We Stopped Dreaming

Righteous rant from Neil deGrasse Tyson on how Congress is mortgaging the future of America. From Real Time With Bill Maher (2011.08.05).

• Category

  News & Politics

[Kanben Severn]

There's another thing people don't see; cutting edge "organizations" like NASA or Formula One are seen by many as stroking egos and a waste of money. But the technology they develop just to keep going is so cutting edge, it would most likely not have been invented for many years. There are so many things that trickle down to all of us after being developed in such places that life today would be very different if it hadn't been for them.

By the way, it's "Ejections" in CME.

[kokofan50]

NASA isn't greedy; NASA is just asking for enough money to do their job right. Maybe if you were smarter you would understand the importance of those "pertty pictures of space." Take for example Coronal Mass Extensions (CMEs). If a CME hit the Earth we could lose the majority of our electronics that are now very important to dialy life. What the asteroid that may hit the Earth in 2036? How to you plan on fixing that problem? That's also to say nothing all the study of the Earth NASA does.

[In19944]

agreed

[dcmullen93]

Nuclear bomb

[Amar Mirza]

That is a good point, every time we stretch ourselves it leads to new innovation. That being said, any engineering challenge will produce advances and require creativity. Ultimately the end result between the two cannot be more different. One is essentially meaningless competition, the other is uncovering the mysteries of the universe. But since F1 is being payed for by itself (while NASA needs funding), it isn't fair to compare it in that light.

[STHStuff]

I imagine it's really difficult to design cars that are that small, lightweight, fast, durable and SAFE. The last one is where I think a lot of the Formula One innovation comes from. Crashes are inevitable in racing so cars have to be designed with the driver's safety in mind.  Keeping a person alive and relatively unharmed after slamming into a solid wall at well over hundreds of miles per hour? That could be useful (and downright amazing when you think about it).

[Amar Mirza]

Formula One, like the car racing? I must say this sounds outlandish, but I'd like to hear why you say that before I make up my mind.

[Amar Mirza]

I am a cancer researcher. If we didn't spend money on figuring out radioactivity, we would have never invented radiolabeling for enzyme assays. If we didn't spend money on particle accelerators, we would have never invented x-ray crystallography to allow for structural based drug design. If we had not invested in magnetic resonance, we would have never invented the MRI. Science is synergistic. You cannot fund only one field and expect to get far.

[ELCLAVE300]

This is exactly why scientist and mathematicians should be in government. Not lawyers and businessmen.

[Jared Riddle]

If I spell it nucular, yep, red squiggly lines. Built in spell-check folks.

[LastCynicStanding]

Righteous rant?!?!?!

Every time someone points out a problem the sheep start bleating.

This was not a rant. It was the truth.