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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Trees. Grunt Humor. 355 subscribers. Subscribed. 11. 323 views 2 months ago. Taken from the Star Talk Podcast.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson (US: / dəˈɡræs / də-GRASS or UK: / dəˈɡrɑːs / də-GRAHSS; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton ...
You know we must be talking about Neil deGrasse Tyson, the African-American astrophysicist with the uncanny ability to reduce complex cosmic concepts into ideas the average person understands and finds entertaining. No wonder he has such a following among geeks and non-geeks alike.
- The Start of Everything
- The Sky Is Not The Limit
- Cosmological Questions
NOVA: What makes the study of origins so hot right now?
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Well, one thing that distinguishes us today from the discoveries of the past is the extent to which the exploration of the universe has become multidisciplinary. It was unthinkable not long ago that a biologist or paleontologist would be at the same conference as an astrophysicist. Now we have accumulated so much data in each of these branches of science as it relates to origins that we have learned that no one discipline can answer questions of origins alone. It requires...
It's hard to imagine scientists in such diverse disciplines working well together. Do they?
Initially it was like a shotgun wedding, where you'd say, "Well, I guess we have to talk to each other." And scientists in different disciplines don't speak the same language. They publish in different journals. It's like the United Nations: You come together, but no one speaks the same language, so you need some translators. "The moons of the solar system may be more interesting than the planets themselves." But in the end, what happens is that new fields of astrobiology and astrogeology and...
What are some of the most exciting recent discoveries in origins science?
I would say one, we nailed the age of the universe. Two, we have measured the existence of dark matter and dark energy. Even though we don't yet know what they're made of, we know we can measure the effects they have on the origin and evolution of the universe. Another is the discovery that the moons of the solar system may be more interesting than the planets themselves.
Having gone to the Hayden Planetarium as a boy, what's it like to be its director now? A dream come true?
No, I never dreamed that I'd be director of the Planetarium. But now that I am, one of my greatest privileges is signing the certificates of completion for classes taken by youths and adults. I received these same certificates, signed by the head of the Planetarium, when I was a kid taking classes. I see it as a real honor and privilege and duty to serve others in their ambition to become scientists the way scientists and educators served my interest when I was young. To the extent to which i...
What advice would you have for a budding astrophysicist?
It depends on their age. If they're really young, I'd say the parents just need to get out of the way! So often parents will interfere with the curiosity of their kids without even knowing they're doing it. They'll interfere under the guise that the child is misbehaving, when if you look carefully at the behavior of children, in almost all cases it's exploratory. If they're a little older, I'd say take full advantage of the cultural resources that your municipality has to offer. Usually it's...
In your memoir, The Sky Is Not the Limit, you devote a chapter to discussing the challenges you and other African-American colleagues have faced, just because of the color of your skin.
Yes, "Dark Matters."
What are you working on now in your work as an astrophysicist?
Right now I'm part of a major collaboration to look at data from the Hubble telescope. It's a patch of sky that's being imaged to very, very deep sensitivity levels to try to get the limit of all galaxies in the universe. Once we resolve this, we're worried about how galaxies cluster, how they respond to their own mutual gravities, how they evolve over time.
Do you have high hopes for the James Webb Space Telescope, which is designed to study distant galaxies?
Absolutely. That telescope, although it's been billed as the follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope, will not have the same image appeal. But it will be unprecedented in its ability to measure the formation of galaxies in the early universe, something the Hubble can't do. The Hubble telescope can measure them in different evolutionary states, but it can't see them actually forming. And that's a big gap in our current knowledge right now, how galaxies form. It doesn't have the sex appeal of t...
Regarding the origin of life, the astronomer Alan Dressler has written that every atom in our bodies save hydrogen was once at the center of a star. Can you explain that?
Sure. The Big Bang endowed the universe with hydrogen and helium and not much of anything else. That is, nine out of ten atoms are hydrogen, about one out of ten atoms is helium, and there are only trace amounts of other things. If there were no stars, that would be the beginning and end of the universe. But there are stars, and stars manufacture heavy elements from light elements. They take hydrogen in and fuse the atoms to become helium, and helium fuses to become carbon, and carbon fuses t...
Oct 1, 2024 · Neil deGrasse Tyson is most famous for popularizing science with such books as The Pluto Files (2009) and through his frequent appearances on television as a talk show guest or hosting his series about science, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014).
Feb 8, 2024 · Quick Facts. FULL NAME: Neil deGrasse Tyson. BORN: October 5, 1958. BIRTHPLACE: New York, NY. SPOUSE: Alice Young (m. 1988) CHILDREN: Travis Tyson, Miranda Tyson. ASTROLOGICAL SIGN:...
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Nov 21, 2006 · NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: What he's learned might unlock the secrets of how the avian flu, the one we're worried about now, could spread, infect and possibly kill millions. TERRENCE TUMPEY: Maybe...
