Quotes from Neil deGrasse Tyson

One big-brained branch of these mammals, that which we call primates, evolved a genus and species (Homo sapiens) with sufficient intelligence to invent methods and tools of science—and to deduce the origin and evolution of the universe.

Filling out the entire electromagnetic spectrum, in order of low-energy and low-frequency to high-energy and high-frequency, we have: radio waves, micro waves, ROYGBIV, ultra violet, x rays, and gamma rays.

apparently, for residents of Missouri. But it doesn't make for good science. Science is not just about seeing, it's about measuring, preferably with something that's not your own eyes, which are inextricably conjoined with the baggage of your brain. That baggage is more often than not a satchel of preconceived ideas, post-conceived notions, and outright bias.

So dark matter is our frenemy. We have no clue what it is. It's kind of annoying. But we desperately need it in our calculations to arrive at an accurate description of the universe. Scientists are generally uncomfortable whenever we must base our calculations on concepts we don't understand, but we'll do it if we have to. And dark matter is not our first rodeo.

the universe had a beginning. The universe continues to evolve. And yes, every one of our body's atoms is traceable to the big bang and to the thermonuclear furnaces within high-mass stars that exploded more than five billion years ago.

Latest estimates, extrapolating from the current catalogs, suggests as many as forty billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone. Those are the planets our descendants might want to visit someday, by choice, if not by necessity.

Our star, and most stars, are made mostly of hydrogen, which is the number one element in the universe: 90% of all atomic nuclei are hydrogen, about 8% are helium, and the remaining 2% comprise all the other elements in the periodic table. All

Cosmologists have plenty of ego. How could you not when your job is to deduce what brought the universe into existence?

If all mass has gravity, does all gravity have mass? We don't know. Maybe there's nothing the matter with the matter, and it's the gravity we don't understand.

Are we missing some basic pieces of the universe that once were? What part of the cosmic history book has been marked access denied? What remains absent from out theories and equations that ought to be there, leaving us groping for answers we may never find?

If you had a super-duper, jumbo-gigantic finger, and you dragged it across Earth's surface (oceans and all), Earth would feel as smooth as a cue ball.

Further analysis of the Sun's spectrum revealed the signature of an element that had no known counterpart on Earth. Being of the Sun, the new substance was given a name derived from the Greek word helios ("the Sun"), and was only later discovered in the lab. Thus, helium became the first and only element in the chemist's Periodic Table to be discovered someplace other than Earth.

As we've known from the beginning, dark matter does, indeed, exert gravity, to which ordinary matter responds. But that's it. After all these years, we haven't discovered it doing anything else.

To deny objective truths is to be scientifically illiterate, not to be ideologically principled.

Last I had kept count, there were fifty-six moons among the planets in the solar system. Then I woke up one morning to learn that another dozen had been discovered around Saturn. After that incident, I decided to no longer keep track. All I care about now is whether any of them would be fun places to visit or to study

In 1994, NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detected something as unexpected as the Velas' discoveries: frequent flashes of gamma rays right near Earth's surface. They were sensibly dubbed "terrestrial gamma-ray flashes." Nuclear holocaust? No, as is evident from the fact that you're reading this sentence.

These philosophically fun ideas usually satisfy nobody. Nonetheless, they remind us that ignorance is the natural state of mind for a research scientist. People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe.

There's no greater education than one that's self-driven

Jupiter's moon Europa has enough H2O that its heating mechanism—the same one at work on Io—has melted the subsurface ice, leaving a warmed ocean below. If ever there was a next-best place to look for life, it's here. (An artist coworker of mine once asked whether alien life forms from Europa would be called Europeans. The absence of any other plausible answer forced me to say yes.)

Imagine a world where nations find the search for life in the universe more interesting than the taking of life on Earth.

Some of the water you just drank passed through the kidneys of Socrates, Genghis Khan, and Joan of Arc. Some of the air you just breathed passed through the lungs of Napoleon, Beethoven, Lincoln, and Billy the Kid.

No day before October 10, 1582, actually occurred on the Gregorian calendar for that was when the calendar was implemented officially.

We do not simply live in this universe. The universe lies within us.

The Physics of Immortality