Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier QUOTES

1 " Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that? "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

2 " In 2002, having spent more than three years in one residence for the first time in my life, I got called for jury duty. I show up on time, ready to serve. When we get to the voir dire, the lawyer says to me, “I see you’re an astrophysicist. What’s that?” I answer, “Astrophysics is the laws of physics, applied to the universe—the Big Bang, black holes, that sort of thing.” Then he asks, “What do you teach at Princeton?” and I say, “I teach a class on the evaluation of evidence and the relative unreliability of eyewitness testimony.” Five minutes later, I’m on the street.

A few years later, jury duty again. The judge states that the defendant is charged with possession of 1,700 milligrams of cocaine. It was found on his body, he was arrested, and he is now on trial. This time, after the Q&A is over, the judge asks us whether there are any questions we’d like to ask the court, and I say, “Yes, Your Honor. Why did you say he was in possession of 1,700 milligrams of cocaine? That equals 1.7 grams. The ‘thousand’ cancels with the ‘milli-’ and you get 1.7 grams, which is less than the weight of a dime.” Again I’m out on the street. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

3 " But you can’t be a scientist if you’re uncomfortable with ignorance, because scientists live at the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos. This is very different from the way journalists portray us. So many articles begin, “Scientists now have to go back to the drawing board.” It’s as though we’re sitting in our offices, feet up on our desks—masters of the universe—and suddenly say, “Oops, somebody discovered something!”

No. We’re always at the drawing board. If you’re not at the drawing board, you’re not making discoveries. You’re not a scientist; you’re something else. The public, on the other hand, seems to demand conclusive explanations as they leap without hesitation from statements of abject ignorance to statements of absolute certainty. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

4 " How do we change the way science is taught?

Ask anybody how many teachers truly made a difference in their life, and you never come up with more than the fingers on one hand. You remember their names, you remember what they did, you remember how they moved in front of the classroom. You know why you remember them? Because they were passionate about the subject. You remember them because they lit a flame within you. They got you excited about a subject you didn't previously care about, because they were excited about it themselves. That's what turns people on to careers in science and engineering and mathematics. That's what we need to promote. Put that in every classroom, and it will change the world. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

5 " Some molecules - ammonia, carbon dioxide, water - show up everywhere in the universe, whether life is present or not. But others pop up especially in the presence of life itself. Among the biomarkers in Earth's atmosphere are ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol sprays, vapor from mineral solvents, escaped coolants from refrigerators and air conditioners, and smog from the burning of fossil fuels. No other way to read that list: sure signs of the absence of intelligence. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

6 " 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. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

7 " There’s a fascinating frailty of the human mind that psychologists know all about, called “argument from ignorance.” This is how it goes. Remember what the “U” stands for in “UFO”? You see lights flashing in the sky. You’ve never seen anything like this before and don’t understand what it is. You say, “It’s a UFO!” The “U” stands for “unidentified.”
But then you say, “I don’t know what it is; it must be aliens from outer space, visiting from another planet.” The issue here is that if you don’t know what something is, your interpretation of it should stop immediately. You don’t then say it must be X or Y or Z. That’s argument from ignorance. It’s common. I’m not blaming anybody; it may relate to our burning need to manufacture answers because we feel uncomfortable about being steeped in ignorance. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

8 " Science, enabled by engineering, empowered by NASA, tells us not only that we are in the universe but that the universe is in us. And for me, that sense of belonging elevates, not denigrates, the ego. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

9 " I look forward to the day when the solar system becomes our collective backyard—explored not only with robots, but with the mind, body, and soul of our species. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

10 " Some people think emotionally more often than they think politically. Some think politically more often than they think rationally. Others never think rationally about anything at all.
No judgment implied. Just an observation. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

11 " Science literacy is being plugged into the forces that power the universe. There is no excuse for thinking that the Sun, which is a million times the size of Earth, orbits Earth. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

12 " If the whole world shared such experiences, we would then have common dreams and everybody could begin thinking about tomorrow. And if everybody thinks about tomorrow, then someday we can visit the sky together. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

13 " You could also ask who’s in charge. Lots of people think, well, we’re humans; we’re the most intelligent and accomplished species; we’re in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That’s what’s going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

14 " The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

15 " When you organize extraordinary missions, you attract people of extraordinary talent who might not have been inspired by or attracted to the goal of saving the world from cancer or hunger or pestilence. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

16 " We conquer the Independence Day aliens by having a Macintosh laptop computer upload a software virus to the mothership (which happens to be one-fifth the mass of the Moon), thus disarming its protective force field. I don’t know about you, but back in 1996 I had trouble just uploading files to other computers within my own department, especially when the operating systems were different. There is only one solution: the entire defense system for the alien mothership must have been powered by the same release of Apple Computer’s system software as the laptop computer that delivered the virus. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

17 " Robots are important also. If I don my pure-scientist hat, I would say just send robots; I'll stay down here and get the data. But nobody's ever given a parade for a robot. Nobody's ever named a high school after a robot. So when I don my public-educator hat, I have to recognize the elements of exploration that excite people. It's not only the discoveries and the beautiful photos that come down from the heavens; it's the vicarious participation in discovery itself. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

18 " Our nation is turning into an idiocracy. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

19 " Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee’s. To such a species, our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

20 " The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us. "

― Neil deGrasse Tyson , Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier