On January 27, I went to the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. That night my mother and I saw Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the man who inspired me to be interested in all things space. Before the show we went to a restaurant called Cafecito which sells really good Cuban sandwiches. I ordered the Cubano sandwich and my mom ordered a seafood salad. Along with being able to see Neil DeGrasse Tyson the experience was great for my mom and I because when I do cool stuff like this I usually go with my dad and my mom has to stay back and watch my sister. However, this time my mom and I were able to see the talk together which was really nice because I had been telling my mom about Neil DeGrasse Tyson for about two years before. My mom was actually able to see for real what intrigued me so much about Tyson and science. So, it really gave her some closure for why she bought me all of the Tyson books and a telescope for Christmas. The show that we saw was one of the stops on Tyson’s speaking tour around the country. It was one of the coolest things I had ever been to because I had previously watched Tyson in youtube lectures and on his TV show Cosmos, but witnessing it for my own eyes in a theatre filled with other people just as passionate as myself was just the best.

 

Tyson’s style makes the whole experience so enjoyable for the mind and the soul because Tyson blends comedy and education in a way that makes learning a truly enjoyable experience. The lecture that I saw is called An Evening With Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Tyson, who is an astrophysicist and scientific ambassador, discussed why the United States and much of the human population is scientifically illiterate and scared of science itself. Even though Tyson is an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium his main role in science today is as an ambassador for scientific literacy, as well as being the public outlet for scientific explanations and astrophysical knowledge. I learned quite a bit from Tyson, whose talk gave me a great place in science and astrophysics to explore for my Capstone. As I said before, Tyson discussed some of the reasons why people have such an aversion to science and mathematics. This was a much different kind of talk then I was expecting because since Tyson is an astrophysicist; I was expecting more of the lecture to revolve around the topic of outer space. However, this change did not bother me at all, but instead made the whole lecture much more interesting because of the many different topics that were covered. Some examples include analyzing the currency of other nations for scientific propaganda, analyzing the progression of technology and engineering in countries around the world for the future, asking why a group of 1 billion people has taken themselves out of the scientific world, and discussing the necessity for our world to have an international community that is focused on protecting the Earth from all of the many different kinds of ways the universe can destroy us. Those topics apply to the progression of humanity as a whole; because science is the way we can understand the world and universe around us, it must be promoted.