Life on Mars? Bill Nye says change this world

Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson was onstage at the Comerica Theater in Phoenix, talking to a full house about the possibility of life on Mars, when he said he wanted to call a friend.

The friend would have something to say about this, Tyson muttered as he tapped the keys on his laptop.

I’ve done this, called a friend when I’m in the middle of a discussion. Sometimes you need backup.

On a big screen behind Tyson, up popped Bill Nye, better known as the Science Guy. The crowd cheered.

I don’t have that kind of backup. The call seemingly caught Nye working on his plumbing, a wrench and a roll of thread seal tape in his hands. Instead of his trademark dress shirt and bow tie, he had on a Planetary Society T-shirt. So, Tyson prompted: life on Mars. “People have this romantic idea of going to live on Mars,” Nye said. To do it, we’d have to live like Sandy the squirrel on the cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants,” who lives in a big air bubble at the bottom of the ocean.

When she ventures out, she has to wear a diving suit.

Besides, Nye said, Mars is cold (on average minus 80 degrees), and there’s nothing to eat. Oh, sure, in the movie “The Martian,” a stranded Matt Damon grew potatoes, fertilizing it with his feces. Maybe it would work. (A NASA based experiment showed that it might.)

Someone in the audience asked about terraforming, the hypothetical idea of altering the surface and climate of Mars to make it hospitable to humans.

“We can’t get the leaders to agree to manage the climate on this planet,” Nye said.

In the meantime, Nye challenged the audience to take on water conservation, solar and wind energy. Arizona, he said, has the potential to be a leader in those areas.

He signed off with his famous mantra: “Change the world!”