Neil deGrasse Tyson has set the record straight regarding his interaction with Terrance Howard, who claims the astrophysicist snubbed him years ago for proposing an alternate take on the established laws of science.
The Hustle & Flow star recently made an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, during which he recalled sending the 65-year-old an outline of his ideas and having them shut down in return.
In a clip shared to his StarTalk channel on Thursday (June 13), the veteran scientist shared his side of the story while breaking down the actor and singer’s vision.
“Eight years ago, he sent me a 36-page treatise — so this is Terrance Howard attempting to reinvent mathematics and physics,” he said. “I actually spent time reading every line of all 36 pages […] I thought, out of respect for him, what I should do is give him my most informed critical analysis that I can. In my field, we call that a peer review.
“What can happen is if you’re a fan of a subject, let’s say — a hobbyist, let’s call it — it’s possible to know enough about that subject to think you’re right, but not enough about that subject to know that you’re wrong, and so there’s this sort of valley of false confidence in there. This has been studied by others, and it’s called the Dunning–Krueger Effect. It’s the phenomenon where a little bit of knowledge [makes] you overassess how much of that subject you actually know.”
He went on to dissect said paper, which is titled “One Times One Equals Two.”
“This is an ambitious work that is a clear indication of a restless, active mind,” the Cosmos presenter read aloud his feedback notes from years ago. “Within these pages, however, there are many assumptions and statements that are under-informed, misinformed or simply false, thereby compromising or nullifying many of the subsequent conclusions you have drawn.”
He then turned his attention to the following claim made by the Chicago native: “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 a fabric of our Understanding.”