I know a lot of you out there are fans of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Through a lot of luck and some good timimg, I got to (anonymously) ask him a question. It was through Reddit, which I frequent. A post appeared last night (here) where someone managed to get Dr. Tyson to answer a few questions from the Reddit community, and my question got voted up to the top.
Here was my question (I am ozonesonde):
quote:If you could get one minute of undivided attention from every single human being on this planet, what would you use it for?
And here is Dr. Tyson's response:
quote:I would tell them that the atoms of out bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.
It all happened very fast, but I'm thrilled to have been able to get him to respond to something that emerged directly from by brain. It's something he has said before (many times) in his speeches and interviews, but I think it's an excellent response.
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
That's awesome! Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I'm really jealous, that's really cool. His answer looks a little like recycled material from programs that he's done on TV, but clearly he feels these are important things, and certainly, it's mind bogglingly powerful information when you hear it for the first time.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I'm glad that he seems to be getting more and more media attention lately. He has some really interesting things to say.
If you follow him on Twitter, he occasionally shares some cool pieces of info.
@neiltyson
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
very awesome. Congrats White Whale!
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
I got to ask him a question at one of his book signings. It was very simple and silly compared to yours, though.
I asked him what his favorite planet was.
The answer: Saturn. Nothing is sexier than all those rings.
Posted by The White Whale (Member # 6594) on :
Flaunt those voluptuous ellipses!
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Forgive me for injecting religion here, but that is very similar to the Ash Wednesday homilies at my parish. On Ash Wednesday, we are marked with ashed with the words, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return" reminding us of the story in Genesis where God makes man from dust. Often this can be depressing, but at my church we are also reminded of exactly what Mr. Tyson points out and that dust is pretty awesome.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)