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“a knowledge egg on your ass”

Neil deGrasse TysoN is

abouT To crack

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Neil deGrasse TysoN’s

13 part reboot of the famous cosmos

series is airing all over the world, and

he’s become this generation’s carl

Sagan—only way cooler. his cannes

talk¬—the fourth entry in the ogilvy &

inspire series—earned a standing

ovation (the first one we’ve seen

at cannes this year) from a packed house.

p h o t o c r e d i t : N A S A , e S A , A N d t h e h u b b l e h e r i tA g e ( S t S c i /A u r A ) - e S A / h u b b l e c o l l A b o r At i o N

accessory To

Planetcide Astrophysicist Neil degrasse tyson had something

he needed to get off his chest. “i was blamed for

killing pluto,” he said, “but i was just an accessory. i

drove the getaway car.” but he’s not recanting his

confession—it’s still not a planet. even though

an American discovered pluto, a british girl

named it. After all, at the time of pluto’s

discovery, Americans were enjoying a

widely-advertised mineral laxative

branded pluto Water. Just

remember: “When nature won’t, pluto will.”

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iNTeGraTed aNd

differential creativity

planet, tyson reminded us, means wanderer. to the ancients, they

wandered against the black velvet of the night sky. this inspired

wonder—and poetry: “When i trace at my pleasure the wanderings of

the heavenly bodies, i no longer touch earth with my feet. i stand in the

presence of Zeus himself.” 1500 years issac Newton looked up at the

stars and was having none of that. he went off and just figured it

out. “talk about creativity. this is stuff we slog through today, and

he invented it just because he had a problem to solve.” in the

hands of a creative mind, “what was previously viewed to be

complex was made simple.” those are the people who

drive the world. When confronted with something

new, they apply the tools and methods they

have learned, and the figure it out.

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elemeNTal

nationalism the right hand side of the periodic table were discovered and

named by the british. they are inert, and are called the noble

gasses. “they don’t interact with anybody else. You’ve got

your class system on the periodic table, just so you know.” the

Americans, by contrast, discovered a whole bunch along the

bottom row. uranium, Neptunium, and plutonium (the last one

named for that non-planet pluto). plutonium was discovered

in the 1940 and had it weaponized by 1945. look what

that said about the uS at that time: “the united States

valued research in physics driven by war.” other

countries put great scientists and their discoveries

on currency. the uS has only ben Franklin, and

he’s there for being a Founding Father, not

a great investigator into electricity.

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culTivaTiNG

sciencetwo-thirds of stars that have names have Arabic names. 1000 years

ago, the Arab culture sparked “one of the most intellectually fertile

periods in the history of the human species.” Algebra was invented

then—algorithm, too, Arabic numerals, major advances in navigation

and medicine. All of that happened “while europe was disemboweling

heretics.” A culture of scientific curiosity is no guaranteed thing. in

the wake of a the codification of what a good Muslim should do (hint:

manipulating numbers wasn’t on the list), Arab scientific discoveries

dried up. if you’re content that happens is the will of god, “you will not

be the one who discovers gravity…You have been removed from the

company all of those whose curiosity leads to solutions to problems.”

contrast this with the Jews today. the Jews have 25% of the

Nobel prizes in science, despite having a population of just 15

million. “look at islam,” tyson laments. “three. i lie awake

at night wondering how many secrets of the universe lay

undiscovered because 2 billion people are no longer

participating in that exercise.” tyson wonders what

will happen to his country, the place that

“tried to invent the 21st century in the

united States, we’re losing it.”

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The source of

creativityScientific curiosity is important to ad folks, too, since “it’s all

related. if you’re in a creative culture, you solve problems. You

discover problems you didn’t even know were there previously.”

After that explanation, tyson showed the audience a map distorted

by the vibrancy of each nation’s scientific culture. the results

tracked closely to the distribution of health and wellbeing around

the globe. the uS has done well, perhaps, because it is an

irreverent culture. but what of cultures where you cannot correct

your elders. can you ever break free of their world view? is

irreverence, tyson wonders, “the source of creativity.” if you

step outside of well-trod paths, you’ll make mistakes, to

be sure. but, “if you stop making mistakes, you are no

longer on the frontier. because the mistakes you

would make are mistakes no one would have

ever made before—because no one has

ever stepped there before.”

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“I was blamed for kIllIng Pluto... but I was just an accessory.

I drove the getaway car.”

Neil degrasse tyson