“When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level” ~ Brian Greene

This is why Stephen has the best late night show right now

I want more scientist on The Late Show, please.

Late night shows should regularly invite scientists especially when there’s new big discovery or news such as Voyager 2 crossing into interstellar space and especially those astronauts.

More of this. Less of Kim Kardashian

And this is why space is awesome

I feel enlightened after listening to this man for 5 mins. Science, people!

This was an amazing interview, not just because Greene is a brilliant interviewee and that was a cool demonstration, but because Stephen did great as well. Asking good and interesting questions, and keeping it funny without taking cheap shots at Greene and science as many talk show host interviewers do. More like this and you might replace LWT as my favorite late night show!

So the Universe actually sounds like a Skype call? lmao

Flat Earthers be like "I DON'T FEEL NO RIPPLE"

I find that all experiments are improved by shouting "SCIENCE!" at it.

You can tell when someone's talking about something they're passionate about. It's magical.

The fact that Stephen Colbert brought him as a guest to try and explain this phenomenon to a larger audience, is a testimony of his capabilities as a talk show host to really convey things that REALLY matter to the mass audience.

What's amazing is that Stephen was asking the right questions and very good questions. Not making fun of the smart guy like Kimmel.

Colbert is such a happy, unapologetic, enthusiastic science nerd. It gives me joy.

Imagine a flat earther watching this, shaking their head and saying (yelling) “pRoPaGAnDa”

this is so interesting, especially because stephen doesn't interrupt to make any kind of stupid jokes like certain jimmys

*repeatedly yells SCIENCE into a green laser beam*

Love how Brian explains with immense passion .. his hands... tone of voice.. movements,, expressions precisely describes his love for science.. .

7:32 the sound of two infinitely massive objects colliding...it's frightening how fast this happens

WOW that scientist is really passionate about this, you can see it in his eyes and speech

It takes a truly intelligent person to explain something so complex in a way that we can all understand.

Brian Greene is the best science educator in the world.He is so eloquent and explains things with great clarity.Hats off to you Sir.

*The "chirp" sound* comes from the black holes spiraling in faster as they get closer. The basic explanation for that isn't much more complicated than a figure skater spinning faster when they pull their arms in. It's pretty amazing how fast a pair of black holes spin around each other when they're getting so close that they put out huge amounts of energy as grav waves (which slows them down even faster until they touch and merge). The closer (and faster) they are, the more they're slowing down (so the faster the pitch changes). That's because the accelerations are higher so more energy is lost from their orbits in the form of gravitational waves. The pitch keeps climbing as they get closer, like a figure skater pulling their arms in to spin faster, or getting close to the middle of a merry-go-round. (But slightly different because the linear velocity is decreasing so I think angular momentum is lost, vs. staying constant for a figure skater.) As the black holes get closer, the force of gravity gets stronger. More centripetal force = faster orbit. That's where the chirp comes from. The sound is from directly translating the gravitational wave amplitude (after noise filtering) to audio. (Or from a clean simulation that fits well with the experimental data.) We're talking about things many times the mass of the Sun moving at a decent fraction of the speed of light. Some interesting Q&As - physics.stackexchange.com/questions/235248/why-is-the-detection-of-gravitational-waves-so-significant one of the answers has diagrams showing the "chirp" in gravitational wave frequency. The first black hole merger that LIGO detected (that Brian is talking about in this old video) converted about 3 solar masses of matter into energy in about 0.2 seconds!!!! That's more power than the rest of the observable universe combined. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/461275/gravitational-waves-and-chirp-waveform physics.stackexchange.com/questions/363306/why-did-the-neutron-star-merger-signal-last-for-so-much-longer-than-the-black-ho Speaking of noise filtering, there's quite a bit of controversy over LIGO and whether they really detected anything, or whether it was just overly optimistic signal processing + randomness! The signals are so weak, even with all the care they take, that it needs a lot of signal processing to pull them out of noise. Pretty much everyone agrees that gravitational waves are a real thing, the question is just whether we can officially say we've actually *proved* they exist by actually detecting them. www.newscientist.com/article/mg24032022-600-exclusive-grave-doubts-over-ligos-discovery-of-gravitational-waves/

These are the kind of people that kids and teens should look up to. Not the Kardashians and Jenners of the world.

