When it comes to rock stars in science, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines brightly. But Stephen Hawking's star is even brighter, as his life has now been captured in a new dramatic film called The Theory of Everything.
Tyson is a Hawking fan, and proves it by filming a new video telling us just why Hawking is so important to science, calling his peer a "badass."
We couldn't agree more.
Hawking is most known for his theory behind "Hawking radiation," when he combined quantum physics with Einstein's theory of relativity. Hawking radiation is energy released by black holes due to quantum effects that happen near their event horizons, the point where nothing can escape their gravity, not even light.
Of course, this isn't something that we can see, but it could be measured if we know what to look for. The process explains how black holes eventually deteriorate and die as they start losing energy through this radiation.
Because of this, our understanding of black holes expanded, and now gives us new ideas on how to better study them.
The film, The Theory of Everything, takes its cue from a memoir written by Hawking's wife, Jane Wilde Hawking. The story covers her relationship with her husband, as well as his success in physics.
Recently, Hawking made headlines warning humanity about the potential rise and dangerous use of artificial intelligence, even going so far as to say that it "could spell the end of the human race."
"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," says Hawking. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."
Hawking also recently stressed the importance of space exploration.
"Sending humans to other planets ... will shape the future of the human race in ways we don't yet understand, and may determine whether we have any future at all," says Hawking.
Tyson is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist most known for hosting Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. He currently serves as the Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and is also a research associate in astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
Tyson ends the video by stating that he's encouraged that we're now seeing more scientists than ever portrayed in films and on TV.
[Photo Credit: Focus Features/YouTube]
