William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson regaled an enthusiastic audience with stories about everything from our understanding of quantum physics to Shatner’s space journey to the meaning of the universe Wednesday night during a conversation dubbed “The Universe Is Fucking!” At the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
The event was actually the second of a two-night event where the close friends pitted each other and shared personal anecdotes about their adventures together, including their 2024 trip to Antarctica, where they first met. The audience may have learned a few things about astrophysics along the way. (“The electron is very small, and we don’t know how small,” Tyson shared. “Every measurement of the electron is smaller than our attempts to measure it. As far as we’re concerned, it’s very small.”)
The topic of Shatner’s age (95) has been brought up a lot. At one point, he mentioned his upcoming heavy metal album (yes, you read that right), which will be released in October. (“Why does everyone approach me with a smile when they hear ‘Heavy Metal Album’?” Shatner deadpans.)
Later, Tyson turned the conversation to quantum physics, noting that Shatner was born in 1931, which earned him some applause, as the actor got angry and joked, “I don’t like to be applauded because of my age. They applauded me for my heavy metal album.” Tyson went on to point out that the neutron was discovered by James Chadwick a year after Shatner was born. The astrophysicist then proceeded to explain quantum physics to the audience, some of whom were familiar with the subject (THR I sat next to a woman who was an engineer at Blue Origin) and others who were not. In the 1920s, “we learned that the universe is not constantly divisible. When you get to a point, you have a certain amount of energy, and then you have less and less and less and less. There is a point where there is a unit of energy and you can’t get less than that. That’s the quantum of energy.”
Scientists previously said the same thing about corn, for example, and they were wrong, Shatner said. “They said that about every new discovery of the insides of the molecule and the atom,” Shatner said. When Tyson questioned his use of the word “guts”, Star Trek “I’m trying to use the language I understand,” the icon said. “It’s not your language because you’re a Ph.D.” “Yes, that word,” Tyson joked [entrails] “It didn’t appear in my thesis at all.”
Shatner also discussed his trip into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket in 2021. He noted that he had to climb 11 stories in the gantry to get to the ship’s opening. At some point, he noticed some gas coming out of one of the vents and inquired what it was. When he was told it was hydrogen, he immediately thought of the Hindenburg disaster. He said: “And now, with fear, I enter the ship while I am on the chair, a five-point buckle, and the countdown begins,” during which a person on ground control noticed that there was an “anomaly.” “What the fuck is an anomaly?” He remembers thinking. The countdown continued, and he heard: “Okay, everyone, we’re taking down the gantry. Anyone who wants to get down, come down now. And I go, okay. And I think, ‘I can’t, I’m Captain Kirk.’ I can’t.” He describes the force of gravity as “an elephant sitting on your chest…then suddenly it stops and suddenly you float.”
Once he unbuckled his seatbelt, Shatner said, he went straight to the window. He watched videos of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos floating in the cabin as a teenage passenger threw a skittle “up his butt” on a previous spaceflight. “I thought that wouldn’t be me,” he joked.
When Shatner landed, he was overcome with emotion. He said: “Jeff Bezos was there with a microphone and international cameras, and I was crying.” “I’m crying uncontrollably, and I don’t know why.” After some thought, he realized, “I’m sad.” He thought about visiting remote “problem” places for a show called Voice of the planet. For example, he went to the Himalayas and was amazed at the amount of trash left behind by hikers and climbers. “The filth is everywhere in these pristine mountains, and it reflects the filth we have left all over the planet,” he said. “We now know that microplastics are floating in our blood. As I’m talking to you, I could drop dead from microplastics. It’s a tragic thing we’re doing to our planet, and I was feeling sad for the Earth and the beauty we see all around us.”
Tyson then broke down the feeling of weightlessness, after Shatner said the English language had no word for it, given how few people had ever experienced the sensation. He likened this to cutting cables in an elevator, saying that the person inside would fall at the same rate as the elevator would fall, so if he were standing on the scale, the scale would read zero pounds. Likewise, if someone is directly above the Kármán line, which is considered the official limit of space, they would simply fall toward the Earth at the same rate as the Earth is curving away from them. “So anyone in orbit is weightless because they are constantly falling toward Earth,” he said. “Not because they’re in space.”
Shatner said that lately, he’s been thinking about why it’s important to send humans, not robots, into space. It has previously appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, He asked why “weak” humans were sent to explore, but changed his mind. He said: “The exploration journey that will reach Mars…needs to be experienced by a human being.” “It takes human experience, it takes the spirit, the mind, the conscious and subconscious being for us to experience this magical thing called exploration,” he said. “A cold robot can probably communicate the facts better… [but] Only a human can experience this. It’s not the same experience as sending out mechanical entities. …What a wonderful thing it would be for a human to discover everything there is to discover on Mars instead of a cold robot running around there running out of energy.
Tyson responded, “Let’s recap what I just said. No one has ever done a robot promotion. No one has ever named a middle school after a robot.”
Finally, Shatner spoke at length about how he began to realize his place in the universe. “I know I feel drawn to this mysterious thing we call the universe, and I’m beginning to understand my place in the great unknown,” he said.
“Do you know what your place is in this great unknown? I kissed a black woman on television for the first time,” Tyson replied. Tyson was, of course, referring to the legendary TV moment when Captain Kirk (Shatner) kissed Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) on an episode of his show. Star Trek Which was broadcast in 1968.
At the end of the event, Tyson read three meaningful quotes as well as the last few paragraphs from his 2007 book, Death by black hole: and other cosmic dilemmas Accompanied by a pianist. Meanwhile, Shatner performed a song called “Rage” from his upcoming album, accompanied by the trumpet player. “So I was asked to do a heavy metal album,” he said. “This is generally greeted with some laughter, and I’m not sure whether it’s sarcastic or not.”
The pair then took part in a meet-and-greet for VIP ticket holders, with Tyson staying for a while to chat with fans about everything from aliens to artificial intelligence. The event was organized by Future of Space, which produces experiments and events on science and space topics.
