Neil deGrasse Tyson Ethers B.o.B on 'The Nightly Show'
“The Earth isn’t f*cking flat.”
The artist born Bobby Ray Simmons, aka B.o.B, has been in the news recently not for his music, but rather for his streak of outlandish tweets alleging that — contrary to popular belief and, er, science — the Earth is actually a flat disc. This naturally attracted the attention of astrophysicist and popular science’s spokesman Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has traded barbs and fact-bombs with the Atlanta rapper on social media over the past week. B.o.B released a diss track titled “Flatline,” perhaps the first by a rapper against a scientist. Tyson’s cousin responded in kind with a diss track aimed at the conspiracy theorist.
Now it looks as if Carl Sagan’s heir apparent has resolutely ethered the “Airplanes” singer. Appearing on Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show, the scientist broke down the basic geometry and calculus that explains why the horizon appears flat; he then shifted his focus to address Bobby Ray’s responsibilities as a public figure contributing to the spread of anti-intellectualism and — as if it weren’t overkill enough already — he then proceeded to drop the mic in a simple explanation of gravity.
Game, set, match, science.