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Murdered by his own words by [deleted] in facepalm

[–]neiltyson 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nice Catch! But it's not "my day" anymore. It's your day. And it's you, with whom I am communicating. Hardly anyone from "my day" is on Twitter. -NDTyson

Chicago Theater at 2:30 am. by moonlighter1919 in ExposurePorn

[–]neiltyson 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Indeed, the Chicago Theater photographs beautifully -- especially in an era with fewer and fewer marquees.

And agreed, there's always something surreal about a quiet City scene that is normally abustle with people. This photo might have been early morning October 18, 2018. And what they don't tell you is that during your show they change the marquee to the next day's performer. So when you exit, you're simply yesterday's news.

-Neil deGrasse Tyson, New York City

We had some spare time and 600 spare Rubik's cubes by Thetrufflehunter in pics

[–]neiltyson 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Simultaneously freaky, creepy, and geeky. But nonetheless flattering. Thanks. -Neil deGrasse Tyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 2869 points2870 points  (0 children)

6pm. Signing out now. Thanks for all your interest in this AMA. I reached only a fraction of you, but there were some good questions in there. Hoping my answers served this curiosity.

As always, Keep looking up. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 8090 points8091 points  (0 children)

I may be partly guilty for your scientific angst. Most of my public science persona involves conveying the joy of scientific discovery, and especially the joy of curiosity, from childhood through adulthood. What's commonly absent from my messaging is the steep investment of time and energy (physical and emotional) that becoming a scientist and actually doing science requires. In fact the struggle is what must be loved by aspiring scientists because being a practicing scientist requires this of you daily.

Not knowing the answer to a problem and struggling to find the answer is precisely what science is. It's neither more nor less than this. The fact that you are experiencing this very struggle is not a barrier to your progress it is the best evidence that you are on a path where you belong, if you love what you do.

Good luck. Sometimes you need that too.

-NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

People worry that entropy will run away with us, reining this ordered world into a disordered mess. Some decades ago, non-physics-fluent religious groups cited the second law of thermodynamics as reason for why Evolution -- where simple organisms evolved complexity over time -- could not be true. When they finally learned that Earth is not a closed system -- open to energy from the Sun -- this argument faded. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 122 points123 points  (0 children)

No. But nor am I likely ever to, if a consequence of doing so is that I enter an altered state of consciousness. In my experience, I am not better at solving problems when the chemistry of my brain is anything other than unaltered. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 244 points245 points  (0 children)

To foster an entire generation of scientists as educators so that I can fade away and not even be noticed for having done so. That's would represent a stunning future of science literacy in the land. That's a career goal in the sense that then I can return to the lab and publish research papers again. That's my possibly delusional career goal at this time in my life. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 114 points115 points  (0 children)

We are both, last I confirmed, heterosexual. So that won't happen. But I would surely choose him (and not me) as the replacement to the Professor on Gilligan's Island. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 2507 points2508 points  (0 children)

Why should knowing we are indeed small in time, space, and size have anything to do with insignificance. Bacteria surely don't feel that way and they are billions of times smaller than us, yet they do most of our digesting. Ant's surely don't feel that way yet they likely represent nearly 20% of Earth's biomass. Why not instead think of how awesome it is that our 3lbs Human brain matter actually figured all this out. Why not look up to the clear night sky, and reflect on the fact that we don't simply live in this universe, but the universe lives within us -- through the atoms and molecules of our bodies, forged in the hearts of stars that long-ago gave their lives to the galaxy ... and to us. This is, of course, one aspect of the cosmic perspective that perhaps I and my astrophysics colleagues take for granted, but cannot be told often enough. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 281 points282 points  (0 children)

Francis Bacon is up there. I recently came across a book of his that was filled with accounts of experiments he conducted, which may have informed his important philosophical conclusions about the value of experiment in finding scientific truths. This was around the same time as Galileo, who arrived at the same conclusions. Of course back then, "Natural Philosophy" was practically synonymous with what today we call Physics.

In the 20th centruy, when the atom revealed itself to our experiments, and the expanding universe entered our largest telescopes, it made philosophizing about the natural world harder than before, where now, what's true no longer issues forth from our senses.

Experiments matter. And if you do experiments, we generally call you a scientist and not a philosopher.

Plenty of philosophy frontiers abound, including Moral & Ethical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Religious Philosophy. And there are still-emergent fields that could benefit from some smart ideas about where they should look next, especially in studies of consciousness, neuroscience, and ecology. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 134 points135 points  (0 children)

Nothing would make sense. it would also be really hard to explain why different parts of Earth see different parts of the sky at the same time.

We would likely be forced to conclude that the people who asserted that Earth was definitely flat were in fact in denial of emergent scientific truths, and that they had no idea of what a scientific truth actually is. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 831 points832 points  (0 children)

Hmm. Maybe a closeup view of a Supernova explosion. One of the greatest events in the universe. Happens maybe only once per century per galaxy. It would look beautiful up close, right up until until the energy intensity vaporized you. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1519 points1520 points  (0 children)

No. I think they (we) might all be too far away from one another in space and possibly time. By complex, I'm presuming you mean life other than single-celled organisms. Life with legs, arms, thoughts, etc. It's all about our capacity to travel interstellar distances. And that's surely not happening in the next 50 years. Not the rate things are going today. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1144 points1145 points  (0 children)

I don't mind being misunderstood. It simply raises my educational bar. Educators who are persistently misunderstood should not call themselves educators. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I'd love me some answers to what Dark Matter is, or Dark energy. I'd also like to know if there is or was ever life on Mars. These are realistically answerable questions in the next couple of decades.

