Astrophysicist's Views on Politics and Culture

An absolutely cool interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appears on MSNBC today. He touches on a lot of topics, like death by blackhole (which just happens to be the title of his bestselling book), perceptions of science in pop culture, the importance of communicating publically funded research through the national media, politics in research, and race relations (he happens to be a black man living in New York). Here are a few quotable quotes that had me thinking about all the recent coverage on the Summary for Policy Makers of the IPCC's 4th Assessment on Global Climate Change:

On public perception of research scientists: There’s this widespread expectation that scientists sit there in blissful confidence that they’re lords of the universe because they understand what’s going on. And then, all of a sudden, some new theory comes along and everybody has to go back to the drawing board. If only I had a nickel for every time that picture was played out in the first sentence of an article. If a scientist is not befuddled by what they’re looking at, then they’re not a research scientist.

On the importance of science communication with the public: The reason why somebody’s got to do it, is that most of the science that we do is completely taxpayer-funded — the National Science Foundation or NASA, for instance — so to suggest that the work we do is off-limits from the public is to create a priesthood. And that’s not what science is. One of the greatest features of science is that it doesn’t matter where you were born, and it doesn’t matter what the belief systems of your parents might have been: If you perform the same experiment that someone else did, at a different time and place, you’ll get the same result.

On the politics of science: Now, there’s science, and then there’s the politics of science. … I don’t mean to denigrate what is a very important and fundamental part of modern society, the role of politics in decision-making. But when politics shows up in science, in almost every case, it gets in the way. It is a barrier between where you are and where you want to take your experiment. To the extent that it’s a barrier, it can show an ugly head, and express itself in the form of sexism, racism, creedism. And this can affect employment opportunities, salaries, office space, this sort of thing.

Dr. Tyson also has some interesting things to say on the improvement of race relations in America, and emphasizes access to opportunity, instead of the feel-good, but demonstrably incorrect notion of equality. Read the whole thing.