‘The Next Time You’re Abducted, Steal Something Off The Spaceship'(Neil Tyson)(Quest science month special)

Sometimes controversial, Neil deGrasse Tyson, 58, is one of the scientists who lobbied to have Pluto stripped of its status as the ninth planet from the sun. Tyson also says there is no reason to doubt the existence of life other than ours elsewhere in the universe, possibly intelligent, but he doesn’t believe there is enough evidence to support the idea that it has visited Earth in the form of UFOs. “The next time you’re abducted, just steal something off the ship,” he laughs 

As director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York, Tyson deals with intricate astronomical information daily. And while that may be the reality of an astrophysicist, Tyson possesses the rare gift of taking complex science and making it accessible to the average person. As host of a podcast network called “StarTalk” with a show on National Geographic Channel of the same name, he engages audiences in science through pop culture and comedy.

Following are edited excerpts from a fascinating conversation awhile back.

Jim Clash: Are most questions you get fairly intelligent?

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Yes. Others, even if they might at first sound like not good questions, I try to turn into good answers. There is always a place I can take someone’s curiosity and land where they end up enlightened when we’re done. That’s my challenge as an educator. No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.

JC: You do have a great way of making complicated science easy for the average person. Were you born that way?

NDT: Maybe it isn’t really that complex to begin with [laughs]. The first time I ever explained something to someone in any important way was eighth grade. We were learning matrices in math class. It seemed so simple to me how to use and manipulate them. But I also remembered not understanding them initially. So when I saw others struggling, I thought, “Maybe they are not thinking about it in the same pathways I am.” I realized that there are pathways of thought that might not be obvious to some people, and when you learn of them you can make acquiring knowledge much easier. Then I realized that the more ways I thought about how I knew things, the more useful that could be to others still struggling. In other words, there is a difference between those who learn something instantly and those who struggle. I don’t know that the first group would be as useful in teaching others.

JC: During the Apollo, NASA made up 4% of the U.S. budget. Today it’s 0.5%. What is a reasonable number to get a man to Mars?

NGT: If we doubled NASA’s budget — made it 1% — that would make a manned Mars mission close instead of stretching it out 25 years. It would also enable us to go back to the moon. We could launch asteroid reconnaissance missions and start thinking about the moon for an observatory. The back side is quiet, shielded from the radio emissions of Earth so we could do good science there like more monitoring of climates on Mars and Venus, places where conditions have gone bad. Since they are our neighbors in space, we kind of want to know what happened to see what risk we have here.

JC: We see study after study showing kids falling behind in science and math vs. the rest of the world. What should we do?

NDT: The problem is not scientifically illiterate kids; it is scientifically illiterate adults. Kids are born curious about the natural world. They are always turning over rocks, jumping with two feet into mud puddles and playing with the tablecloth and fine china. What do we say as adults? “Don’t touch the tablecloth.” “Don’t jump into the puddle or you’ll get your clothing dirty.” “Don’t slam on the pots and pans because you’re making a racket.” “Don’t play with water that way — you could spill it.” All of these activities by children are explorations of the world around them. Adults, who outnumber kids four or five to one, are in charge. We wield the resources, run the world and completely thwart kids’ creativity. So the problem is not the scientifically illiterate kid. The public — the electorate — needs to understand causes and effects of actions and inactions, [and have] a better knowledge of how science works. Science literacy is the artery through which the solutions of tomorrow’s problems flow.

JC: You’ve met some of the moonwalkers. Give us impressions. Who is say, the most interesting, the most spiritual?

NDT: The biggest character has to be Buzz Aldrin. He’s not hidden the way Neil Armstrong was. He is vocal, has opinions and ideas, and has written novels. He’s got to be the most colorful. I think the one most moved by the experience was [the late] Edgar Mitchell. He was most different coming back to Earth, and there’s a lot to be said about that.

JC: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity says that as one speeds up, time slows down. In the extreme, that implies time travel into the future.

NDT: Yes. I can send you off on a mission traveling near the speed of light, and time would slow down immensely for you. So while it may take you a few years to get to the nearest star, on Earth decades would go by. When you return, you will have aged just a few years while your loved ones are dead, and others long since have forgotten about you.

Ref:http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2017/02/02/neil-degrasse-tyson-the-next-time-youre-abducted-steal-something-off-the-spaceship/#24c988407b3d