Tyson to talk on science and culture

One of the men credited with dispelling Pluto’s status as a planet will discuss science illiteracy tonight at 6:30 in the ConocoPhillips Alumni Center.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, professor and author, will be giving the lecture “Adventures in Science Literacy” for the sold-out 2009 H. Louise and H.E. “Ed” Cobb Speaker Series to raise money for the Edmon Low Library.

Tyson said he will give examples of how when a culture invests in science, the culture will thrive; but when it is ignored or neglected, the culture will ultimately fail.

Bonnie Cain, Edmon Low Library senior communications specialist, said the speaker series strives to feature authors with a substantial body of work that changes the way we think.

“He is arguably one of the greatest minds on the planet,” Cain said. “He is the great explainer of all things science.”

Tyson graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1976. He has degrees from Harvard, Columbia University and the University of Texas.
Tyson has written nine books and had 14 research papers published in various scientific journals. He has written more than 100 essays and articles for publications such as the Natural History and Parade magazines as well as contributed to four government reports and letters.
He has also received nine Honorary doctor of science degrees from different universities, been awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal, recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2007 and named by People magazine as the sexiest astrophysicist alive in 2000.

Peter Shull, associate professor of physics, said Tyson’s work is essential for bringing science to the masses and helping young people get into science-related fields.

“Dr. Tyson is unlike Bill Nye the Science Guy, who uses a silly-science based subject matter mainly targeted at grade school-aged children to get them interested,” Shull said. “Dr. Tyson is probably America’s best known scientist whose target audience is the general public, in which he is generating that interest in science in the young and old alike.”
 

1 comments

Laurel Kornfeld

Fri Nov 6 2009 02:08

It is important to note that Tyson has distanced himself from the controversial 2006 IAU decision, which he himself admits is flawed. At this point, he even admits that the debate is not over, that it might be too early in the study of planetary scientists for anyone to be defining what a planet is in the first place. This was pretty much his message at the Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate, which he moderated at the American Museum of Natural History on March 10, 2009.

Significantly, only four percent of the IAU voted on Pluto's demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately rejected by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.

This debate is far from over. For another perspective, anyone interested in this topic should read "Is Pluto A Planet" by Dr. David Weintraub.

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