Cosmos

The first season of the reboot of Cosmos, subtitled A Spacetime Odyssey, just concluded. I watched every episode, transfixed, and enjoyed the over-arching meaning of the show--that science matters.

I love science, and would have loved to have been an astronomer, or paleontologist, or microbiologist. But I was no good at science in school (and practically inept at math) so I had no choice but to end up in the humanities. But I've always had a layman's interest in these topics. I don't remember watching the initial Cosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan, but I do remember comedians picking up on the odd way he pronounced "billions."

Thirty plus years later, the show was resurrected with Sagan's heir to TV science guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who as director of the Hayden Planetarium has become a familiar face to talk-show viewers. He was a perfect choice, because inside this scientist beats the heart of a ham. He even had a connection to Sagan--as a teenager, he visited Sagan's home in Ithaca, New York, a would-be astronomer meeting the master.

The show covered a lot of ground in 12 episodes. From the smallest particles to the vastness of space, from biology to geology to astrophysics, from black holes to dark matter, the entire universe was fair game as a subject. Through all of it, Tyson ably explained some difficult issues so even a child could understand them.

Of course, some of these things aren't understood or agreed to by many. In an early episode, Tyson explained that evolution was a theory like gravity was a theory, and that "theory" doesn't mean we don't know. It's a fact. Later, several episodes addressed climate change, and showed how those who deny it is affected by man-made causes, mainly carbon emissions, are living in a dream world. As he said, "The dinosaurs didn't know the asteroid was coming. What's our excuse?"

A lot of this sent the so-called religious scientific community into a tizzy. The thing about science is that is dependent on objective reasoning. The true scientific method is about hypothesizing, experimentation, and determining facts without prejudice. Creationists and intelligent design folks don't follow this--they start with the Biblical stories, and work backwards. As Tyson points out, "just because you believe something doesn't make it true."

In another episode, Tyson easily debunks claims that the universe is only 6,000 years old. We can see starlight that has taken 13.5 billion years to reach us, so the universe is at least that old. Since the speed of light is not in question, it's a simple matter. Yet someone like Marco Rubio, who may be president some day, doggedly holds on to the myths of Christianity.

The show also focused on important scientists throughout history, both famous and obscure. We got Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, but we also got Jan Oort. "What does it say about our society," Tyson said, "that we know the names of serial killers but not Jan Oort?" Or Fritz Zwicky, "The most brilliant man you've never heard of," who first theorized the existence of dark matter, which makes up 95 percent of the universe. Or Clair Patterson, a geologist who correctly determined the age of the Earth and then led a campaign to rid gasoline of lead. There is also a lot of time devoted to women scientists, such as Vera Rubin, who studied the movement of galaxies, or Annie Cannon, who classified half a million stars.

It also introduced concepts to me that I'm still trying to wrap my mind around. An entire episode was devoted to Michael Faraday's experiments with electricity. But just what is electricity? What is it made of? And I don't think I can comprehend what dark matter is. Black holes are a little easier to fathom, but what about the notion that our entire universe may be inside a black hole in another universe? Or that there are multiple universes? On the biological side of things, I had never heard of tardigrades, odd looking microscopic creatures that exist by the thousands inside a dew drop, and can go without water for years.

I think the most important thing about Cosmos, certainly evident in the closing moments of this season, was that science matters. Scientists are under something of an attack today, with blithering idiots on the House Science Committee, and many politicians holding their ignorance up like something to be proud of. John Boehner says he is not a scientist. Well, John, try listening to one. Listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson.