MacGyver Science: Abduction + Memory + Time + Fireworks + Dispersal

Rhett Allain
6 min readMay 6, 2021

I remember binge-watching the show Parks and Recreation with my youngest son. It was great. But then we got to the last episode and he said he didn’t want to watch it. If we watch it, then it will be over. That’s how I feel about this episode.

Note: don’t worry — I still have a bunch more MacGyver stuff. I’m working on my paper clip videos (building stuff using paper clips). You can see those here:

Now for the science in this episode.

The Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox

It’s not really a MacGyver-moment, but it’s an excuse to talk about it. Bozer suggests that maybe Mac and Riley were abducted by aliens (extraterrestrial aliens). So, let’s get this straight. Is there intelligent life outside of Earth? So far, we don’t have any evidence that there IS or IS NOT extraterrestrial life. However, there seems to be a very good chance that there is life — just based on the numbers.

In fact, Dr. Frank Drake put together an equation to calculate the number of other civilizations that we should find in the Milky Way Galaxy (our galaxy). Here is the equation.

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Rhett Allain

Physics faculty, science blogger of all things geek. Technical Consultant for CBS MacGyver and MythBusters. WIRED blogger.