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There is a theorem that colloquially translates, You cannot comb the hair on a bowling ball. ... Clearly, none of these mathematicians had Afros, because to comb an Afro is to pick it straight away from the scalp. If bowling balls had Afros, then yes, they could be combed without violation of mathematical theorems.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Neil deGrasse Tyson
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: October 5
Actor
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Cosmologist
Non-Fiction Writer
Philosopher
Physicist
Science Communicator
Science Writer
Teacher
Trekkie
The Bronx
New York City
Neil Tyson
Without
Straight
Violation
Afros
Balls
Literacy
Afro
Picks
Mathematician
Theorem
None
Translate
Translates
Hair
Mathematical
Combs
Science
Ball
Theorems
Combed
Away
Clearly
Bowling
Scalp
Cannot
Pick
Mathematicians
Comb

More quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Rational thoughts never drive people's creativity the way emotions do.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I think we are all the sum of that which has happened in our lives. And if you're successful, it would be wrong to think that you'd be more successful had something been easier. That's not a given.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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The typical person has no trouble believing without knowing. What people need to realize is simply that you do not need to believe to know.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Once you have an innovation culture, even those who are not scientists or engineers - poets, actors, journalists - they, as communities, embrace the meaning of what it is to be scientifically literate. They embrace the concept of an innovation culture. They vote in ways that promote it. They don't fight science and they don't fight technology.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Only when you question does society move or advance at all.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Science is a cooperative enterprise spanning the generations. It's the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher. A community of minds, reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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The Earth is just one place of many that we could hang our hats.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Life existed on Earth for nearly four billion years before anything remotely resembling a human being showed up. And even then, when we started to branch off from other apes about 10,000,000 years ago, our ancestors looked pretty different.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Our nation is turning into an idiocracy.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Miniaturization of electronics started by NASA's push became an entire consumer products industry. Now we're carrying the complete works of Beethoven on a lapel pin listening to it in headphones.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Today secular philosophers call that kind of divine invocation God of the gaps-which comes in handy, because there has never been a shortage of gaps in people's knowledge.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I don't want to die ... I don't want to die poor. Two great motivators in the history of human cultures.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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So not enough people in this world, I think, carry a cosmic perspective with them. It could be life-changing.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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UV is bad for molecules because its high energy breaks the bonds between a molecule's constituent atoms. That's why UV is bad for you, too: it's always best to avoid things that decompose the molecules of your flesh.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Because we all just function, the rest of us, just go to work and come home artists make life bearable. They give perspectives on things we never knew you could have. They bring joy. They explore inner human emotion, and at its best, the full dynamic range of that emotion.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Knowledge of the natural world and how it works should be counted as fundamental to informed governance. You can't have a functioning democracy, if the electorate is under-informed or, worse, mis-informed.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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The discovery of any kind of life [in Space] at all would be a tremendous watershed moment in biology, as well as all of science.
Neil deGrasse Tyson