Neil deGrasse Tyson lays out the history of everything in under 8 minutes
From the Big Bang to mammals with big brains, the Internet's resident smart guy runs through literally everything in the time it takes to stand in line for a latte.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Astrophysicist and general smart-guy celebrity Neil deGrasse Tyson has already explained the meaning of life to us in terms that even a 6-year-old can understand, so it seems only natural that he'd also be the go-to guy for a brief history of everything.
With apologies to Stephen Hawking, Bill Bryson and even Tyson himself -- who made an earlier attempt to cram the history of the universe into a TV miniseries -- we've only got 10 minutes to spare for this assignment. Fortunately, Tyson delivers in the new video below that he narrates for MinutePhysics, the creation of uber-nerdy YouTuber Henry Reich.
In his eloquent and approachable manner complemented by Reich's nifty, Khan Academy-style illustrations, Tyson covers the Big Bang and the bizarre period of cosmic inflation that immediately followed, right up through the formation of Earth and the downfall of dinosaurs that allowed awesome mammals to take over the planet.
Despite having no time to spare, Tyson even manages to get into the nitty-gritty of how the forces that hold the universe together came to be -- this is as deep as you can dive into some serious physics in just a few minutes. Tyson also walks us through the beginning of space and time as it "gurgled into a spongy, foam-like form" to the human age and how "everyone of our bodies' atoms are traceable to the Big Bang."
Check it out for yourself below and let us know in the comments if you think Tyson left out anything important.