Making up s**t

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and theoretical physicist Brian Greene in conversation about the great leaps of logic and intuition behind discoveries in quantum physics.

GREENE

The way the nutrino was predicted was from looking at these particle decays and finding that the energy budget was not adding up. And so the idea was maybe there's an invisible particle that's carrying away some additional energy…

TYSON

Was this Enrico Fermi?

GREENE

Yes!

TYSON

So what I like about this is [Fermi says] “Look folks. I can’t explain this. Let’s make some shit up.”

GREENE

Yes! But geniuses…make up shit that’s right!

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Greene Confront the Edge of our Understanding, at 31:04. Star Talk. July 2, 2024. From Left to right: Tyson, commedian and co-host Chuck Nice, and Greene.