Neil deGrasse Tyson Confronts Andy Weir on the Science of Project Hail Mary

The alien in Project Hail Mary uses echolocation with nerve endings for sound, providing constant 3D environmental input.

Andy Weir was a software engineer before becoming a science fiction novelist.

The movie adaptation of "The Martian" was released in 2015.

Ridley Scott directed the movie adaptation of "The Martian."

"Artemis" is the only one of Andy Weir's three books that has not yet been made into a movie.

Andy Weir's latest book, "Project Hail Mary," is now a film starring Ryan Gosling.

The alien microbe in "Project Hail Mary" is named Astrophage, a portmanteau meaning "star-eater."

Astrophage lives on the sun's surface, absorbs energy, converts it to mass, and uses light as propulsion to migrate to planets with carbon dioxide for reproduction.

All life in Project Hail Mary, including on Earth and Eridani, is water-based due to a panspermia event that radiated out from Taureti.

To have liquid water on a hot planet like Eridani, a very high atmospheric pressure is required, allowing water to remain liquid at over 200 degrees Celsius.

No light reaches the surface of Eridani due to its thick ammonia atmosphere, leading to echolocation-based life forms like the Iridians.

Rocky's body is covered in "oracles" (nerve endings for sound) that allow for constant 360-degree echolocation input, eliminating the need for a brain part that tracks objects not in direct sensory input.

The lead character, Ridley Grace, was drugged and put on the mission against his will.

The Eridani species in Project Hail Mary did not understand relativity.

A scene cut from the Project Hail Mary movie involved humanity nuking Antarctica to release methane and increase global warming to counteract the sun's dimming.