geico motorcycle see how much you could save. captioning funded by cbs and ford >> logan: christianity in iraq was born in small towns and villages like these. today, some of them are deserted, abandoned because isis is forcing christians out. the islamic state marks homes the way nazis marked the property of jews. archbishop nicodemus sharaf says he had five minutes to flee from iraq's second largest city mosul. he grabbed five ancient manuscripts from his church, but had to leave other relics behind. you had books from the first century. >> of the christianity... >> stahl: the f-35 fighter jet is the most technologically advanced weapons system in history.

each one contains nearly a half a ton of what's called rare earth elements, almost all of which come from china. >> the guidance systems on weapons systems and tomahawk cruise missile, any of the smart bombs have rare earths in them. i'd be hard-pressed to name anything that we consider worth building today and going forward that would not have a rare earth compound in it. >> stahl: because of this, because of the monopoly on rare earths, does china threaten our national security? >> unchecked, yes. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: here's something you haven't seen before-- an astrophysicist, on stage, in a sold-out auditorium. neil degrasse tyson is re- igniting a fascination for the great beyond. he's succeeded carl sagan as the country's most captivating scientific communicator. >> when i was 11, i said, "this is so amazing, who wouldn't want to study the universe?" >> rose: what was so amazing? >> the endless frontier of it

all, the vastness of it, the mystery of it. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." >> cbs money watch update brought to you in part by: >> good evening. the new prime minister of greece meets with germany's chancellor tomorrow over growing tensions over the greek bailout crisis. the number of working oil rigs in the u.s. is down to 825, a 50% drop from last october. and today delphi's driverless car began a cross country trip. i'm vinita nair, cbs news.

♪ the new, twenty-fifteen ford focus believes in "more." more to see.

more to feel. ♪ more to make things really really... interesting. ♪ the new focus. from the auto brand more people buy, and buy again. my name is brenda, and this is my aha moment. in the flood of 1997 my husband, my sons, myself, our dog... we all got out. everything was fine. however, the water was over our house. we lost all of our possessions. it made me realize what is important and what isn't. you have your family you have your health and anything else is just extra and it can all be replaced.

mutual of omaha. insure your possibilities. insurance. retirement. banking. investments. >> logan: there are few places on earth where christianity is as old as it is in iraq. christians there trace their history to the first-century apostles. but today, their existence has

been threatened by the terrorist group that calls itself islamic state. more than 125,000 christians-- men, women and children-- have been forced from their homes over the last ten months. the islamic state, or isis stormed into iraq's second largest city, mosul, last summer and took control. from there, it pushed into the neighboring villages and towns across this region, known as the nineveh plains, a vast area that's been home to christians since the first century after christ. much of what took almost 2,000 years to build has been lost in a matter of months. ( chanting ) on the side of a mountain overlooking the nineveh plains

of ancient mesopotamia is the monastery of st. matthew. it's one of the oldest on earth. the voices of its monks have echoed here since the fourth century, uttering prayers that have not changed. you do the service in aramaic. >> joseph ibrahim: yes. >> logan: which was the language of jesus. >> ibrahim: yes. >> logan: are you among the last people on earth to speak this language? >> ibrahim: we think so, because we kept this language through the language of prayers. >> logan: prayers through centuries of persecution. father joseph ibrahim is one of only seven monks left here. he told us the monastery was founded in 363, and has survived the persian and ottoman empires, mongol invaders, and kurdish conquests. today, it's threatened by the islamic state, whose fighters advanced towards st. matthew's gates shortly after taking mosul last summer. kurdish soldiers pushed them

back to this village, where their flag still flies only four miles from the monastery. what are you most afraid of? >> ibrahim: unknown future. >> logan: the unknown future? >> ibrahim: yes. >> logan: what do you think is going to happen? >> ibrahim: we don't know exactly, but we are expecting the worse. >> logan: the road from st. matthew's brings you to the frontline, just six miles from the outskirts of mosul. every town and village between here and the occupied city is in the hands of the islamic state. and now, we're told, for the first time in nearly 2,000 years, there are no christians left inside mosul. >> nicodemus sharaf: they take everything from us, but they cannot take the god from our hearts, they cannot. >> logan: nicodemus sharaf is the archbishop of the syriac orthodox church in mosul, one of about 10,000 christians who fled the city.

