Neil deGrasse Tyson seemed to have his coming out party with his “Everything Wrong with Gravity” video (see bottom of this post) last year. His criticisms of Gravity were much-talked about, though people seemed to forget he was criticizing the movie from a purely scientific perspective, something he aims to make sure people remember this time around as he has now taken to Twitter to give his thoughts on Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar.
[amz asin=”0393351378″ size=”small”]Among a series of several tweets he adds, “REMINDER: Never look to me for opinions on new films. All I do is highlight the science one might or might not find in them.” With that, let’s have a look at just exactly what he had to say, and note, I have edited the tweets slightly to make some of them a little more readable:
All leading characters, including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine, play a scientist or engineer.
Of the leading characters (all of whom are scientists or engineers) half are women. Just an FYI.
In Interstellar, they explore a planet near a Black Hole. Personally, I’d stay as far the hell away from Black Holes as I can.
On another planet, around another star, in another part of the galaxy, two guys get into a fist fight.
They reprise the matched-rotation docking maneuver from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they spin 100x faster.
You enter a three-dimensional portal in space. Yes, you can fall in from any direction. Yes, it’s a Worm Hole.
You observe great Tidal Waves from great Tidal Forces, of magnitude that orbiting a Black Hole might create.
The producers knew exactly how, why and when you’d achieve zero-G in space.
Relativity. Gravity. Quantum. Electrodynamics. Evolution. Each of these theories is true, whether or not you believe in them.
In Interstellar experience Einstein’s Curvature of Space as no other feature film has shown.
In Interstellar experience Einstein’s Relativity of Time as no other feature film has shown.
And in the real universe, strong gravitational fields measurably slow passage of time relative to others.
If you didn’t understand the plot, there is no published book to help you.
If you didn’t understand the physics, try Kip Thorne‘s highly readable book “The Science of Interstellar”
Should Interstellar find the same continued success Gravity enjoyed, or if he has a new television show to promote, I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear from Tyson on the matter. After all, just look at all the attention he got when he took to dissecting Gravity.