Probably the best science presentation I've ever seen on a mainstream talk show. Kudos to Stephen.

That simple laser experiment gave me pride to be a human being. Simple, elegant, and easily demonstrated fundamental laws of nature

When he screams "science", does it remind you of someone named Jessie Pinkman?

Can't believe they actually set up an interferometer on stage!

I love how Colbert doesn't get totally lost and flustered by a little science. Brian Greene is awesome as well, he's always so excited and passionate about science that it makes you excited.

That was really nice to have the general public introduced to this amazing discovery in a relatively painless way. They did just enough explanation to make it useful, but not boring. We need more of this in general.

Isaac Newton: Time and gravity is absolute. Albert Einstein: Hold my beer

lmao SCIENCE, SCIENCE!!! SCIIIIIIIIIIIENCE

This is what we should be watching and learning about on Discovery Channel. Not people failing to get eaten by some giant anaconda or some fake shark "documentaries".

"Is God Bugs Bunny?" Ha ha! It really is funny that two black holes colliding--the most powerful entities known in the universe--sounds like that.

Unbelievable achievement. Very honored to have had all three LIGO Nobel Prize winners on our podcast.

What a smart and intelligent segment for late night TV.

Green is probably the best communicator I've seen on science matters. He makes it simple, precise, and fun to follow.

Stephen may not know a lot about science, but once a thing has been explained to him, he gets it, immediately. Very sharp.

Pretty incredible how this guest explained such a complicated topic in a way even kids can understand.

Jimmy Fallon can keep playing his fart games with his guests while Colbert brings on AMAZING and educational guests - bravo.

I wish we could yell "SCIENCE" into ignorant people's heads and vibrate their brain waves into intelligence.

It just brings me so much joy to watch a guy being so passionate about his job. It made this 10x more interesting.

6:12 "whaaat" Stephen's best reaction of all time.

I'm an undergrad physics student right now, it is very exciting that I have the choice to steer my education in a direction that could lead me to work with these Gravitational Waves. Think of all of the discoveries to be made!

It is so *_TOTALLY_* amazing that Greene brought a freaking interferometer to demonstrate the concept!! WOW! Except for this, I don't think I have seen _any_ post-discovery talks where the interviewed scientist took the time to show a real one to the public.

Just watched netflix blackhole apocalypse, and this is really an awesome discovery. The nobel prize for kip thorne and rei weiss in 2017 are much deserved!

I love how so fast the professor starts getting excited explaining it! Science is pure awesomeness!!!!

I'm impressed. Either Stephen got time before the show to chew what they were about to talk, or he is VERY clever since he rephrased some of the explanations and gave intelligent questions, and he even had the time to make some funny stuff while at it... which is not usual on the TV show hosts

Love how he seems genuinely interested in what the guy is saying

Brian Greene and Sean Carroll are easily the best communicators on their field.

7:29 = the best

This couldn't possibly be more opposite of Fallon. THANK YOU Stephen, for saving late night talk shows.

This is really a wonderful public service put on by The Late Show. Thank you Stephen Colbert and team.

Man, the ending with Einstein and the ripple effect. A genius little thing. :)

Sadly scientists doesn't get genuine applaud from the society, neither they have a lavish lifestyle like celebrities nor the fame that they deserve, nonetheless they are changing the world.🙏 Lots of love from the bottom of my heart for all the scientists out there, who are grinding really hard to unfold the mystery of the universe and making the world a better place.❤️

Shouting the word "science" at the apparatus is what actually happens in laboratories as a last resort.

Fucking LOVE that we are finally talking science on television!