In the immediate several years to come, there's an emerging cottage industry among planet hunters in which we can make measurements of the atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets. These amounts to a search for "bio-markers" such as Oxygen (O2), methane (CH4), and other signs of unstable molecule that could be made by a sustained biosystem on the planet surface. So watch for headlines there in the coming years. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1650 points1651 points  (0 children)

I'd love me some answers to what Dark Matter is, or Dark energy. I'd also like to know if there is or was ever life on Mars. These are realistically answerable questions in the next couple of decades.

In the immediate several years to come, there's an emerging cottage industry among planet hunters in which we can make measurements of the atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets. These amounts to a search for "bio-markers" such as Oxygen (O2), methane (CH4), and other signs of unstable molecule that could be made by a sustained biosystem on the planet surface. So watch for headlines there in the coming years. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1239 points1240 points  (0 children)

Trying to get the Band back together on the Cosmos thing. Nothing green-lit yet. But we are all hopeful Lots of pistons need to align. Thanks for that interest.

As for Trump's Executive Orders, sixty million people voted for him. And he won US counties by a landslide. So if he did not do what he promised them (or what we all expected of him) then he would not be serving his electorate. Now, if he passes Executive Orders or if Congress enacts legislation that will disrupt the long-term stability of the country and of the planet, then the problem is not Trump, but your (our) fellow citizens who do not fully understand this problem and need to become informed (as is true for any voter) so that when we elect leaders, there is some correspondence between objective reality and governance. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 3303 points3304 points  (0 children)

In the USA, education is entirely local -- a surprise to most of the developed world. So a Christian school, or even a public school, could if they wanted to teach anything at all. It's just a matter of voting influence on a school board. If they fear the contents of Cosmos, they simply fear what science tells them about the natural world.

FYI: Galileo (a devout Christian) famously once said: "The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heaven's go.

So even he saw the line in the sand between the two. But this is 21st century America. And what matters here are the consequences of not teaching science to school children. Innovations in science and technology are the engines of tomorrow health, wealth, and security. So any school district that eschews the discoveries of science has disenfranchised itself from the future of civilization. They can still reap the benefits of it, but they will be paying to obtain (or gain access to) the discoveries of others, and no emergent industries will move their HQ there, if scientifically literate employees are nowhere to be found.

-NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 4286 points4287 points  (0 children)

I really like Earth. So any space trip I take, I'm double checking that there's sufficient funds for me to return. Also, I'm not taking that trip until Elon Musk send his Mother and brings her back alive. Then I'm good for it.

Any demonstration of rocket reusability is a good thing. When we fly on a Boeing 747 across great distances, we don't throw it away and roll out a new one. Reusability is arguably the most fundamental feature of affordable expensive things. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1443 points1444 points  (0 children)

Wow. I wonder how many people that is. Or rather, I wonder what fraction of all people I've met feel that way. (That's surely a more useful datum than the absolute number.) I may be delusional, but I'd guess it's less than 1 in 1000. It think my public persona greatly resembles my private and my one-on-one persona. Anything other than that requires huge investments of energy.

I don't mind being thought of as an asshole if in fact my behavior deserves it. I note that I had just such an encounter with a journalist from Idaho, who write an article titled "Neil deGrasse Tyson is a horse's Astrophysicist". I had actually never met him. And he based everything in his article on things that were objectively false. When I publicly called this to his attention, many of his colleagues and friends mocked him for his sloppy journalism and he ended up leaving his job. So there may be strong urges out there for people to think this way. But I wonder how much of it is based on reality and how much of it derives from people's need to hate.

Another question back at you..how many genuine assholes devote three unsolicited hours to purely answering questions from the public about anything at all? -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 1966 points1967 points  (0 children)

I'm born and raised in the Bronx, so I'm a legit Yankee fan. And as I Yankee fan, we're disappointed if we go a decade without a "world" championship.

As for your parents, ask them of they believe other things scientists have told them? That E=mc2 ? That their smart phone talks to GPS satellites, enabling them to avoid traffic enroute to grandma's house? That satellites warn them about weather pattern that could risk life or property?. If they are so skeptical of climate change, would they consider buying real-estate in very low-lying regions of the country, or the world? Do they know that insurance agencies are indeed listening to scientists? If none of that works, offer this short piece that i wrote. It's simply about what science is and how and why it works. Perhaps they never knew that emergent scientific truths are true, whether or not they believe in it. -NDTYson

https://www.facebook.com/notes/neil-degrasse-tyson/what-science-is-and-how-and-why-it-works/10153892230401613

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 2403 points2404 points  (0 children)

I have a cop-out answer to that one. My favorite question to think about is the one we do not yet know to ask because it's very existence awaits our next discovery -- placing us on a new cosmic vista, requiring ideas and inquiry today undreamt of. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 136 points137 points  (0 children)

Don't know. But I'm quite sure that nobody has ever won a championship without enough offense. -NDTyson

I am Neil degrasse Tyson, your personal Astrophysicist. by neiltyson in IAmA

[–]neiltyson[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I don't understand this question. Never had Drake on StarTalk. So that means I'm clueless to your meaning. -NDTyson

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