seems risky!
+azmanabdula We don't need that to commence colonization. There are other ways to protect from deadly radiation. Terraforming will certainly a process that might take 100 years or more but it can also be done.
If we colonise Mars it won't be cold and without air. The current plan is to terraform Mars by releasing alot of heat to cause an accelerated super golobal warming. Mars is full of water, oxygen and more importantly CO2. But they are all trapped either in the poles or under the ground. If we can heat Mars enough, by nukes or focusing mirrors to reflect sunlight on the poles or by building greenhouse factories, it would trigger a chain effect in that the more CO2 is freed the faster the global warming would progress. That would give Mars an atmosphere where pressure is suitable for Earth-ly life along with oceans and rivers. It would still be dim and colder than Earth, but it would be very habitable. The true problem facing the colonisation of Mars is the lack of a magnetic field in the planet, that means if solar winds come near the planet they would strip the planet from its atmosphere.
+Basher Sully and they will come.
Cheshire But we might be able to create an artificial magnetic field, or if we'r mad enough we could attempt to somehow melt Mars' mettalic core.
Basher Sully core needs to be restarted in order to create magnetic field. Too much trouble to go to in order to colonize the dead planet. Better save live one.
Cheshire But we might be able to make an artificial field by placing two giant magnets on the poles. It's alot of trouble, but if we manage to do it that would be a great leap for humanity. Imagine the possibilities of easy transportation between 2 habitable planets, and Mars would be a good place to start some mining operations at the asteroid belt between it and Jupiter opening a way of infinite resources for humanity.
Basher Sully
to get such magnets would require tremendous amount of power and resources. I don't know if every country on Earth will start working towards such goal will it be enough. Plus, adding such weight to the poles might restart the core by itself and it might change Mars' orbit or affect orbits of other planets. Can such scenario lead to disaster? Yes. I do like the idea of mining Jupiter's rings and space travel as much as next guy, but what you are proposing is not feasible and probably dangerous.
Nah but we can just burn loads of fossil fuels on Mars and warm it up pretty fast :P
+The Rational Channel Mars doesn't have fossil fuels.
+The Rational Channel There's not much fossil fuels on Mars to burn and transporting them from Earth would be ridiculously expensive at best.
Except no oxygen for combustion.
Tutlon2 Yeah I know, it was just a joke.
+The Rational Channel Well even if it's a joke it's not entirely ridiculous. As far as I remember there is an idea to warm up Mars by rousing it's dust... or was it melting the ice caps? Anyway, warming it up has been proposed so, yeah I don't know where I'm going with this :P
i don't think terraforming mars would be too hard
No spinning core.
I don't think terraforming the Antarctic would be too hard.
+ItsThatKidGreg
Once we find out how to actually do it in an effective manner... It shouldn't be.
Keeping it terraformed however...
BalisticChampion1 we already know how. Heating up the martian atmosphere with greenhouse gasses would start a chain reaction that would ultimately allow us to send oxygen forming plants there to thrive on the CO2 we would produce. once that happens it's just a matter of building on that
ItsThatKidGreg You realize i said in an effective manner, right? Even though we KNOW how to pontentialy fix the atmosphere we don't know how to:
A. Transport loads of weight which would be from the required equipment to create the greenhouse gases.
B. Keep the atmosphere stable. One solar flare could potentially take it out as mars would have neither an ozone or a magnetic field to protect it.
Is there wifi on Mars?
Password is TrumpRules.
shhhhhhh