Who is Neil deGrasse Tyson?

Almost no food on Earth has not been genetically modified, making the natural-vs-GMO distinction false.

“There's almost no food on Earth that has not been genetically modified.”

Weightlessness in space is not a general condition; it only occurs during freefall, and occupants of a spacecraft with firing engines have weight.

“If your engines are firing, you have weight inside the craft.”

If the Sun became a black hole, Earth would still orbit it rather than being sucked in, contradicting the common belief that black holes gravitationally consume everything nearby.

“If the sun became a black hole, for example, we would still orbit it. It would get very cold very quickly, but we would still orbit.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson on moon phases and tidal gravity.

“The moon's gravity on Earth is the same no matter what the phase of the moon is.”

Higher tides at full moon are not caused by the moon pulling harder. They result from the sun and moon aligning gravitationally, not from any change in the moon itself.

“It's the sun's fault that the full moon has higher tides than other phases of the moon.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson on the true cause of stronger full-moon tides.

“It's the sun's fault that the full moon has higher tides than other phases of the moon.”

Full moon and new moon produce equally high tides because in both cases the sun and moon are aligned (on the same or opposite sides of Earth), amplifying gravitational pull on the oceans equally. The moon's phase does not change its gravitational strength.

“Tides are equally as high during new moon as they are during full moon?”

The Roche limit only applies to gravitationally bound objects. Solid objects with structural cohesion are unaffected by it.

“The Ro limit matters for objects that are held together by the force of gravity. >> If you're just a solid object, the Ro limit is irrelevant to you.”

Human gestation is almost exactly 10 lunar cycles long.

“The gestation period of the human female is almost exactly equal to 10 cycles of the moon.”

Earth's gold, platinum, iridium, and silver may all originate from colliding neutron stars (pulsars), not from supernova explosions as commonly assumed.

“Pulsars might be the source of all the world's gold.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson on the gradual, unannounced quieting of commercial aircraft since 1969.

“Since 1969, planes have been slowly getting quieter. There was no big announcement. There was no headline. There was no none of that. They just been slowly getting quieter. So that now planes are flying overhead all the time. We don't even know it.”

Paul Mecurio describes how Neil deGrasse Tyson creates a space where curiosity is never embarrassing.

“What you do is what I'll call intellectual safety. Like I never feel stupid and I don't.”

A children's book tied to Neil deGrasse Tyson's telescope story was banned in Pennsylvania for depicting a police officer negatively, an unusual intersection of science communication and censorship.

“That children's book was showed the cop was banned in Pennsylvania.”