Neil deGrasse Tyson is clapping back at Terrence Howard’s interview with Joe Rogan where he accused the famed astrophysicist of “attacking” his scientific research.
Howard didn’t hold back when he appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience last month and took aim at the science community’s criticism of his flower of life diagram. The Hustle & Flow star accused scientists like Tyson of rejecting Nikola Tesla’s findings that he included in his own research of the Walter Russell Periodic Elements.
“He (Tyson) went in on my treaties, redlined everything,” Howard claimed. “He attacked them, but then he started attacking one times one equals two.”
Once Tyson caught
wind that he was “name-checked” by Howard, he took time to dissect the interview and draft notes to each one of the actor’s claims and scientific theories. The renowned science communicator posted a 17-minute response to the actor’s 36-page treatise where Howard was “attempting to reinvent mathematics and physics,” Tyson said.Tyson offered a “peer review” and “critical analysis” of everything Howard outlined in his treatise and believes the actor’s “ambitious work” is the result of a “restless active mind.”
“Within these pages, however, there are many assumptions and statements that are under-informed, misinformed, or simply false,” Tyson said, “thereby compromising or nullifying many of the subsequent conclusions you have drawn.”
The StarTalk went on to critique Howard’s “false” opening thesis, which touched on the square root of a number.
“It opens with a quote from Terrence, ‘It can never occur that the square root of a given number when added to itself is greater than the initial number squared, for that would expose a loose thread within the fabric of our understanding, a loose thread capable of unraveling the very ground rules of mathematics.’ That’s a bold statement,” Tyson said
“So then I just say, ‘This opening thesis is false. There are plenty of examples of this that have escaped your attention.'”
Tyson
went on to note that his peer review was not personal but served as an “objective reality” within the science community. However, he acknowledged how he “could have softened” his response. He did encourage Howard to solicit feedback from other members of the scientific community “if you’re sure that you are still right and that I have completely misunderstood your thesis.”Howard made headlines after appearing on Rogan’s podcast and recalling his memories from inside his mother’s womb to explaining how the human race is on the cusp of “killing gravity.” Rogan expressed his amazement with Howard’s theories when promoting the interview on Instagram.
“It’s a wild
one, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of mixed reviews, but as crazy as some of the things this man is saying are, he’s brilliant, and if he’s right, it’s going to change the world,” Rogan wrote.RELATED CONTENT: Analysis: Why We’re All Getting Ill More Often After COVID