Neil deGrasse Tyson is most of all, a man of science. He studies the cosmos and makes sense of the universe. He has helped to make astrophysics both understandable and cool.
Tyson is a popular speaker and television personality. He hosted NOVA Science Now from 2006 to 2011. He appeared on many talk shows, including Real Time with Bill Maher, the Colbert Report and The Daily Show.
Most of all, Tyson has tried to bring science to the public. He wants young people to be as excited by the cosmos as he was, and as he still is. He once said:
“O ls is to bring the universe down to Earth in a way that further excites the audience to want more.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a man of science, and he is able to use that science to inform his ideas on many social issues.
After the horrible massacre in Orlando, Tyson expressed his support for the LGBT community. He did it in a way that was both succinct and scientific. He used Twitter.
The exact Rainbow any of us sees in the sky is entirely our own — a personal, yet communal gift from the laws of optics.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
He tweeted a series of scientific facts about rainbows.
Rainbows are always the same angular size in the sky — they are various segments of a circle that is 84-degrees across.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Isaac Newton, in Opticks (1704), published his discovery that white light is composed of colors – the colors in Rainbows.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
It was beautiful. Tyson didn’t come out and say anything directly about the anti-gay rhetoric that has swept through so much of the country recently. He didn’t even use any words to address the violence in Orlando.
He just tweeted out unassailable facts about rainbows. And he used a capital /R/ every time he wrote the word.
Newton assigned seven colors to the color-continuous Rainbow: Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet. Meet ROY G. BIV
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Some readers must have asked themselves, “What is his point with all this rainbow talk?”
Tyson tweeted out six messages about rainbows, the last of which said:
Most people can take or leave Indigo as a Rainbow color, but Newton was mystically fascinated with 7, so we’re stuck with it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Finally, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted his final rainbow message. It was message number seven. It had a picture, and it contained the point of the entire exercise.
And sometimes you will find colors of the Rainbow on flags. pic.twitter.com/fl9AJuJANK
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
I’m no mathematician, and I am certainly no expert on the cosmos. It does strike me, though, that Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted the mystical 7 messages, to honor 49 lost souls.
Beautiful.
The following video is a bit long, but it shows a lot about how articulate, smart and gentle Neil deGrasse Tyson is. Enjoy!
Featured Image A Screengrab Of Neil deGrasse-Tyson’s Twitter.