we found him living as a refugee in the kurdish capital, erbil. he said isis fighters were already inside mosul when he escaped. >> sharaf: i didn't have any time to take anything. i was told i had five minutes to go. just i took five books that are very old. >> logan: among them, this aramaic manuscript. he told us it was written 500 years ago, and said he left behind hundreds more older than this one, christian relics that may never be recovered. >> sharaf: i think they burn all the books. and we have books from the first century of the christianity. >> logan: you had from the first century? >> sharaf: of the christianity. when i remember this, i cannot... from the beginning the

christianity, this is the first time we cannot pray in our churches. >> logan: as it seeks to erase christianity from the landscape, the islamic state allows no christian symbols. it just released these photographs, which show the desecration of the church at what is believed to be the monastery of mar gorgis just north of mosul. and nothing is sacred. isis blew up this mosque just over a month after taking here. it's a site holy to both christians and muslims because the old testament prophet jonah was said to be buried inside. just like the nazis marked the property of jews, christian homes in mosul have been marked with this red symbol. it's the arabic letter "n" for nasara, an early islamic term for christians. when isis puts it on your home you either convert to islam, pay an extortion tax, or face the sword. issah al qurain is one of tens

of thousands who had to make that choice. he was at home with his family in the christian village where he'd lived all his life when isis fighters came looking for him. he told us the fighters first took all his money, then his wife and children. they were telling you convert, convert, convert? ( translated ): yes, convert. in the beginning, i refused. i told them i was christian, and i had my religion and they had their religion. but they told me, if you don't convert, we will kill you and take your wife and children. >> logan: he agreed and was taken to mosul to convert where he was reunited with his family. soon, isis fighters were asking about his young daughter, and he told us that frightened him more than anything. >> al qurain: they said to me that, in islam, the sharia says girls that are ten years old should get married. as soon as they left, my wife and i shut the door. we looked at each other and she

started to cry and pray. we were so scared they were going to take our daughter from us. >> logan: they escaped in the back of a taxi. issah says they talked their way through three isis checkpoints and traveled for over four hours on back roads to erbil where like archbishop sharaf, they now live as refugees. some 30,000 christians were living in erbil before this crisis, most of them chaldean catholics, who follow their own ancient traditions but recognize the authority of the pope. bashar warda is the archbishop of this diocese. he says his congregation has swelled by more than 60,000 refugees as kurdistan, the semi- autonomous region in the north of iraq, has become a safe haven for christians fleeing the islamic state. this is one of the oldest christian communities in the world, thousands of years old. >> bashar warda: 2,000, almost.

>> logan: and when you look at it today, where is that christian community here? >> >> warda: disappearing. it's dying. >> logan: archbishop warda said christians in iraq, ironically felt safer under saddam hussein. democracy brought a new wave of persecution and prompted a mass exodus of christians. when the u.s. withdrew completely in 2011, archbishop warda says the situation became even worse because iraq's new leaders were incapable of governing without help. >> warda: i think american support was needed, needed forcefully. you cannot leave the country like this and tell them, "well we've liberated you. we cannot do the job for you and we are walking away. this is your country, rule it." >> logan: so, in your view walking away in 2011 was just as damaging to iraq as 2003 when the u.s. invaded? >> warda: yes. it's not blaming, but that's the

reality. this is not what you came for in 2003. the 4,000 sacrifices of the american soldiers was not meant to come to this day. >> logan: christianity in iraq was born in the towns and villages of the nineveh plains like this one called tel isqof which lies less than 20 miles north of mosul. christians have lived here and walked these streets for over a thousand years. but today, there's no one. they're all gone, driven out by fear. and one of the most striking things you notice is the silence. every road was deserted, houses and possessions abandoned, others destroyed. tel isqof had always been a refuge for iraq's christians until last august when isis moved in and 7,000 christians fled. three weeks later, kurdish soldiers pushed the terrorists out. but father rony hana says isis

instilled such fear here that his people won't come back. he worries, too, but returns for a few hours every morning to check on his church, which he said isis fighters used as their base. he told us one of them called him on his cell phone to ask how to operate the church generator. they really did, they asked you that? and you told them? "i guided them to where it was located around the corner from here," he told us, "and explained how to turn it on. the last thing i said was to please take care of the church and they just hung up." the cleansing of iraq's christians from this land is something archbishop sharaf believes ought to be generating a much louder cry of outrage from his muslim friends and neighbors. >> sharaf: speak up. of course, there is good people of the islam people.

