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2006 Neil deGrasse Tyson closes the three day lecture series with an excellent final 'sermon' on cosmic perspective and the impact of science. Notice Dawkins in the audience.
Neil Tyson degrasse/the universe is inside us
Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
And I don't care what else anyone has ever told you, the Sun is white, not yellow. Human color perception is a complicated business, but if the Sun were yellow, like a yellow lightbulb, then white stuff such as snow would reflect this light and appear yellow—a snow condition confirmed to happen only near fire hydrants.Death By Black Hole, p. 293
[T]here is a theorem that colloquially translates, You cannot comb the hair on a bowling ball. ... Clearly, none of these mathematicians had Afros, because to comb an Afro is to pick it straight away from the scalp. If bowling balls had Afros, then yes, they could be combed without violation of mathematical theorems.Universe Down To Earth, p. 20
Regarding the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind:They all knew the mothership was coming, they all knew it was a flying saucer, they all knew it came from another planet through the vacuum of space. And so what do they do, to the left of that monument? They set up runway lights. And I'm thinking, if you could travel through the vacuum of space, you don't need runway lights. Runway lights are if you're using air for lift. Aliens would not need air for lift.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
Spirituality
Great scientific minds, from Claudius Ptolemy of the second century to Isaac Newton of the seventeenth, invested their formidable intellects in attempts to deduce the nature of the universe from the statements and philosophies contained in religious writings.... Had any of these efforts worked, science and religion today might be one and the same. But they are not.The Sky Is Not the Limit, p. 183
They [scientists of centuries past] call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God gets hardly a mention.Death By Black Hole, p. 353
There's no tradition of scientists knocking down the Sunday school door, telling the preacher, That might not necessarily be true. That's never happened. There're no scientists picketing outside of churches.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
Not only are we in the universe, the universe is in us. I don't know of any deeper spiritual feeling than what that brings upon me.Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion and Survival.Salk Institute for Biological Studies, November 7, 2006
Life and Death in the Universe
Aliens[I]f our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.
Death By Black Hole, p. 229
Intelligent DesignAnother practice that isn't science is embracing ignorance. Yet it's fundamental to the philosophy of intelligent design: I don't know what this is.... So it must be the product of a higher intelligence.Death By Black Hole, p. 361
Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.Death By Black Hole, p. 361
This present-day version of God of the gaps goes by a fresh name: intelligent design....Instead, why not tally all those things whose design...reflect[s] the absence of intelligence?Death By Black Hole, p. 359
Regarding whether aliens tried to contact us before we had radio:For all we know, the aliens have already done this and unwittingly concluded that there was no intelligent life on Earth. They would now be looking elsewhere. A more humbling possibility would be if aliens had become aware of the technologically proficient species that now inhabits Earth, yet they had drawn the same conclusion.Death By Black Hole, p. 235
FM signals and those of broadcast television...[travel] out to space at the speed of light. Any eavesdropping alien civilization will know all about our TV programs (probably a bad thing), will hear all our FM music (probably a good thing), and know nothing of the politics of AM talk-show hosts (probably a safe thing).Death By Black Hole, p. 172
My only hope is that every other [alien] civilization isn't doing exactly what we are doing because then everybody would be listening, nobody would be receiving, and we would collectively conclude that there is no other intelligent life in the universe.Death By Black Hole, p. 237
'The most I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
I'd bet almost anything that life from another planet, if formed independently from life on Earth, would be more different from all species of Earth life than any two species of Earth life are from each other.Death By Black Hole, p. 306
[I]f an alien lands on your front lawn and extends an appendage as a gesture of greeting, before you get friendly, toss it an eightball. If the appendage explodes, then the alien was probably made of antimatter. If not, then you can proceed to take it to your leader.Death By Black Hole, p. 107
On how to prove an alien abduction:Grab something off the shelf that's on the spaceship—an ashtray, it doesn't matter what. Because I can tell you, if they flew here from another galaxy, no matter what you've pulled off the shelf, it'll be unlike anything we have on Earth.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
'After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
When Ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
'The most accessible field in science, from the point of view of language, is astrophysics. What do you call spots on the sun? Sunspots. Regions of space you fall into and you don’t come out of? Black holes. Big red stars? Red giants. So I take my fellow scientists to task. He’ll use his word, and if I understand it, I’ll say, “Oh, does that mean da-da-da-de-da?' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RjW5-4IiSc&feature=related
Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
And I don't care what else anyone has ever told you, the Sun is white, not yellow. Human color perception is a complicated business, but if the Sun were yellow, like a yellow lightbulb, then white stuff such as snow would reflect this light and appear yellow—a snow condition confirmed to happen only near fire hydrants.Death By Black Hole, p. 293
[T]here is a theorem that colloquially translates, You cannot comb the hair on a bowling ball. ... Clearly, none of these mathematicians had Afros, because to comb an Afro is to pick it straight away from the scalp. If bowling balls had Afros, then yes, they could be combed without violation of mathematical theorems.Universe Down To Earth, p. 20
Regarding the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind:They all knew the mothership was coming, they all knew it was a flying saucer, they all knew it came from another planet through the vacuum of space. And so what do they do, to the left of that monument? They set up runway lights. And I'm thinking, if you could travel through the vacuum of space, you don't need runway lights. Runway lights are if you're using air for lift. Aliens would not need air for lift.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
Spirituality
Great scientific minds, from Claudius Ptolemy of the second century to Isaac Newton of the seventeenth, invested their formidable intellects in attempts to deduce the nature of the universe from the statements and philosophies contained in religious writings.... Had any of these efforts worked, science and religion today might be one and the same. But they are not.The Sky Is Not the Limit, p. 183
They [scientists of centuries past] call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God gets hardly a mention.Death By Black Hole, p. 353
There's no tradition of scientists knocking down the Sunday school door, telling the preacher, That might not necessarily be true. That's never happened. There're no scientists picketing outside of churches.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
Not only are we in the universe, the universe is in us. I don't know of any deeper spiritual feeling than what that brings upon me.Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion and Survival.Salk Institute for Biological Studies, November 7, 2006
Life and Death in the Universe
Aliens[I]f our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.
Death By Black Hole, p. 229
Intelligent DesignAnother practice that isn't science is embracing ignorance. Yet it's fundamental to the philosophy of intelligent design: I don't know what this is.... So it must be the product of a higher intelligence.Death By Black Hole, p. 361
Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.Death By Black Hole, p. 361
This present-day version of God of the gaps goes by a fresh name: intelligent design....Instead, why not tally all those things whose design...reflect[s] the absence of intelligence?Death By Black Hole, p. 359
Regarding whether aliens tried to contact us before we had radio:For all we know, the aliens have already done this and unwittingly concluded that there was no intelligent life on Earth. They would now be looking elsewhere. A more humbling possibility would be if aliens had become aware of the technologically proficient species that now inhabits Earth, yet they had drawn the same conclusion.Death By Black Hole, p. 235
FM signals and those of broadcast television...[travel] out to space at the speed of light. Any eavesdropping alien civilization will know all about our TV programs (probably a bad thing), will hear all our FM music (probably a good thing), and know nothing of the politics of AM talk-show hosts (probably a safe thing).Death By Black Hole, p. 172
My only hope is that every other [alien] civilization isn't doing exactly what we are doing because then everybody would be listening, nobody would be receiving, and we would collectively conclude that there is no other intelligent life in the universe.Death By Black Hole, p. 237
'The most I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
I'd bet almost anything that life from another planet, if formed independently from life on Earth, would be more different from all species of Earth life than any two species of Earth life are from each other.Death By Black Hole, p. 306
[I]f an alien lands on your front lawn and extends an appendage as a gesture of greeting, before you get friendly, toss it an eightball. If the appendage explodes, then the alien was probably made of antimatter. If not, then you can proceed to take it to your leader.Death By Black Hole, p. 107
On how to prove an alien abduction:Grab something off the shelf that's on the spaceship—an ashtray, it doesn't matter what. Because I can tell you, if they flew here from another galaxy, no matter what you've pulled off the shelf, it'll be unlike anything we have on Earth.The Amazing Meeting, Keynote Speech, 2008
'After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
When Ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
'The most accessible field in science, from the point of view of language, is astrophysics. What do you call spots on the sun? Sunspots. Regions of space you fall into and you don’t come out of? Black holes. Big red stars? Red giants. So I take my fellow scientists to task. He’ll use his word, and if I understand it, I’ll say, “Oh, does that mean da-da-da-de-da?' — Neil deGrasse Tyson
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