In an interview with Time magazine, astrophysicist Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked the question:
"What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the universe?"

The famed scientist and author gives an answer that is perhaps as eloquent as it is mind-blowing; as beautiful as it is sublime.

It's best to hear Tyson's response in the video, but his answer is perhaps best revealed in one particular quote:

"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," he explains.

"Many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big....."

VIDEO LINK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU

Dr. Neil DeGrasse: A fascinatingly disturbing thought...everything that we are emerges from our 1% difference in DNA from a chimpanzee...What if...?

VIDEO LINK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRXn96HrtY&feature=related

OMG...Ponderables of the Universe: We are stardust and "We don't know what's driving 96% of the Universe" (Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

Video LINK:
www.5min.com/Video/Neil-DeGrasse-Tyson-We-Dont-Know-Whats-Driving-96-Of-The-Univ erse-517305841


QUOTES: Stephen Hawking (British theoretical physicist)
• I think computer viruses should count as life ... I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.

• We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.

• We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

• God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.

• What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary.

• Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

• Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.

• For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.

Zed you seem to believe that everything a 'genius' says make sense and is worth quoting. {edited by TBNet}. They maybe very great scientists nonetheless.

Spooky D...I take it that you too might be an explorer.
Whereas Dr DeGrasse, through brainpower, powerful galactic searching instruments and a supporting apparatus of scientific investigators brings forth knowledge, which humbly admits the paucity of what we know. The observation of what we shall never know, beyond this "visible" universe, supposes that we can be very inventive about coming up with suppositions, magical thinking, inventions to fill in the gaps.

If you are doubting my motives for scattering out a dust-field of utterances from DeGrasse & Hawking, perhaps this will cool your jets:
It's not everyday that you find an African-American as a prominent conduit from the highest echelons of scientific knowledge (astrophysics) reaching into the very questions of our existence, creation and attempting to predict a deep future. Whatever you may think of his declarations, is he not a good communicator of the advances and limits of science?

I think students, such as the young children at Sandy Bank school, would be in awe of someone explaining complex matters in plain terms. Even seen over electronic media, might following in the footsteps of a "DeGrasse", with the appearance of a favourite uncle, not seem much more likely?

In the case of Stephen Hawking, here is someone you may qualify as a "genius", though in appearance, hunkered down in an amazing wheelchair and with electronic aids to project robotic-like speech, he has been able to sort, assemble, condense, assimilate the coda of theoretical physics and the rudimentary laws of the universe for purposes known and unforeseen.
It seems only reasonable that as an explorer into materiality and spirit, under the burden of abilities and disabilities, that what Hawking has thought and brought back from the frontiers of science might be worth a pin-prick moment of our contemplation.

Spooky D....I don't think we have to worry about someone...someday collecting your aphorisms, provocations, sayings into tome or pamphlet. And when that happens, we'll all enjoy the light that you shined onto spooky webs.


I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.
John Adams (12 May 1780)

Zed, I looked at the videos and must say it's all very thought-provoking material. Thanks, and keep them coming!