Steven u have earned my respect. Your scince questions to Dr Greene were excellent.

This was a great interview and presentation! Approachable and understandable without sacrificing accuracy.

A devout Catholic who loves and promotes science. Yet another reason to love Stephen Colbert

This is why Colbert is the best Late Night host. He is bringing science to the masses. Well done sir.

Exploring space is adventurous. Brian Green is legend.i watched his many lectures on different topics .

I'm glad Stephen asks real questions unlike ever other talk show host.

These are by far my favorite types of guests on this show. Colbert takes on an entirely new attitude when having such a well spoken and educated guest taking about such an awesome concept, one of seemingly honest interest yet he continues to keep the segment funny.

I appreciate it when Stephen lets the jokes take a backseat to a genuinely interesting subject. That was really cool.

Watching in 2019 and still in awe. Thanks for this Stephen! We need science like this at least once a week on the show.

7:43 even the camera-man who's in charge of the interference pattern on the main screen cracked up.

This is a very dense interview but they really kept the momentum going. It was good that Stephen was able to lighten the mood so it wouldn't Bohr the audience. They were both really on the same wavelength, they both Newtons of information, and none of the jokes were forced. Brian Greene may not be a Feynmans celebrity but he was a great guest who radiates intelligence.

Thank you The Late Show for putting things of value on real tv!

If we had physics or science teachers like this in every school...passionate about the subject and able to present it in an understandable way...imagine how many more scientists would be inspired in future generations.

No kidding this guy is so good at explaining stuff it blew my mind how he explained everything in such a simple way!

Of all the reports I've heard lately on gravitational waves, this for me was the best explanation

The idea that scientific discoveries like Gravitational Waves have a place in mass, mainstream media like CBS and Late Night - at least to me - demonstrates that Science is becoming a regular, celebrated aspect of our global Culture. I love that CBS allowed Brian Greene the time to let this be explained and highlighted to the masses.

Ive watched every year interviews like this ft Brian Greene, and everytime an interview session become a Physic class.

Very very well explained. Thank you Sir

My science finally dropped.

The professor is super passionate. Awesome stuff.

I wish I would have found your channel much sooner. I love the scientists/professors/astrophysics majors you bring on your show!

Man, I just love his smile. It's so contageous!

Fallon would be like "HAHAHAHAHAHA THATS AWESOME. GRAVITY IS COOL."

Gotta love a man who trusts the intelligence of his audience enough to give them an amazing piece of science in a typically comedic show.

"At what point do I put on the Pink Floyd"...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA I am ROFLing....damn steve is witty af

This was fascinating, thank you!

I'm glad Stephen Colbert didn't make any crappy jokes during the demonstration and actually was interested in all of this :)

It's so fucking great to see stuff like this on the Late Show, the producers are taking the show in a great direction now. It breaks the mold of all the other crap you used to see on late night tv, but it's still entertaining and interesting.

I really hope this will inspire people to begin thinking about stuff and how stuff works instead of being comfortably numb

I love it how he explains.. Thank you sir

Wow kudos to the Late Show for doing this, really great explanation, not dumbed down, not too jokey, but still very entertaining. TV doesn't have to be stupid

this is a tiny examples of how a show can become informative and still entertaining. I look forward to see more of this.

7:32 look at the projector,the pattern changes with the blob sound

That's a very horrifying sounf for people who studied gravitational waves in grade 11.

Honestly this is probably one of the best explanations of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Press 9 to hear the sound of 2 black holes colliding

very well written lines. I loved it. this is the stuff. thank you Stephen. more please.

Thanks Brian!

8 minutes and 21 seconds to understand the sound of 2 black holes colliding. Colbert is king!

The waves are so minuscule that Albert Einstein doubted they could ever be detected.. He would be damn proud ......

Thank you stephen colbert. More of this

You can tell when someone truly understands something out of this world they get so animated and passionate in their voice like this man here