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Prime Minister Narendra Modi met a number of American thought leaders on his visit to the United States. This is the concluding part of a short 4-part series explaining what makes these public thinkers so special
Why Neil deGrasse Tyson Important?
The astrophysicist has been one of the most important promoters of science in America this century. Particularly through social media, he has rapidly expanded this role into the global public sphere as well.
What is the big idea Tyson is famous for?
The laws of physics apply to everyone’s lives, whether one knows it or not. Therefore, the more science becomes a political football, something Americans can choose to either believe in or not believe in, the faster the country fades. Better science education in schools is needed to avoid this fate. But this can’t be about the smartest kids in class, the ones who act straight, instead it should be about exciting the rest of the students to love science and math.
Ironically, people who campaign against science do so with pocket-sized smartphones, which integrate the latest in engineering, mathematics, information technology, and space physics. They must be countered with better marketing of science – polished and continuous – so that no one takes its discoveries for granted.
Which is what Tyson did as director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York in addition to his books and television appearances (Origins, Star Talk, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey), podcasts, newspaper columns and social media posts. He really appreciates Carl Sagan too for communicating broadly how much a cosmic perspective can enable each individual to think differently about the world – for the better.
There is no doubt that humans are smarter than any other living thing that has ever walked, crawled, or slid on the earth. But imagine if we listened to scientists more: Covid would never have become a pandemic because societies quickly understood the risks of transmission.
His quoted quote:
“Black holes are so weird that you must be fascinated by them. I think adults are fascinated by black holes the same way kids are fascinated by T-Rex, which is that you respect anything that can eat you whole!”
Why Neil deGrasse Tyson Important?
The astrophysicist has been one of the most important promoters of science in America this century. Particularly through social media, he has rapidly expanded this role into the global public sphere as well.
What is the big idea Tyson is famous for?
The laws of physics apply to everyone’s lives, whether one knows it or not. Therefore, the more science becomes a political football, something Americans can choose to either believe in or not believe in, the faster the country fades. Better science education in schools is needed to avoid this fate. But this can’t be about the smartest kids in class, the ones who act straight, instead it should be about exciting the rest of the students to love science and math.
Ironically, people who campaign against science do so with pocket-sized smartphones, which integrate the latest in engineering, mathematics, information technology, and space physics. They must be countered with better marketing of science – polished and continuous – so that no one takes its discoveries for granted.
Which is what Tyson did as director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York in addition to his books and television appearances (Origins, Star Talk, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey), podcasts, newspaper columns and social media posts. He really appreciates Carl Sagan too for communicating broadly how much a cosmic perspective can enable each individual to think differently about the world – for the better.
There is no doubt that humans are smarter than any other living thing that has ever walked, crawled, or slid on the earth. But imagine if we listened to scientists more: Covid would never have become a pandemic because societies quickly understood the risks of transmission.
His quoted quote:
“Black holes are so weird that you must be fascinated by them. I think adults are fascinated by black holes the same way kids are fascinated by T-Rex, which is that you respect anything that can eat you whole!”
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