It's no secret that astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson can teach us a thing or two about the wonders of the universe. But on Thursday, he completely blew our minds when he dropped an awakening knowledge bomb on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert was interviewing deGrasse Tyson about his new book Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, when deGrasse Tyson challenged Colbert to imagine extraterrestrials' perspective of humans as they observe our world and the way we treat it.
The conversation eventually evolved to the topic of sentient plants. Due to the abstract nature of deGrasse Tyson's cranial wheel work, Colbert asked him:
"Speaking of sentient plants, did you smoke any baby plants?"
DeGrasse Tyson laughed and then suddenly made a revelation that shook Colbert and his audience:
"Oh by the way, did you know E.T. was a sentient plant, not an animal?"
Colbert wasn't buying it, singing:
"Turn on your heart light."
Before arguing:
"He's got a heart!"
Tyson claimed E.T. had a heart just so the audience could relate.
Then Colbert asked how deGrasse Tyson knew it was a plant, to which he replied:
"Do you remember E.T. would touch the plants and they would grow back? That's not an accident."
Still unconvinced, Colbert asked how he knew for sure, and deGrasse Tyson had pretty solid evidence:
"Steven Spielberg told me in my office."
You can watch the segment below.
The Twitterverse was shook.
However, to some, this isn't new information:
DeGrasse continues to open our minds to concepts and different perspectives to the world around us, even the fictional world.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads