Bill Nye and Mr. Wizard taught me everything I knew about science until I was around 12, at which point Sagan took over via in-class videos my 9th grade science teacher had us watch. Later, I became interested in quantum mechanics (read The Holographic Universe if you have a chance, it’s a great introduction into the metaphysics of quantum mechanics) and then, after high school, I got into Hawking and the better Sagan stuff that I missed.
I’d like to think that I’d play it cool if I someone really famous, and I actually DID play it cool when I met Edward James Olmos, Coolio, and Bob Saget within a span of five minutes (long true story, but did you like that crazy name-drop?), but I know, without a doubt, that I’d completely lose my shit if I met Stephen Hawking or Neil deGrasse Tyson. It’d be embarrassing, like a twelve-year-old girl meeting Robert Pattinson. Or my wife meeting Robert Pattinson. Sigh.
I’ll post someday in the near future about Shufflebrain and how reading The Holographic Universe melted my tender young brain and changed my perception of reality, but not today. In the meantime, please enjoy this tribute that I found via Neatorama, created by Symphony of Science.
Side-note: My favorite part of this is when Tyson goes “I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomenon in the cosmos. That makes me want grab people on the street and say, ‘HAVE YOU HEARD THIS?!’” His enthusiasm is infectious. After hearing him speak, I can’t help feel the same way. Which explains those assault charges against me.
And just in case you liked that as much as I did, here’s Carl Sagan doing his thing, with a sort of Ja-Rule-esque cameo by Stephen Hawking. If they played this in “the clubs”, I might actually go out dancing. (I’d do “The Carlton“, just FYI.)
i probably would’ve been gobstricken to have met Dr. Sagan. he’s my hero!
Agreed. He really loved that jacket, though, huh?