Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the lack of scientific achievement found on US currency

let's take a look at national pride I have a collection of currency from before the Euro took over in in Europe and the currency who do you put on your currency it's like important people right that's who you put important people on your money because you're looking at them every day it's like this is he's one of us or she's one of us this is what you do so here's some currency from Europe pre euro currency and everyone on this is a scientist basically we got Copernicus here with he put the Sun back in the middle of this that's a Poland we've got eatle me with Marconi who pioneered radio communication also Italy we have Alexandria Volta okay responsible for the revolt not the car but the unit of electrical of the the electro-motive force in a battery is the Volt this is Antoine sane a super ray not a scientist but an aviator and who is that is the little prince he wrote the story the little prince so so in France they love in the man and it putting him on his money if you flipped these bills let's flip them over then you get to see the iconography related to their trade Tesla loved him some electricity and you know it by flipping over that bill all right here Copernicus we have the Sun back in the center of the of the known universe the artists had a little too much free play there I would say but it's the thought that counts here these are radio towers for Marconi this is Voltas tomb I would have put a battery here to represent him not a mausoleum but there's the biplane that a super ray flew and there's telescopes and some other measuring instruments for a Bulgarian guy why am i go taking you down this road be because these are countries that are famous and well-known and we know of their culture and they've had an impact on the world not always positive but certainly they've had influence and they're putting their greatest scientists on their currency okay so then I thought about that and I had looked at Carl Friedrich Gauss and I said what what do I notice on that bill and I John Izu min that's it what what there's a mathematical distribution function on the currency it's got f of X 1 over the square root 2 pi it's on the currency but in Germany as a kid you see this I don't know what that is but it's probably something important and Gauss is probably an important guy you can influence entire generations of people when a nation feels this way in America do we have a scientist on our money Wow Wow you all know this you all got money that's what this seems like a hundred dollar bill this is the largest bill we currently mint in the United States so alright so we got Ben Franklin very well-known for experiments in electricity and so here I am I'm ready to see what iconography have we put on the bill to reflect his interest in electricity is there a lightning bolt No is there well what tool did he use to try to get the lightning a kite is there a cake no what would it have taken to put a kite in this picture you could even just leave it stuck in the tree or something you know what else offend Franklin invented the lightning rod is there a lightning rod no lightning rod is one of the most brilliant inventions there ever were because of its simplicity and its effectiveness here's an interesting fact back in the late 1700s early 1800s what's the tallest building in any town the church so if you are a lightning bolt what is the first building you're going to hit the church Ben Franklin was accused of heresy because before his lightning rod the churches that were struck by lightning that was used as a net was used as evidence by the churches that weren't that they were worshipping a false god well we still save lives to this day a low tech high principle solution to a problem and none of that is recognized in our currency that worries me so let's think about what it means to have the rise and fall of science it can rise and not stay that way you can take it for granted and not think you have to continue to invest in it think that it's just the the conduct of some privileged few why does anyone else care why should you care [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you

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Views: 729,670

Rating: 4.7877274 out of 5

Keywords: Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Author), tanner humanities center, tanner lectures on human values, University Of Utah (Organization), Currency (Collection Category), Benjamin Franklin (Signatory), science, Humanities (Field Of Study), Kingsbury Hall (Building)

Id: An9Y9gzari0

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Thu May 08 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/moturnipsmoproblems]

We get it Neil, you want to be on our money