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.
Interpretation
Neil Degrasse Tyson expresses the duality of scientific curiosity and the impact of political motives in space exploration.
In this quote, Neil Degrasse Tyson highlights his passion for space exploration as a scientist while acknowledging that geopolitical interests often play a significant role in the decisions made regarding space missions. This reflects the complex interplay between the pursuit of knowledge and the realities of international relations, suggesting that while scientific endeavors are driven by curiosity and discovery, they are also influenced by broader political agendas.
In practice
In a discussion about the motivations for NASA's missions to Mars, you might quote Tyson to emphasize the blend of science and politics.
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.
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.
Let me tell you something about full moons: kids don't care about full moons. They'll play in a full moon, no worries at all. They only get scared of magic or werewolves from stupid adults and their stupid adult stories.
Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.
I think it is a peculiarity of myself that I like to play about with equations, just looking for beautiful mathematical relations which maybe don't have any physical meaning at all. Sometimes they do._x000D_ _x000D_ At age 60.
You can’t say A is made of B or vice versa. All mass is interaction.
The future belongs to Science. More and more she will control the destinies of the nations. Already she has them in her crucible and on her balances.
Thanks to the discoveries of astronomers in the twentieth century, we now know that the heat death is a myth. The heat death can never happen, and there is no paradox.
Science fiction was one of those places, particularly during the McCarthy era, where you could write whatever you wanted because it was beneath contempt. They didn't bother censoring it.
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