This is excellent. Back in 2010, an out-of-character Stephen Colbert sat down with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberly Academy to talk for 90 minutes about science, society and the universe. Yesterday, the Hayden Planetarium posted the interview on its website for all to watch.


The interview starts a little more than 6 minutes in. Topics addressed include:

Why there is something instead of nothing (in ten words or less)

The ethics of man/animal hybrids

The "complexity" of evolutionary processes versus the tenets of creationism

Whether science is a thing, a way to look at the world, or both

Lab-grown meat

The plausibility of a multiverse

The importance of promoting science literacy

The latest discoveries in astrophysics, including Mars farts — something we wrote about earlier today


The traffic generated by the posting of the interview took its toll on the Hayden Planetarium's servers, so the video featured here is streaming from YouTube — but be sure to show the HP some love.

Video by The Hayden Planetarium via teridon

Colbert & Tyson via