ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — It should come as no surprise that Neil deGrasse Tyson is usually the most intelligent person in the room, which could make some folks feel a little unsettled or insecure. But the guy is so darn amusing, personable and well-informed that any misplaced sense of intellectual jealousy quickly evaporates the moment he starts talking. The award-winning astrophysicist-turned-pop culture phenomenon returned to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in downtown Newark on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 13, and the results were mostly stellar. A nearly packed house of NdT fans filled the cavernous Prudential Hall inside NJPAC to enjoy Tyson’s current one-man slideshow presentation called “The Search for Life in the Universe.”
Having a built-in following devoted to his many television and radio series, such as “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” and “StarTalk,” allowed him to expand upon his previous two NJPAC appearances and hit the ground running the moment he took center stage. As current director of astrophysics at the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium and American Museum of Modern History, in New York City, combined with decades of jaw-dropping academic and professional achievements to his credit, Tyson certainly knows his stuff. But his greatest talent may not be of the science realm as much as it is in his direct yet simple communication of complex concepts to his fellow human beings. Regardless of his followers’ age, race, background or belief systems, Tyson somehow has the uncanny ability to convert that which at first seems unfathomable and abstract into something both understandable and thought-provoking for easier mass consumption.
A best-selling author of more than a dozen books, Tyson’s opening sequence was a shameless yet sharp visual plug of his countless television, radio and print projects, utilizing the large screen suspended above his podium to project full-color images of his many multi-media accomplishments. During an early segment focusing on Pluto, he wasted little time in reminding the audience that he was indeed a part of the esteemed 2006 astronomical panel responsible for demoting our former ninth planet to that of a “dwarf planet.” To this day, that controversial designation continues to haunt Tyson in the form of endless hate mail, including thousands of impassioned yet hilarious handwritten pleas from elementary school students imploring him to reinstate Pluto to full planethood status. Or else.
When the topic of exoplanets — planets that orbit other stars in other galaxies — was tackled, Tyson revisited the fascinating 2012 story of how the powers that be over at nearby DC Comics asked him for permission to include the Hayden Planetarium, as well as his slimmed-down likeness, in an upcoming issue of “Superman.” Tyson was more than happy to oblige their request and also provided science-based storytelling to refine The Man Of Steel’s sometimes fuzzy origin story of how he escaped his doomed planet of Krypton as a baby. The icing on the cake for DC was having Tyson locate them an actual exoplanet that exists in the Constellation Corvus a mere 27.1 million light years from Earth and name it after Superman’s original home. As Tyson boasted over this momentous occasion, ”How do I know we discovered Krypton? Because I discovered it!”
The astrophysicist proceeded to take a few good-natured swipes at his colleagues in other fields of science for their oftentimes deliberate and confusing usage of difficult nomenclature. Despite their long-standing reputation for being rocket scientist-type nerds, Tyson reminded his loyal fanbase that it was astrophysicists who coined and continue to use such easy-to-grasp monikers as sunspots, black holes, Big Bang theory and, most crowd-pleasing of them all, “Jupiter’s Red Spot.” These are well-known examples of non-scientific jargon that even a 6-year-old child can quickly comprehend.
Tyson occasionally punctuated his stories with several NASA-produced video clips and dozens of slide images; most rooted in actual scientific fact, while some were included just to elicit a quick chuckle. Referring to an old NASA image presenting what looked like an alien being casually reclining on the surface of the Red Planet, Tyson quipped, “This one is officially called the “Humanoid Creature Just Chilling On Mars” photo.” His point being that since the dawn of astronomy, countless scientists, news outlets, overly imaginative authors and money-hungry Hollywood studios have made major errors in their depictions of our planetary neighbors; misperceptions that have been perpetuated to this day. Tyson strongly contends that any life forms eventually discovered in our immediate galaxy consisting of eight planets (since 2006, wink) would not resemble anything remotely human. He proudly declared the various Explorer, Voyager and Cassini missions have all indicated that life can and does appear to exist in our galaxy, albeit in a liquid or gaseous form.
The arena where Tyson often attracts his most stubborn combatants is in his routine dismissal of religion-powered science, which he views as a glaring oxymoron. Regarding the faith-based tenets of Creationism as a misguided and ignorant platform of outdated pseudo-historical fiction that willfully opposes decades of conclusive scientific findings, Tyson warned the audience, “This is still a free country. You can believe what you want, but there will definitely be consequences.” Admittedly more of an agnostic than an atheist, Tyson elaborated upon several of his themes to drive his point home that we probably are not living in a universe overseen by an omnisciently benevolent, or even wrathful, god-like figure. His disdain of closed-minded thinking is palpable and he is not going to change his stance any time soon, regardless of the continued backlash.
During his insightful “Earth Wants To Kill You” segment, he jokingly listed many of the inherent dangers that await anyone born into this world, as well as the even greater threats that occasionally come from the skies. Discussing comets and asteroids, Tyson was almost giddy when expressing his awe at the cataclysmic yet ultimately regenerative powers of Earth’s devastating meteor strikes, waxing poetically that these one-way visitors “often send a wave of extinction straight up the tree of life. Have a nice day!” The crowd laughs nervously, but the obvious inference had been made. If former planetary residents as resilient as dinosaurs have come and gone, we should not be so foolish to think our current, disposable age of SUVs, smartphones, Taco Bells and political bickering is infinite.
Being the absent-minded professor that he is, Tyson has a knack for mentally meandering off into odd tangents on his way to arriving at a valid conclusion. His perplexed findings on the bizarre inter-species hierarchy of beloved Disney characters, his fondness of the icky Tardigrade “water bear” microbe, his childhood dream of one day becoming Mighty Mouse and witty observations on old school physical bullying as opposed to modern-day online bullying frequently left the scientist turning to his crowd and asking, “Where was I going with this?” Yet despite his random ramblings, the undeniable epicenter of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Universe” remains … Neil deGrasse Tyson. There are very few individuals of his caliber in his line of work who can consistently draw crowds of this magnitude and then keep them spellbound for more than two hours. And while most in attendance at NJPAC were there in full support of Tyson and his unique role that he plays in being a very public and very accessible science ambassador to the world, a few detractors have felt that his whimsical oversimplifications often suck all the wonder and magic out of our daily existence, as well as the grandiosity of the universe itself. This accusation was far from evident at Wednesday’s show, with Tyson at times sounding like a preacher hellbent on delivering a mighty sermon to his congregation, despite the obvious irony in light of his views on religion-fueled science brainwashing.
Displaying an updated Tree Of Life graphic that showed human DNA has more in common with fungi and rodents than any of us would ever care to admit, Tyson took apart the popular and much-vaunted notions of biodiversity and of Homo Sapiens being “special” as opposed to all the other “inferior” species that clutter our planet: “Our specialness does not lie in our differences but in the fact that we are all almost the same. And once you realize that we’re the same, you recognize that we are part of an ecosystem, neither above or below, but within. And with that sense of who and what we are, it gives you a vastly enhanced sense of duty to look after this ecosystem.” Comparing two identical columns of elements — the first a list of those that make up the human body; the second being a list of known elements found in the universe — Tyson stated the obvious in a manner befitting a 1960’s songwriter or ancient muse: “We are in the universe and the universe is in us. And that is damn near spiritual.”
Amen, Dr. Tyson. Amen.
David VanDeventer provides entertainment event coverage for Worrall Media and can be reached at pics@thelocalsource.com.
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