American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is arguably the most exciting public science advocate since Carl Sagan. Through his work as host of PBS's popular NOVA educational show, and frequent high profile talk-show appearances, he's provided an affable, no-nonsense, and often-times laugh out loud funny face to a field that many find intimidating. With these video lectures we've chosen from FORA.tv, we're excited to showcase Tyson's irascible take on some of the latest scientific discoveries.
In this talk Tyson muses on why he's always getting questions about natural disasters. Starting with a detailed description of what might happen to someone unlucky enough to get sucked into a Black Hole, he then discusses the more realistic threat of asteroids impacting the earth. He asks his colleagues why we often run from these potential disasters, when we might productively devise a means of stopping them from happening in the first place. After all, this is the 21st century!