Post by auntym on Mar 20, 2012 10:58:03 GMT -6
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/neil-degrasse-tyson_n_1354898.html?icid=maing-grid7
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: 'We Don't Know What's Driving 96% Of The Universe'
Cara Santa Maria
sciencecara@huffingtonpost.com
March 20, 2012
Neil Degrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most celebrated science communicators and popularizers alive today. He is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium and hosts NOVA ScienceNOW on PBS. He has also written several popular texts about astronomy, including his most recent book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Neil in his office in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. From intelligent alien life to our stellar origins, how to think outside of the three-dimensional box to what baffles one of the great thinkers of our time, this was a conversation I won't soon forget. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I also hope you'll take the time to join the conversation by leaving a comment below. Talk nerdy to me!
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT
CARA SANTA MARIA: I'm here today at the American Museum of Natural History, and I'm about to go speak with astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm really interested to hear about some of the mysteries of the universe that baffle even him.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: I'm baffled all the time. We don't know what's driving 96% of the universe. Everybody you know and love and heard of and think about and see in the night sky through a telescope: four percent of the universe.
CSM: Yeah, even the things that we can't really see, through, you know, a visible telescope.
NDGT: That's even in the four percent. All of the invisible stuff that you can see with a different kind of telescope--
CSM: That's still in the four percent.
NDGT: Yeah. So that's one thing. Here's another one, a little more philosophical.
CSM: Okay.
NDGT: We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition-- We're creating our own definition and saying "we are intelligent!"
CSM: Yeah.
NDGT: Would another species say that about us, that calls themselves intelligent? Look at the genetic difference between us and chimps. It's very small--
CSM: Very small.
NDGT: But we say "well, what a difference that is!" we say to ourselves. We compose poetry and have philosophy and music, and all they can do is put a stick in a termite mound. If you could find another species, that same one percent difference in DNA beyond us that we are beyond chimps, how would we look to them? Our smartest humans would do what their toddlers can do.
CSM: Yeah.
NDGT: And it's not clear that they would view us as intelligent at all.
CSM: You're pretty confident that there is life in the universe besides ourselves.
NDGT: Anyone who study the problem will conclude that given how old the universe is--
CSM: Just based on probability?
NDGT: --how prevalent the chemistry of life is. You know, look at biochemistry. It's got carbon and nitrogen and oxygen. These are all over the universe.
CSM: Sure.
NDGT: Water is all over the universe.
CSM: And it's very difficult for some people to come to grips with the fact, and say, "well we must be so special. We're the only ones." You know, when really perhaps we're not that special at all.
CONTINUE READING: www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/neil-degrasse-tyson_n_1354898.html?icid=maing-grid7
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: 'We Don't Know What's Driving 96% Of The Universe'
Cara Santa Maria
sciencecara@huffingtonpost.com
March 20, 2012
Neil Degrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most celebrated science communicators and popularizers alive today. He is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium and hosts NOVA ScienceNOW on PBS. He has also written several popular texts about astronomy, including his most recent book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Neil in his office in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. From intelligent alien life to our stellar origins, how to think outside of the three-dimensional box to what baffles one of the great thinkers of our time, this was a conversation I won't soon forget. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I also hope you'll take the time to join the conversation by leaving a comment below. Talk nerdy to me!
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT
CARA SANTA MARIA: I'm here today at the American Museum of Natural History, and I'm about to go speak with astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm really interested to hear about some of the mysteries of the universe that baffle even him.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: I'm baffled all the time. We don't know what's driving 96% of the universe. Everybody you know and love and heard of and think about and see in the night sky through a telescope: four percent of the universe.
CSM: Yeah, even the things that we can't really see, through, you know, a visible telescope.
NDGT: That's even in the four percent. All of the invisible stuff that you can see with a different kind of telescope--
CSM: That's still in the four percent.
NDGT: Yeah. So that's one thing. Here's another one, a little more philosophical.
CSM: Okay.
NDGT: We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition-- We're creating our own definition and saying "we are intelligent!"
CSM: Yeah.
NDGT: Would another species say that about us, that calls themselves intelligent? Look at the genetic difference between us and chimps. It's very small--
CSM: Very small.
NDGT: But we say "well, what a difference that is!" we say to ourselves. We compose poetry and have philosophy and music, and all they can do is put a stick in a termite mound. If you could find another species, that same one percent difference in DNA beyond us that we are beyond chimps, how would we look to them? Our smartest humans would do what their toddlers can do.
CSM: Yeah.
NDGT: And it's not clear that they would view us as intelligent at all.
CSM: You're pretty confident that there is life in the universe besides ourselves.
NDGT: Anyone who study the problem will conclude that given how old the universe is--
CSM: Just based on probability?
NDGT: --how prevalent the chemistry of life is. You know, look at biochemistry. It's got carbon and nitrogen and oxygen. These are all over the universe.
CSM: Sure.
NDGT: Water is all over the universe.
CSM: And it's very difficult for some people to come to grips with the fact, and say, "well we must be so special. We're the only ones." You know, when really perhaps we're not that special at all.
CONTINUE READING: www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/neil-degrasse-tyson_n_1354898.html?icid=maing-grid7