Singapore Excluding Astronomy in Education Is “Narrow Minded”: Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson

Renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in a recent conference raised an important question - if everyone is focusing on Earth, who is practically looking up in the sky? If you don’t get the question, here’s what it meant.

Recently Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson attended a press conference at the ArtScience Museum, where he was present to promote the launch of a television mini-series “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”. This series is going to be the sequel of the very iconic first series of Cosmos helmed by the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan about three decades ago.

Dr Tyson: The New Host

Dr Tyson, who will be hosting the new series, responded to many queries asked by the members of the Singapore media during the press conference. He spoke about his experiences in school and explained how the US public schools’ previously focused on the importance of Earth science, which limited the scope of astronomy.

He also stated the importance of the Earth, but held that thinking about the Earth without considering other planets will not do. He further added that we all are deprived of a cosmic perspective that can truly shape our lives.

What’s The Biggest Mistake?

According to Dr. Tyson, it is a big mistake not to study the universe as a whole. What if we somehow go extinct because of some unknown activity or attack from the universe? He said he really wants somebody to take this point up in the near future.

Dr. Tyson also stated that he finds our educational policies not futuristic and narrow minded.

The Biggest Concern

The press conference was attended by Dr. Tyson along with the executive producer of Cosmos and Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan. They both answered a series of questions raised by the media. The questions asked revolved around the sequel of Cosmos, and many others on several astronomy phenomenons.

During the conference, a lot of concern was devoted to asteroid Apophis, which is said to be on a collision course to actually hit the Earth in 2029. However, according to calculations, the respective asteroid will only dip to a level below some of the Earth’s communication satellites. 

The astrophysicist therefore hopes that such close shaves will provide imperative lessons for many professionals and amateurs ignorant about the study of space.