Line #16 UsefulNotes/NeilDeGrasseTyson


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neildegrassetyson_5564.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"We are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, and to the rest of the universe atomically. [[SophisticatedAsHell That’s kinda cool!]]"]]
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4	->''"If you are scientifically literate, the world looks very different to you. There's a lot we understand out there, and that understanding '''empowers''' you."''
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6	Neil [=deGrasse=] Tyson (born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist and Creator/CarlSagan's [[SpiritualSuccessor direct successor]] as "Coolest Astrophysicist in America", which is appropriate, as Sagan was Tyson's mentor, and was to a degree responsible for Tyson becoming an astrophysicist in the first place.
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8	Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Doctor Tyson is one of the scientists (along with Brian Cox, Phil Plait, Michio Kaku, Creator/StephenHawking and several others) who have taken up the task, largely pioneered by Sagan, of bringing easy-to-understand science to the general public. He hosted Creator/{{PBS}}'s science series ''Nova [=ScienceNow=]'' (spinoff of ''Series/{{Nova}}''), has written multiple books (all easily understood by laymen) about astrophysical phenomena, and is a frequent guest on ''Series/TheDailyShow'', ''Series/TheColbertReport'', and ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''. He also runs the ''Star Talk'' radio show, in which he and guest speakers discuss astronomy, science and science-fiction (often {{Lampshading}} ArtisticLicensePhysics). It has also been adapted to television on Creator/NationalGeographicChannel.
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10	Dr. Tyson was the primary driving force behind the [[PlutoIsExpendable demotion of Pluto]] from "planet" status to "dwarf planet" status, based on his view that Pluto is only one of thousands of Kuiper Belt objects that have been discovered (an action he has admitted has brought him "a lot of hate mail... mostly from children"). Although when challenged about why Charon wasn't '''pro'''moted to make it and Pluto collectively a dwarf ''double''-planet, he conceded that Charon is too large relative to Pluto to be considered a mere moon.
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12	In addition to his scientific endeavors, Tyson is [[RenaissanceMan a dancer (he won a gold medal in an International Latin Ballroom competition), a wrestler, a collector of fine wines, and a model rocketeer]]. In collaboration with UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins, he's also opposed the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Design Intelligent Design Movement]] and their attempts to include religious-inspired pseudoscience in school science curricula.
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14	He has argued more than once that a society that isn't scientifically literate is a society without a future. To that effect, he has personally funded scholarships for students who seem especially bright and science-minded out of his own pocket. As an example: during a question-and-answer period at one lecture, a fourth grader asked Dr. Tyson, "What would happen if a black hole collided with another black hole?" Tyson was astounded by the question, and the boy now has a full scholarship to the university of his choice waiting for him. Dr. Tyson claims that he feels he has a duty to "pay Carl Sagan back" for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42jfaS8QljU care and attention Dr. Sagan gave him]] while he (Tyson) was "just a high school student who wanted to be an astronomer".
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16	And best of all, he is JustForFun/OneOfUs. His lectures frequently reference science fiction movies (he's especially a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan) and comic book characters (he collects ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', ''Franchise/GreenLantern'', and the ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica''), and [[http://www.space.com/18348-neil-tyson-superman-krypton-planet.html helped DC Comics name the star that Krypton orbits]] (red dwarf [=LHS=] 2520 in the Corvus constellation) and even makes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oo0qsauXeI a cameo appearance]] in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. He provided the title for the WebVideo/SymphonyOfScience songs ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akek6cFRZfY Onward to the Edge]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk We Are All Connected]]'', and appears in the videos. He appeared in season 4 episode 7 of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' as well as in season 5 episode 16 of ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. And as Sagan's successor, he hosted ''Series/CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey'' series. He even guest narrated on WebVideo/CinemaSins' Everything Wrong With series to help provide scientific inaccuracies with the films, ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' and ''Film/TheMartian''. He plays Waddles the pig on ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' when he becomes hyper-intelligent (Waddles is normally "voiced" by Creator/DeeBradleyBaker). Something of a recurring character in ''WesternAnimation/FutureWorm'' and cameoed in the season 8 HalloweenEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. He's also the voice you hear at the end of the song "Exist" in ''Music/AvengedSevenfold'''s 2016 album ''Music/TheStage''.
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18	He has been criticized by some for being a little too casual with facts when presenting popular science. On one occasion, he misattributed a quote to George Bush and argued that Bush was disparaging Islam ([[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/09/22/does-neil-degrasse-tyson-make-up-stories/ here's a summary of the controversy]]). In another case, critics argued that his series ''Series/CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey'' oversimplified the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno Giordano Bruno]] to make it a cartoonish story of good scientist vs. evil church. He has also gotten some flak for being too condescending, pretentious, or insensitive at times, especially on his Twitter--one notorious example saw him state that [[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/arts/neil-degrasse-tyson-el-paso.html more people die of the flu than from shootings]], shortly after a widely publicized shooting in El Paso. Regardless, he's done quite a lot for both the science community and the public, so it can be argued he's earned his spot on the shoulders of giants.
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23	-->[tosses hands up] [[MemeticMutation "Watch out, we got a badass over here!"]]
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Context UsefulNotes / NeilDeGrasseTyson