If the Sun exploded, we wouldn't know about it for 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Light and gravity take that long to reach us. Then we would vaporize.
Interpretation
There is a delay in our awareness of cosmic events, highlighting the vastness of space and the limits of our perception.
Neil Degrasse Tyson's quote emphasizes the incredible distances in the universe and the finite speed at which light and gravitational waves travel. This implies that even if a catastrophic event like the Sun exploding were to occur, humanity would remain blissfully unaware for over eight minutes, underscoring both the power of the cosmos and the limitations of human perception.
In practice
In a science class discussing the nature of light and gravity.
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.
It's very important for us to see that science is done by people, not just brains but whole human beings, and sometimes at great cost.
Overall, the human brain is the most complex object known in the universe - known, that is, to itself.
What you see is that the most outstanding feature of life's history is a constant domination by bacteria.
Civilization as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it survive, without an adequate food supply.
I just felt that space was the next thing coming in aviation. It was higher, faster. It had the risk.
[Bacteria] have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon that ... allows bacteria to be multicellular. In the spirit of TED they're doing things together because it makes a difference.
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