All the traditional STEM fields, the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, are stoked when you dream big in an agency such as NASA.
Interpretation
Dreaming big in STEM fields can lead to great achievements, especially with organizations like NASA.
Neil Degrasse Tyson emphasizes the importance of ambition and dreaming big within the traditional STEM fieldsβscience, technology, engineering, and math. He suggests that organizations like NASA foster an environment where such aspirations thrive, allowing individuals to contribute to groundbreaking achievements and innovations in these critical areas.
In practice
In a talk about inspiring the next generation of scientists, this quote serves as a powerful reminder of the possibilities within STEM.
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.
All nights are sacred nights to make confession and resolve and prayer; all days are sacred days to wake new gladness in the sunny air.
My future will not copy my fair past, I wrote that once. And, thinking at my side my ministering life-angel justified the word by his appealing look upcast to the white throne of God.
The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.
The first step is to find out what you love - and don't be practical about it. The second step is to start doing what you love immediately, in any small way possible.
Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude... Don't complain; just work harder... Never give up.
My father once told me when I was a young girl that I was destined to do great things. His belief in my abilities and ambition is rooted deeply in the spirit of Malawians; resilient and determined for a better Malawi and a better Africa.
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