I claim that all those who think they can cherry-pick science simply don't understand how science works. That's what I claim. And if they did, they'd be less prone to just assert that somehow scientists are clueless.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of understanding scientific principles rather than selectively accepting information.
Neil Degrasse Tyson asserts that individuals who attempt to cherry-pick scientific findings typically lack a comprehensive understanding of how science operates. This selective approach leads to misconceptions about scientific authority and credibility, suggesting that those who truly grasp the scientific method would appreciate the complexities involved and refrain from dismissing scientists as uninformed.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of scientific literacy.
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.
Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity.
It is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible.
Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.
True science discovers God in an ever-increasing degree — as though God were waiting behind every door opened by science.
If there's one operation for a disease, you know it works. If there are 15 operations, you know that none of them work.
Armstrong described the lunar surface as 'beautiful.' I thought to myself, 'It's not really beautiful. It's magnificent that we're here, but what a desolate place we are visiting.'
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