As director of the at the in New York City and the author of many on the universe beyond Earth, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is helping to make science more fun and more approachable.
Tyson's at the Rose Center for Earth and Space looks almost as much like a wizard's lab as it does the headquarters of one of the America's foremost astrophysicists and science educators.
But whether it's the chunk of meteor, the bust of Sir Isaac Newton, the meter-and-a-half-high model of the Saturn V rocket, an 18th-century astrolabe, or one of the scores of other exotic items here, every artifact in his office has to do with the universe itself. When asked to explain just what the universe itself is, Tyson says it's a fascinating question.
"It's like asking an unborn infant, 'What is your mother?' We don't have an exterior view just yet," he says with his characteristic half-jovial, half-serious chuckle. "A more tractable way to approach that question is, 'What is in the universe?' And there are planets and galaxies and stars and black holes and that sort of thing."
Tyson says the next question would be, "How did it all get here? What formed the stars, and what formed the planets?"
As scientist, author, television host and director of the , one of the world's premier celestial imaging facilities, Tyson has made a dazzling career trying to answer these questions. But Tyson says his main calling is to promote science literacy as a public scientist.
"There are two reasons for this," he says. "First, most pure science that goes on in the United States is financed by tax-based funding sources. And you pay for it. So you have the right to know what we're doing in the lab, and I have the obligation to tell you."
He adds, "In a pluralistic democracy, you want people to have a say in what science gets done. And in order for them to have a say, you want them to be scientifically literate. So I bring science to the public as a duty."
In addition to his frequent television appearances on shows as diverse , which he hosts, and cutting-edge late-night talk programs such as , Tyson has written scores of and nearly a dozen popular books on the cosmos.
But Tyson adds that there is more than "public duty" at work in those efforts. He says he is simply "in love with the universe," and, like any lover, he wants to tell other people all about it.
"I don't jump into people's face unless [I'm] invited. But if they ask, I am in your face, and I'll tell you about the black hole and big bangs and the search for life and colliding galaxies and the next asteroid."
He then "monitors" what he says that excites people.
"I see their pupils dilate and their eyebrows raise, and I say, 'They're really getting into this. This is good.'"
Tyson's own fascination with the heavens began when he was 9 years old. That's when his parents took him to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, a subway ride downtown from this native Bronx.
"I looked up at the night sky projected onto the dome, and there it was: countless thousands of stars. And I thought it was a hoax, initially. I knew the night sky. I had seen it from the Bronx! It was, like [only], a dozen stars," he laughingly recalls.
Tyson remained unconvinced until his family took a trip to the countryside.
"I looked up at the night sky. I said, 'Wow! This is just like the Hayden Planetarium!'"
Another big moment in Tyson's life occurred when he was 11, and a friend lent him some binoculars, a device that, as a city kid, he had previously used only for sporting events and for looking into windows. But this time, he looked up and saw the moon.
"It wasn't just bigger. It was better! Mountains, valleys, craters, hills! I was hooked."
From that moment on, Tyson wanted to be an astrophysicist.
"I was on a quest," he says.
That quest took Tyson to the famed Bronx High School of Science, a public school famous for its "geeks" and the many it has produced. He went on to major in physics at Harvard, before getting his doctorate at Columbia University, where he specialized in the birth and death of stars and the structure of the Milky Way galaxy.
When asked why he chose galaxies as his main course of study, Tyson answers with a tone of proprietary awe.
"First of all, galaxies are just visually beautiful. Let's start there! Second, the galaxies are the great organizers of stars in the universe. They are like the 'cities of the cosmos,' and there are tens of billions of them. So if you want to know what the stars are doing, ask yourself what the galaxies are doing."