March 15, 2014

I finally had a chance to sit and watch the new Cosmos, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it.

Wow.

From the start I was hooked. At the end, I wanted to immediately watch it again.

None of the material in the first episode was new to me, but I thought it was presented in an amazingly compelling, and much more important, inviting manner. A perfect way to introduce people who are not yet scientifically literate to scientific ideas.

Tyson’s style of teaching, assisted by the imagery of the “Ship of Imagination,” is one of bringing you along on a journey of discovery, literally showing the audience the universe.

He lays out the rules for the scientific method:

This adventure is made possible by generations of searchers, strictly adhering to a simple set of rules. Test ideas by experiment and observation. Build on those ideas that pass the test, reject the ones that fail. Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything.

If only more of the world followed those rules.

This new version of Cosmos presents science with a sense of wonder and a sense of hope.

Tyson’s sense of humor shows through as well, especially in the moment before the Big Bang is shown on screen, when he puts on a pair of sunglasses.

I’m also happy that it’s on Fox and not PBS as I know PBS strikes some people as “boring.” I hope Cosmos and Tyson continue to bring science to the masses.

I’ve liked Tyson for years, watching any interviews or debates he participates in once they were available on YouTube and cheering him on when he appeared to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Tyson, with Ann Druyan, Seth MacFarlane, Mitchell Cannold, Bannon Braga, and Jason Clark, are making science cool again!

If you want to know more about why they made Cosmos, here is the Q&A from the Cosmos: A Spacetime Codyssey Premiere Pre-Screening