SEED
Growing up in the Bronx, Tyson had always known the night sky as a meager handful of stars. So, at age 11, when he first saw the heavenly tableau of constellations in a planetarium, he thought it was a hoax. The experience had a striking impact, inspiring him to follow a prestigious career in astrophysics. His journey eventually came full circle, with his appointment as director of the very place he first gazed at the universe as a boy: the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. That role—along with his science TV series—has delivered Tyson, and his gift for explaining complex concepts with humor and charm, from astrophysicist to a steward of the sciences in general. We spent the morning at his office to talk about that role and all the cosmic-related gifts that accumulate there.
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Precocious Genius
Sir Isaac Newton—he’s maybe my favorite character of all time. If you read his original writings, it can make the hair stand on the back of your neck, just from the sheer depth of his connectivity to the operations of nature. He’s an inspiration for me, knowing that if I ever achieve over the span of my entire life a fraction of what he did before he turned 26, then I would have led an extremely productive scientific career. He discovered calculus, the laws of optics, the laws of gravity, and the laws of motion—and then he turned 26! [Laughs.] Well, that’s earned him a spot on my desk.
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