there is not all muslim people they are bad, i believe. but where is the good people? where is their voice? nothing. few. few. >> logan: with everything that has happened here to the christians, what has been lost? >> sharaf: they lost our dignity here. i'm sorry to say that. we don't have dignity in our country, in our land. >> logan: most everyone we met welcomed u.s.-led air strikes here, but they also said it is not nearly enough. taking back mosul, a city of about 1.5 million people, is widely understood to be a difficult prospect. archbishop warda believes the iraqi army can't do it alone and as long as the city remains in the hands of isis-- who he refers to as da'esh, its arabic name-- no christians will be going home.

>> warda: for me, da'esh is a cancer. it's a disease. so, sometimes, you take some hard measures, unfortunate measures to deal and to treat this cancer. >> logan: so you want to see a major military offensive to retake mosul? >> warda: yeah, to get iraq to its normal situation. >> logan: and by getting iraq to its normal situation, you mean restoring the border between iraq and syria? >> warda: yes. >> logan: getting rid of da'esh, the islamic state? >> warda: exactly. >> logan: defeating them militarily? >> warda: please god. >> logan: the christian community hastily set up militias to guard their deserted villages and homes along the frontline, and they're getting a little help. we were surprised to come across american brett felton, a christian veteran of the iraq war, who traveled on his own from detroit to train christian volunteers. and this man, khamis, who said he came from australia, driven

to defend the land where he was born. what do you think the islamic state intends to do with the christians here? >> khamis: to wipe them out, to be nothing. no place left that bears the name of christian or christianity. >> logan: christians in the frontier town of al qosh live in the shadow of the islamic state. under constant threat, the militiamen keep watch as they celebrate their faith and carry out traditions that are as old as christianity on the nineveh plains. ( bells tolling ) >> why has this american christian volunteered to battle isis on his own? go to 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by lyrica.

before fibromyalgia, i was on the go. i kept on top of things. i was a doer. then the chronic widespread pain slowed me down my doctor and i agreed that moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. he also prescribed lyrica®. for some patients, lyrica® sign ificantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. with less pain i feel better. lyrica® may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these new or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica®. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica® affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica®. fibromyalgia may hav e changed things but with less pain i'm still a doer. ask your docto r about lyrica®.

at subway, we begin with freshly-baked-bread; then combine tender turkey-breast, with robust, spicy, melty italian favorites; adding a splash of our new subway vinaigrette. the magnificent new turkey italiano melt. only at subway.

rick: new club? todd: new set. check it out. this one's forged titanium. real bruiser... i've also got one with tungsten... this one here, 12 hosel adjustments. 12. rick: but they're all drivers. todd: yeah, that's all i need, right? vo: a portfolio filled with only investment products doesn't make sense either. todd: coming? vo: that's the metlife perspective. let a metlife premier client group representative show you how diversifying beyond just investments can help grow and safeguard your assets.

>> stahl: what do cars precision-guided missiles, and the television you're watching right now have in common? they all depend on something called rare earth elements unusual metals that are sprinkled inside almost every piece of high tech you can think of. most people have never heard of them. but we have become so reliant on rare earths that a few years

ago, an intense global power struggle broke out over their free flow. the reason is that one country has a virtual monopoly-- roughly 90%-- of the mining, refining, and processing of rare earths, china. and in 2010, it used that power to disrupt the world's supply. it's especially troubling, because it was the united states that started the rare earth revolution in the first place. it all began here at this mine in mountain pass, california, an hour west of las vegas, when geologists first identified rare earth elements deep in the mojave desert. they were considered geological oddities until the '60s, when it was discovered that one of these elements, europium, enhanced the color red in tv sets, and soon the rare earth industry was born. >> cbs presents this program in color!

