famous quotes by neil degrasse tyson
62 Famous Quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson
An eminent award-winning astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson needs no introduction. Buzzle brings you a compilation of some of his famous quotes.
Did You Know?
13123 Tyson (1994 KA) refers to an asteroid that was discovered on May 16, 1994, and has been named after Neil deGrasse Tyson.
The youngest director of the world-class Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, Neil deGrasse Tyson is truly an inspiration to aspiring astrophysicists. His interest in astronomy turned into an area of academic study, which saw him attend the best universities and rub shoulders with a mentor and legend like Carl Sagan. He has mesmerized many with his interpretation of the Universe.
Tyson is of the view that each and every human being is innately curious of the cosmos, and the reason for this is that it is programed into our DNAs. To fill that void arising from this curiosity, there is the need for people who specialize in space-related sciences to reach out to the masses. He has emphasized on the need for a larger budgetary allocation towards NASA, and has been an ardent proponent of space research. Through his books and articles, he continues to lay emphasis on the need to adopt a scientific temperament and rationale in our day-to-day lives. With his varied interests and multifaceted personality, Neil deGrasse Tyson brings to the field of science a star quality. He has used his status as a celebrity scientist to spread the message of science literacy, which he believes to be the key to making well-informed life choices.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Science
The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.
Scientific inquiry shouldn't stop just because a reasonable explanation has apparently been found.
Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That's kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It's not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.
The very nature of science is discoveries, and the best of those discoveries are the ones you don't expect.
The value of science is not simply what the next model of the iPod you will buy next week, but its real value comes about when it's time to distinguish reality from everything else. And to be scientifically literate is to be trained in what it is, to recognize your own frailty as a data-taking device.
When scientifically investigating the natural world, the only thing worse than a blind believer is a seeing denier.
I lose sleep at night wondering whether we are intelligent enough to figure out the universe. I don't know.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Space Exploration
Not only do we live among the stars, the stars live within us.
If it's a new planet, sign me up. I'm tired of driving around the block, boldly going where hundreds have gone before in orbit around earth-give me a place to go and I'll go.
Let us not fool ourselves into thinking we went to the Moon because we are pioneers, or discoverers, or adventurers. We went to the Moon because it was the militaristically expedient thing to do.
I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up-many people feel small, because they're small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.
There's as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.
Science needs the light of free expression to flourish. It depends on the fearless questioning of authority, and the open exchange of ideas.
The remarkable feature of physical laws is that they apply everywhere, whether or not you choose to believe in them. After the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Education and Science Literacy
We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.
There is no greater education than one that is self-driven.
Rational thoughts never drive people's creativity the way emotions do.
Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. You cannot build a program of discovery on the assumption that nobody is smart enough to figure out the answer to a problem.
It's okay not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's already there.
I think of space not as the final frontier but as the next frontier. Not as something to be conquered but to be explored.
Science literacy is less about what you know and more about how your brain is wired for asking questions.
We're a sleepy nation right now. I want us to be a nation of innovation. Every living thing is a masterpiece, written by nature and edited by evolution.
To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably big-headed of us.
Perhaps we've never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon Earth and decided there's no sign of intelligent life.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of 50 or 100 billion other galaxies in the universe. And with every step, every window that modern astrophysics has opened to our mind, the person who wants to feel like they're the center of everything ends up shrinking.
So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.
We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.
Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.
One thing is for certain, the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.
Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.
People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.
I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody's easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Spirituality
I would request that my body in death be buried not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna during my lifetime.
The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.
I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don't.
The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.
Once upon a time, people identified the god Neptune as the source of storms at sea. Today we call these storms hurricanes.... The only people who still call hurricanes acts of God are the people who write insurance forms.
My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.
Each component of this trinity of human endeavor-science, religion, and art-lays powerful claim to our feelings of wonder, which derive from an embrace of the mysterious. Where mystery is absent, there can be no wonder.
Our five senses are faulty data-taking devices, and they need help.
Your center of mass is a place you cannot visit but you always carry with you. Like memories, it is part of life's baggage.
As a child, I was aware that, at night, infrared vision would reveal monsters hiding in the bedroom closet only if they were warm-blooded. But everybody knows that your average bedroom monster is reptilian and cold-blooded.
If aliens did visit us, I'd be embarrassed to tell them we still dig fossil fuels from the ground as a source of energy.
For your own safety, do not ever tell an astrophysicist, I hope all your stars are twinkling.
If an alien lands on your front lawn and extends an appendage as a gesture of greeting, before you get friendly, toss it an eightball. If the appendage explodes, then the alien was probably made of antimatter. If not, then you can proceed to take it to your leader.
With automatic spell checkers running unleashed over what we compose, our era is that of correctly spelled typos.
Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program.
Unlike what you may be told in other sectors of life, when observing the universe, size does matter, which often leads to polite 'telescope envy' at gatherings of amateur astronomers.
If each dead person became a ghost, there'd be more than 100-billion of them haunting us all. Creepy, but cool.
Just to settle it once and for all: Which came first the Chicken or the Egg? The Egg - laid by a bird that was not a Chicken.
Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.
The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading, it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.
So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.
Doing what has never been done before is intellectually seductive, whether or not we deem it practical.
When your reasons for believing something are justified ad hoc, you are left susceptible to further discoveries undermining the rationale for that belief.
Science needs the light of free expression to flourish. It depends on the fearless questioning of authority, and the open exchange of ideas.
You know that passage in the Bible that says, "And the meek shall inherit the Earth"? Always wondered if that was mistranslated. Perhaps it actually says, "And the geek shall inherit the Earth."
If the world is something you accept rather than interpret, then you're susceptible to the influence of charismatic idiots.
Curious that a bulletproof vest does not protect the neck, head, or groin. I consider these body parts important.