Neil deGrasse Tyson

There are two ways you can receive energy from your environment: One is molecules bumping against you. That\'s the air. The other is radiative energy. That\'s what you\'re feeling from the sun. When they say \'Get out of the sun, out of the heat,\' the air is the same temperature; it\'s just you\'re exposed to sunlight.

Americans live in a free country, which allows you to believe what you want. Because you think that something is true does not require that it is objectively true. The value of science concerning itself with objective truths is that we can make decisions and statements that affect everyone, which is why legislation really should be based on objective truths, not what is going on in your head.

Why can\'t Pluto be a planet? Some people like Pluto. And if it doesn\'t exist then they don\'t have a favorite planet. Right? Please write back but not in cursive because I can\'t read cursive.

That is a big question we all have: are we alone in the universe? And exoplanets confirm the suspicion that planets are not rare.

If you want to come behind the Bible and explain everything scientifically, then you\'re denying God\'s power over miracles.

I\'ve found that no one complains about pop culture being a source of someone lecturing to them. If someone\'s telling you about Kim Kardashian, you\'re not going to accuse them of lecturing to you. If I can explore an intersection between pop culture and science literacy, then it generally will not come across as a lecture.

It is in the best interests of civilization and our economy and our nation to understand what objective truths are as revealed by the methods and tools of science.

All the great advances in cinema came about from technology. The 3-D camera was not invented by a movie director. The new industries are driven by the innovations in science and technology.

That\'s the point, to get the people who wouldn\'t otherwise think to eavesdrop on a conversation that involves science.

I don\'t need my name anywhere.

When NASA dreams big America dreams big. People...kids say, \'I want to do that when I grow up\'. Because you want to do what\'s visible to you.

When we went to the moon and realized that the Soviet Union had no realistic plans of getting to the moon, then we stopped going to the moon.

I don\'t live life to be remembered for anything.

I grew up in New York City where there is no night sky. Nobody has a relationship with the sky, because, particularly in the day, there was air pollution and light pollution, and you look up, and your sight line terminates on buildings. You know the sun and maybe the moon, and that\'s about it. So what happens is that I am exposed to the night sky as you would see it from a mountaintop, and I\'m just struck by it. Suppose I grew up on a farm where I had that sky every night of my life - then you\'re not going to be struck by it. It\'s just the wallpaper of your nighttime dome.

Something we all have as kids and is beaten out of us as adults. Parents come up to me, \'How do I get my kids interested in science?\' They\'re already interested in science. Just stop beating it out of them.

I recognize that there\'s an appetite that I\'m now serving, and I\'m happy to do so. I think it means quite a bit that science has achieved this level of public interest and access. And so I\'m simultaneously astonished every day upon recognizing this, and I think it\'s a good sign for the country and possibly for the world.

Politics will take whatever shape it needs for people to get elected. But at the end of the day, the population remains and that\'s really, as an educator, who I care about.

I\'m revealing information to people. I\'m not creating it. And to the extent that people embrace it, I think they\'re empowered by it, because any time you have a bigger perspective today than you did yesterday, it\'s got to be only for the good of your mind, your body, your soul.

So this show [Cosmos] does not only operate on you intellectually, because telling you stories of how science works and why it works and what was discovered and why it matters, but combines that with stunning visualizations of the cosmos. This has the chance of affecting you intellectually and emotionally, and as well as even spiritually, because the wonder and awe of the universe are especially potent when presented in this way.\'

It\'d be a shame to talk about the universe and not show some images of it, because we have some of the more stunning representations of our field relative to any of the sciences. But I don\'t use the imagery as a substitute for the insights and wisdom I can convey so that when you leave you say to yourself, \'Wow, I\'m a little more deeply connected to the universe, and I want to learn more.\'

These are two different exercises. One of them is, \'You don\'t know and I know, so just shut up and listen,\' and the other one is, you\'re curious and you\'re learning, and I have a way where you can learn this so you\'ll know it as well. And when you know it, and know why you know it, then you don\'t have to reference me ever again because you take ownership of the knowledge, and you can then share it with someone else.

Curiosity is missing. Curiosity in particular is something that the system, not only the educational system but, the parental... what you do as a parent at home.

There are two kinds of comments that I get. One is, oh, you\'re such a natural up there, and the other one is, you\'re working hard up there. And the ones who say I\'m working hard are teachers, they\'re the educators; they\'re the people who are the performers. It\'s a huge investment of my psycho-emotional energy to pull that off and to make it look smooth.

I don\'t even understand why I have 1.7 million Twitter followers. Every day, I want to remind them and say, \'Do you realize I\'m an astrophysicist? Do you know what you\'re doing here?\'

There\'s nothing a teacher likes better than ten minute videos. It\'s not the whole class, but it\'s not too short, it\'s enough to wrap a lesson plan around.

When NASA makes discoveries they are profound and they make headlines, everyone takes notice. It drives dialogue and, today, it would drive the blogosphere. It would drive the projects the kids do in school. So you wouldn\'t even need programs to try and stimulate curiosity. You wouldn\'t need programs to try to convince people that science literacy is good. Because they\'re going to want to participate on this epic adventure that we call space exploration.

The trend lines in research and innovation look good for places such as India and China and less good for America as we go forward. So even if you\'re not enchanted by the prospect of cosmic discovery, the prospect of dying poor may be what it takes to understand the role of this adventure in the future of the natural world in which we live.

I\'m just recommending you find other things to base your spirituality on, rather than where science is yet to tread.

We only went to the moon for military reasons. The space enthusiasts of the day kept saying, \'Oh, we\'re on the moon; we should be on Mars in ten years.\' That\'s if it was driven by exploration, but it\'s never been driven by exploration.

No one is saying you\'re possessed by the devil anymore except the most ignorant of people in modern culture.