TV Science: Stranger Things

what's going on guys

stranger things on Netflix it's become

kind of a phenomenon people are talking

about what season two gonna be like how

about all that nostalgia and how come we

did not get more of bar but you know

what no one's talking about the science

of it so we called up our resident movie

science expert to see if you wanted to

talk a little TV science so dr. Clifford

V Johnson came on down and without

further ado I present the science of

stranger things the collective IQ in

this room just went up so many points I

am beyond thrilled to have back with us

our old friend he's been on the show

several times dr. Clifford V Johnson

physics professor at USC happy to be

here we normally talk movie science but

today we're venturing to the smaller

screen we're gonna be talking some TV

science stranger things I'd like to talk

about some of the science some of the

exploration in this show tell us about

parallel dimensions could something like

the upside-down world actually exist one

of the great things about that subject

matter is that we actually don't know

for sure if such things could really

exist and so it's a wonderful playground

for filmmakers storytellers etc so so I

can't go in and say oh they got exactly

this thing wrong about this parallel

dimension or what have you because we

you know we're still playing with the

idea but the overall idea that maybe

space and time as we know it have more

components that we have yet to discover

is something that people consider a

possibility the kids teacher explains

the other dimension and moving in the

other dimension to them like an acrobat

on a tightrope

the Acrobat representing humanity can

walk back and forth on this tightrope

but a flea can explore the other

dimensions by going back and forth

upside down underneath does that make

any sense at all that is something that

we in my field especially it's an

analogy we use a lot or something

similar often you know sometimes it's a

drinking straw or a garden hose or what

have you have you heard this specific

the Acrobat and the flea no and so kudos

to them for coming up with

new way of saying an old thing and

that's great okay the idea is an

important one while they're trying to

get across they didn't quite get into it

so let me unpack it a little Yves is

that you have that long direction of the

you know moving along the rope yes

that's kind of an obvious one so that

would be like one of our obvious spatial

dimensions that we can move in in our

world and then there is the additional

possibility of going around and that's

kind of a little direction you go in

because it's just the circumference of

the of the rope so the idea is that that

might be hidden because it's so small

you don't notice it so the flea notices

it but not the Acrobat because it's too

small

is there a parallel dimension where barb

got more screentime

what happened to barb spoiler alert she

got killed no one seemed upset about it

I thought barb got short shrift Oh barb

do you feel it possible that something

someone a being from another dimension

could find its way into our world here's

the thing one of the problems is how you

get back and forth from sort of our

world to each other hey exactly my

impression of it right yeah

the same question works the other way

which is how would we go to this other

world yes and as the teacher explains as

far as we understand it it would be very

difficult not impossible because what

you need to do is essentially modify how

space and time are currently configured

you would have to essentially rip a hole

in the fabric of space and time which is

extremely costly what's the difference

between one of those portals a wormhole

and a black hole black holes we know

exist in some form or other and various

forms out there in the universe

those are themselves severe

modifications of the fabric of space and

time caused by gravitational collapse

they require huge amounts of matter and

so on and so forth we can't do that sort

of thing on the problem with black holes

is that they're essentially one-way

doors hey listen can't buy a round-trip

ticket on a black hole am i right doc

pretty much or you come back in pieces

you come back as the fundamental

particles that make you up can you say

that like Arnold Schwarzenegger no you

come back in pieces ok we digress

if you ripped a hole in the fabric of

space and time would that cause a portal

they said something very nice at one

point they go we want to have a thing

that takes me from one place in the

university or the other on to another

universe and I go well that seems

implausible that you'd be able to do

that because it would require you know

the energy of several being you know

billions of stars right what is it right

good oh yeah but what if nature already

made them and it all we have to do is

find them and essentially they have a

little bit of that idea in the show

which is great there's the hint that

maybe those holes are ready they're just

a matter of finding them there was a

portal in the TV show one of which was

in a tree yes the one in the tree was

amusing could that be a real thing that

would not be anywhere like the first

page of my long list of places I would

look for a portal in the show energy

required to open a portal or cause a

portal to manifest really messed with

the magnetic fields around it would that

happen in real life that was a nice

piece of physics in there that is not

implausible and it would be a great way

of detecting them and they use that the

