Science Literacy Quotes

• The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

  Malcolm Forbes

  Inspirational, Education, Travel

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• Science literacy is the artery through which the solutions of tomorrow's problems flow.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Flow, Tomorrow, Problem

  Interview with Jim Clash, uk.askmen.com. August 23, 2012.

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• Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.

  Grace Slick

  Retirement, Reading, Two

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• Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Ignorance, Vaccines, World

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• Not enough of our society is trained how to understand and interpret quantitative information. This activity is a centerpiece of science literacy to which we should all strive-the future health, wealth, and security of our democracy depend on it. Until that is achieved, we are at risk of making under-informed decisions that affect ourselves, our communities, our country, and even the world.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Country, Future, Science

  "Neil deGrasse Tyson Sounds The Alarm Over Science Illiteracy, And For Good Reason" By David Freeman, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 5, 2015.

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• People like it when they understand something that they previously thought they couldn't understand. It's a sense of empowerment.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, People, Empowerment

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• I would teach how science works as much as I would teach what science knows. I would assert (given that essentially, everyone will learn to read) that science literacy is the most important kind of literacy they can take into the 21st century. I would undervalue grades based on knowing things and find ways to reward curiosity. In the end, it's the people who are curious who change the world.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Knowing, People, Curiosity

  Interviews from Reddit's "ask me anything" forums, www.reddit.com. December 17, 2011.

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• Through basic science literacy, people can understand the policy choices we need to be making. Scientists are not necessarily the greatest communicators, but science and communication is one of the fundamentals we need to address. People are interested.

  James Murdoch

  Communication, People, Choices

  "This much I know". Interview with Lucy Siegle, www.theguardian.com. June 6, 2009.

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• Science literacy consists in the ability and the desire to follow reports of new scientific advances, throughout your whole life.

  Philip Kitcher

  Desire, Literacy, Ability

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• The center line of science literacy - which not many people tell you, but I feel this strongly, and I will go to my grave making this point - is how you think.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Thinking, People, Lines

  Source: www.npr.org

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• He invited people to sign a petition that demanded either strict control of, or a total ban on, dihydrogen monoxide.... Yes, 86 percent of the passersby voted to ban water (H2O) from the environment. Maybe that's what really happened to all the water on Mars.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, People, Water

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.220, W. W. Norton & Company

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• You can make a stack high enough to reach the moon and back, and only then will you have used your 100 billion hamburgers. This is terrifying news to cows.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Moon, News

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• I suppose I can live with missing decimals, missing floors to tall buildings, and floors that are named instead of numbered. A more serious problem is the limited capacity of the human mind to grasp the relative magnitudes of large numbers. Counting at the rate of one number per second...to count to a trillion takes 32,000 years, which is as much time as has elapsed since people first drew on cave walls.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Wall, Science, Numbers

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.301, W. W. Norton & Company

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• And I don't care what else anyone has ever told you, the Sun is white, not yellow. Human color perception is a complicated business, but if the Sun were yellow, like a yellow lightbulb, then white stuff such as snow would reflect this light and appear yellow-a snow condition confirmed to happen only near fire hydrants.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Yellow, White

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.293, W. W. Norton & Company

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• When NASA makes discoveries they are profound and they make headlines, everyone takes notice. It drives dialogue and, today, it would drive the blogosphere. It would drive the projects the kids do in school. So you wouldn't even need programs to try and stimulate curiosity. You wouldn't need programs to try to convince people that science literacy is good. Because they're going to want to participate on this epic adventure that we call space exploration.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  School, Adventure, Kids

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• It is astonishing to realize that until Galileo performed his experiments on the acceleration of gravity in the early seventeenth century, nobody questioned Aristotle's falling balls. Nobody said, Show Me!

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Fall, Science, Balls

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• A television advertisement must illustrate the scientific method to substantiate any claim.... That is why stains are lifted, ring-around-the-collar is removed, paper towels become soaked, excess stomach acid is absorbed, and headaches go away-all during the commercial.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Going Away, Scientific Method

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• We fail in even the simplest of all scientific observations-nobody looks up anymore.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Looks, Literacy

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2000). “The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist”, Doubleday Books

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• I didn't even know there were stars to look at to not see. If you don't know that they're there, you don't know that you're missing them.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Stars, Science, Missing

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• For your own safety, do not ever tell an astrophysicist, I hope all your stars are twinkling.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Stars, Science, Safety

  Neil Degrasse Tyson (2010). “The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist”, p.154, Prometheus Books

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• There is a theorem that colloquially translates, You cannot comb the hair on a bowling ball. ... Clearly, none of these mathematicians had Afros, because to comb an Afro is to pick it straight away from the scalp. If bowling balls had Afros, then yes, they could be combed without violation of mathematical theorems.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Hair, Balls

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• Last I checked, Bill Gates was worth $50 billion. If the average employed adult, who is walking in a hurry, will pick up a quarter from the sidewalk, but not a dime, then the corresponding amount of money given their relative wealth that Bill Gates would ignore if he saw it lying on the street is $25,000.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Lying, Science, Average

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.301, W. W. Norton & Company

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• A common way to compute density is, of course, to take the ratio of an object's mass to its volume. But other types of densities exist, such as the resistance of somebody's brain to the imparting of common sense.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Science, Common Sense, Brain

  Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.135, W. W. Norton & Company

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• While we may lose track of certain goals intermittently throughout the decades, I think we as a nation can be nimble when we need to be. All the buzz today is on the need for science literacy. That is on the agenda in ways it hasn't been in previous decades.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Thinking, Track, Goal

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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