"When I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us," Tyson says. "When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, ’cause they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars."
P.S. If you don't already follow Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Twitter, you should. He's so brilliantly witty online and just as engaging in person.
I find the man most engaging (and more so since the man he replaces popularizing physics is the wheelchair bound Steven Hawkings) and that insight - that the atoms within us come from the stars (now dead) makes the seemingly unbounded (in size and age) universe too big to fit in my head.
ReplyDeleteOh, but it's so beautiful to contemplate the fact that we are all made of stardust. How powerful. And I love hearing him speak. He's so intelligent and yet makes it all so accessible and interesting to the rest of us.
DeletePeople like Tyson were my heroes growing up. Scientists and engineers who sound like real people. I was so disappointed to grow up and find so few like that in the public sphere. Neil DeGrasse Tyson makes me feel young again.
ReplyDeleteTwittering him right now...see what he's about. :)
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