compasses it said that compasses were a

wiki way right Winona Ryder's character

Joyce communicated with her son through

Christmas lights does that have any

bearing on anything we know I connect

this to the magnetic field thing the

idea that what's going on is somewhat

tenuously connected to our world in the

sense that you can influence one world

through the other if you know what

you're doing or accidentally and one of

them is through the lights now light as

you know and electricity is an

electromagnetic phenomenon was not aware

of that and if connecting the two worlds

messes with magnetic fields then you can

see a connection there and I think

that's yes going so walking it back a

step not just the Christmas lights but

deal it messes with the electricity yeah

what's really going on is it electricity

is being messed with in a very local

sense what do you think of their

depiction of the parallel world let's

say you were the art director on this

show or a movie

what would you paint the parallel

universe like first of all you know in

all likelihood the physics there it

would be completely different from ours

which which unfortunately means that it

would just be bonkers yeah which isn't

very interesting yeah one of you writing

a good narrative so instead you go the

other way and you make it extremely

similar but yes and I like that so

another analogy people tend to use is

that you might have something like a lot

of pages in a book each page of the book

you know you can move around on that

page it's like moving around in our

world but then there's a neighboring

page and that page is right next to the

page that's our world so it's not very

far away in terms of real distances you

would travel it could be a fraction of a

millimeter oh but if you can't move in

that direction

you'd never know for all we know we

could be in a whole library of parallel

universes with every page of every book

in that library containing its own

universe yes did I just blow your mind

oh we think about some of the things all

the time but let's write okay right I

just had a very common thought no no no

no no they built a sensory deprivation

tank I love them with salt water in a

kiddie pool yes is that what you do more

times yes there was absolutely nothing

wrong with the scientific accuracy of

that I mean more or less the great thing

is the two reasons this is great one is

that they're doing a good scientific

thing which is they're trying to

reproduce conditions under which

something that had been done before

could be done again we need to build a

tank like the one she was in in the lab

and so because there's no internet what

do you do you call teacher which is

great you're in a romantic situation a

hot date movie night watching I believe

it was the thing that they were watching

a student calls you 10 p.m. on a

Saturday what do you do if I hear the

sort of passion and urgency in his voice

that the young kid had and he wanted a

piece of knowledge and I could give him

that piece of knowledge in that moment

you know he probably would he made a

good case you're a physics expert

explained to me the physics of Steve

Harrington's hair like had a do you

remember the 80s

was a Trier of extraordinary laws of

physics when connected to her yeah it

was the whole time and then you know so

much body right and then the shoulder

pads later on and stuff like that so

physics was being deeply explored in

interesting ways when it came to fashion

in those times on a scale of one to ten

how would you rate Mike wheelers dungeon

master skills ah yeah that's a great

question it seemed pretty good I mean he

really got into it he acted things out

and so on and so forth that was good I

don't think I had a Dungeon Master or

when I did dungeon mastering I don't

think I sort of did a full acting out of

the death of one of the characters or

things they encountered so that was that

was good bottom line as a physicist

how does stranger things fare as a

physicist who enjoys seeing storytellers

use physics ideas in a creative and

interesting way I think they did a good

job there's a lot of stuff in there

that's just made up and that's okay

because they think the foundation got

across some fun ideas that people are

now talking about and thinking about and

that's the purpose of art they set the

groundwork they sprinkled in some fun

physics ideas and then they worked with

it and they built and I think they were

more or less internally consistent and I

think that's good great that's a pass

dr. Clifford V Johnson I just want to

tell you if I'm ever trapped in the

upside-down world

I hope someone calls you to help rescue

me I'll do my best that's all I can ask

for thank you so much for being here

it's always a pleasure to have you sir

it's great to be here well that was fun

and educational what did you think of

stranger things have you been

experimented on by the Department of

Energy do you think dr. Clifford B

Johnson would answer his phone on a

Saturday night let us know in the

comments section we want to know I want

to thank you for watching screen junkies

I'm Hal Rudnick hit me up on Twitter

bye-bye

in a world where every Network spends

millions to get the attention of Emmy

voters the only way we knew how to build

high for our own amino

nation was to make fun of the TV shows

the voters work off wait wait wait go

back we got nominated for an Emmy like

an Emmy Emmy that's awesome

but wait then why are we making fun of

all their shows this is a terrible idea

you guys honest Emmys