But you cant be a scientist if youre uncomfortable with ignorance, because scientists live at the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos. This is very different from the way journalists portray us. So many articles begin, Scientists now have to go back to the drawing board. Its as though were sitting in our offices, feet up on our desksmasters of the universeand suddenly say, Oops, somebody discovered something! No. Were always at the drawing board. If youre not at the drawing board, youre not making discoveries. Youre not a scientist; youre something else. The public, on the other hand, seems to demand conclusive explanations as they leap without hesitation from statements of abject ignorance to statements of absolute certainty.
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About Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson was a 20th-century American astrophysicist. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Science — Discovery, inquiry, and the wonders of the natural world