Why Science Is Vital
The Article: To at Least One Earthling, Siberia Meteor Proved That Science Is Vital by Clyde Haberman in The New York Times.
The Text: Twice on a recent Friday, the cosmos intruded rudely on us earthlings. A meteor exploded over western Siberia, shattering windows, injuring hundreds and scaring pretty much everyone else. That same day, an asteroid passed within 18,000 miles of us, close enough to arch many an eyebrow among astronomers.
One earthling, at least, looked on the bright side.
“It allows me, when I talk about asteroids, to reference an actual event where people got hurt,” said Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and the director of the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan for going on two decades. Not that Dr. Tyson was glad that people had been injured. Far from it. All the same, he said over drinks in Lower Manhattan, this cosmic activity “gives punctuation to my sentence that the human race is at risk.”
“Think of it,” he said, “as a shot across our bow.”
A warning that the planet could be imperiled has a way of focusing the mind wondrously. So we asked about a huge asteroid called Apophis, whose name alone ought to give one pause.
“It’s from the Egyptian god of death and destruction,” Dr. Tyson said. “It was named knowing that it crosses Earth’s orbit.” Otherwise, he said, “we would have named it something less threatening, like Tiffany or Bambi.”
Scientists say it will fly uncomfortably close to us in 2029 and again in 2036 and yet again in 2068. Luck, Dr. Tyson is convinced, will not be forever on our side. “What is a certainty is that one day Apophis and Earth will collide,” he said. “So our goal should be, if the survival of our civilization is a concern and a priority, to find a way to deflect it.”
“We know how to do it,” he said, but he added this disheartened postscript: “There’s no funded plan to do so anywhere in the world.”
The possibility of planetary cataclysm was not on our agenda when we invited Dr. Tyson to break bread. The original question was simpler: Could the latest brushes with asteroids get people thinking about the universe more, well, cosmically?
Because his schedule is forever tight, a proposed meal turned into late-afternoon drinks at the Beekman Pub, around the corner from City Hall and a short walk from his home. (Memo to accounting: you will be happy to hear that all he had to drink was a Diet Pepsi, with lime. His tablemate splurged on a beer.)
Dr. Tyson — Bronx-reared and, as he likes to point out, born in the same week in 1958 as NASA — is given to speaking not in whole sentences but, rather, in whole paragraphs. He has a gift for putting the fizz in physics and taking the sigh out of science.
Chances are he is no stranger to you. He is a television semiregular. Dr. Tyson even turned up, in illustrated form, in the January issue of Action Comics, identifying a plausible location in the real cosmos for Krypton, which had been Superman’s home planet.
He theorized that Krypton could have orbited a red dwarf star in the Corvus constellation, 27 light years from Earth. That’s roughly 160 trillion miles away, in case you are thinking of a trip.
The whole thing, he said, was DC Comics’ idea: “As a lifelong resident of Metropolis, the least I could do is allow my likeness to be in conversation with Superman.”
These days, Dr. Tyson is less focused on the planetarium than on creating a new iteration of “Cosmos,” the hit PBS series featuring Carl Sagan, which was first broadcast in 1980. This sequel, for the Fox network, is planned for early next year.
One of its producers is Seth MacFarlane. Yup, that Seth MacFarlane, the “Family Guy” guy and (to some viewers) the cringe-inducing host of this year’s Academy Awards show. Whatever one may think of his brand of comedy, “Seth MacFarlane is deeply committed to science literacy in this country,” Dr. Tyson said, and the two of them share a goal: reinforcing the idea that “science needs to be taken to people’s hearts in a way that they become better citizens for it.”
Is he saying that we treat science and mathematics shabbily in this country, where many people are all too proud to admit to a fear of all sums? Actually, Dr. Tyson said, “I don’t think the country’s less literate in math and science than ever before.”
“I cite, for example, how familiar people are with images from the Hubble telescope,” he said. “The Hubble did not require a P.R. person to become famous. It did all the P.R. on its own.”
Pop culture, too, is part of “a positive trend line,” given science-themed blockbuster films like “Avatar” and the durable “Star Wars” series, and popular television programs like the “C.S.I.” and “NCIS” franchises and “The Big Bang Theory.”
“There was a day when we didn’t have science at all in television programming,” Dr. Tyson said between sips of his soda. “Now it’s there, without having to stereotype the lab-coated, wire-haired character.”
Here’s the real problem, as he sees it: “You have people who are not scientifically literate who have risen to positions of power and control,” whether on local school boards or in Congress. He mentioned Representative Paul C. Broun, a Georgia Republican (and doctor) who sits on the House Science Committee and who says the world is 9,000 years old and was literally created in six days.
Voters, Dr. Tyson said, need to grasp the consequences of their electoral choices, especially if they produce officials who “undermine the source of creativity for tomorrow’s economy.” Meddle with the citizenry’s understanding of science and technology, he said, and people “will emerge on the other side incapable of making the discoveries and innovations that the nation requires in order to stay economically competitive.”
When it comes to the Creation, “if you use the Bible as your science textbook, you will go astray — there’s no question about it,” he said, adding: “Galileo understood this. He can be credited with drawing a line in the sand with his famous quote that the Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”
With all due respect to Galileo, he does not top Dr. Tyson’s list of science greats. “The first person I would meet the day a time machine gets invented” is Isaac Newton, he said.
On this afternoon, Dr. Tyson wore a pale yellow tie emblazoned with Newton’s image. It instantly caught the eye, as did a red rose tucked into the breast pocket of his jacket, a souvenir from a luncheon that day. The rose was in itself both a science lesson and a reminder of the planet’s fragility.
“Flowers capture some of why we value life,” he said. “If a flower were permanent, it would be so much less meaningful to the person you gave it to. It’s the fact that you know it will die in a matter of days that you care for it and you appreciate its beauty all the more.”
