Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination
Interpretation
Ignorance can be a barrier, but overcoming it leads to new discoveries and creative thinking.
This quote by Neil Degrasse Tyson emphasizes that where there is a lack of knowledge, there also exists the potential for new discoveries and imaginative ideas. It suggests that ignorance should not be feared but instead viewed as a starting point for exploration and inquiry, inspiring individuals to seek knowledge and push the boundaries of understanding.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of lifelong learning.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
As Darwin himself was at pains to point out, natural selection is all about differential survival within species, not between them.
Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.
Mitt Romney's energy policy is a relic of the 19th century. We need a 21st century plan. The fate of the planet is at stake.
What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?
It's hard to imagine anything more interesting than learning how we're woven into the enormous tapestry of existence. Where did our universe come from? How special is our world, and how special are we? We allocate tens of billions of dollars annually to NASA, NSF and academia in search of the answers.
If the government regulates against use of drones or stem cells or artificial intelligence, all that means is that the work and the research leave the borders of that country and go someplace else.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.