Famed Astrophysicist Is Bringing Space Science Down To Earth
You’ve seen him on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, watched an episode or two of Cosmos, even caught his StarTalk radio show. Maybe you haven’t quite worked your way up to watching Nova on PBS yet, but you have checked out its air date and even found the web page. You’re getting your geek on, and you don't know a single element on the periodic table.
Science is becoming mainstream sexy, and a large big part of its appeal rests on the very broad shoulders of the charismatic astrophysicist from New York City, Neil deGrasse Tyson. It’s his approachable, knowledgeable and wonderfully engaging on-screen presence, often donning a Matrix-esque persona (as in the Cosmos opening credits) that has helped to make his a household name, beyond those of the physics club and beaker crowd.
But there’s more than just style to the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium (Rose Center for Earth and Space, NYC). Before the ascent of his celebrity, the bulk of his work tended to focus on a more 'hard-core' scientific audience, penning such page turners The Expanding Photosphere Method Applied to SN1992am at cz = 14600 km/s. Nowadays he's less of a traditional research scientist and more of a goodwill ambassador for the sciences in general, and the universe in particular. His innate ability to break down complicated technical jargon into tasty bites for mass consumption is nothing short of a scientific breakthrough, in itself. Tyson may be standing on the Shoulders of Giants, but he's doing it in a way unlike any scientist since Einstein has been able to pull off.
Secret to his success
deGrasse Tyson talks about science as everyday life occurrences, in witty, thoughtful tones and overtures; his passion is infectious and his demeanor, while inviting, demands attention because you know he's excited for you to learn. That scientific joie de vivre, coupled with a natural sense of humor is part of his draw and has contributed to his becoming one of the most in-demand science experts of our generation.
He is the author of 10 books, including The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, a companion to the PBS-NOVA 4-part miniseries of the same name. All which further his expressed desire to get people excited about the need to improve their scientific literacy.
Science is not a subject you took in high school. It's life. We are wrapped by it, in it, with it. And one's science literacy should never be viewed as a disposable dimension of one's mind - not in this, the 21st century, where the engines of tomorrow's economies will be derived from wise investments and innovations in science and technology. - Neil deGrasse Tyson
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