>> constantine karayannopoulos: rare earth chemistry is fascinating. there's so many more things that we could be doing with rare earths. >> stahl: constantine karayannopoulos, chairman of molycorp, which has owned and operated the mountain pass mine for six decades, took us to the heart of the operation. is this considered a big mine? >> karayannopoulos: in terms of rare earth standards, yes. it's one of the biggest in the world. >> stahl: are we actually walking on rare earth elements right now? >> karayannopoulos: we're physically on the ore body. >> stahl: we are right on it. >> karayannopoulos: it starts at the top of the mine, then comes down, and we're walking on it and it goes in that direction. >> stahl: so, what are rare earth elements? if you ever took high school chemistry, you learned that they're clumped together at the end of the periodic table-- atomic numbers 57 through 71-- and they have difficult-to- pronounce greek or scandinavian names. >> karayannopoulos: lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, terbium. >> stahl: some of them are

phosphorescent. erbium amplifies light, and is used in fiber-optic cables. gadolinium has magnetic properties and is used in m.r.i. machines and x-rays. as for neodymium? you may be carrying some of it in your pocket. >> karayannopoulos: next time your phone vibrates, think of us because the vibration motor is a small motor that contains a tiny neodymium magnet in it. >> stahl: karayannopoulos showed us around a new model home to illustrate that rare earths are making our appliances energy efficient, like state-of-the-art refrigerators, touchscreen thermostats, energy efficient light bulbs, the air conditioning systems. they're also in our cars in the form of catalytic converters sensors, and hybrid car batteries. >> karayannopoulos: hybrids, in particular, use a lot more because they contain electric motors that would not function without rare earths.

>> stahl: a prius has roughly 25 pounds of rare earths. and they're hidden in plain sight in our every day lives, in our computers and gadgets. even the lights and cameras we used to film this story are chock full of rare earths. what i'm getting from you is that modern life depends on these elements. >> karayannopoulos: absolutely. >> stahl: despite their name rare earths are not rare. small amounts can be found in your backyard. they're trapped in what looks like ordinary rock. but there are only a few places on earth with concentrations high enough to mine. >> karayannopoulos: rare earths normally are found in very, very low concentrations. this is probably running something in the 25% grade. >> stahl: that's good? >> karayannopoulos: which is remarkable. to anyone who has ever worked with rare earths, this is a thing of beauty. >> stahl: but getting the rare earths out of that rock is nasty

business, requiring toxic acids and lots of water. in fact, the mine was shut down by the state of california in 1998 after radioactive water seeped into the surrounding mojave desert from an underground pipe. the mine lay dormant for a decade, giving china an opportunity. >> dan mcgroarty: the chinese made a very conscious decision to enter that industry. >> stahl: dan mcgroarty was special assistant to president george h.w. bush, and today advises the u.s. government on critical materials. when the molycorp mine closed, he says china was already well on its way to becoming the king of rare earths. >> mcgroarty: there's a point at which the lines cross. the united states production declines, chinese production's ramping up. those lines cross somewhere around 1986. >> stahl: so how did they pull it off? what were the factors that allowed them to basically take this away from us? >> mcgroarty: well, the advantage of lower labor costs would be a place to start. also, environmentally, very...

almost no environmental constraints around mining safety considerations for the miners doing mining, in huge contrast to the united states. so, that translates directly into lower pricing. and lower pricing can push other people out of the market. >> stahl: and that's basically what happened? >> mcgroarty: that's basically what happened. >> stahl: the chinese also had orders from the top. in a little-noticed speech in 1992, deng xiaoping signaled china's intention to corner the market. what exactly did he say? >> mcgroarty: "the middle east has oil. china has rare earths." >> stahl: he actually said that, deng xiaoping? >> mcgroarty: actually said that. i think it's fair to say, at that point, people in the rest of the world, who had been saying, "what are... what is he talking about?" just went right over our heads. >> mcgroarty: i think so. >> stahl: did we just not foresee what they foresaw? >> mcgroarty: it's extraordinary if they actually foresaw all the uses. our designers and developers advanced the miniaturized applications for laptops and cell phones, while the chinese were going after the metals and materials out of which these

things are actually built. >> stahl: how did they get the know-how? >> mcgroarty: an enormous amount of investment. it's kind of like the chinese moon shot, the moon program. >> stahl: china poured billions into the industry, ignoring the consequences. we obtained this video from a freelance cameraman showing the area near baotou, china's rare earth capital, where the air land and water are so saturated with chemical toxins, the chinese have had to relocate entire villages. this is one of the few places where rare earths are turned into metals, which are then alloyed, or blended, into things like permanent magnets. >> ed richardson: these are magnets that once you magnetize them, they stay that way. >> stahl: ed richardson, president of the u.s. magnetic materials association, says the most important use of rare earths is in magnets. only a small amount can produce magnets able to lift a thousand times their weight. >> richardson: this is a cell phone. >> stahl: he showed us how miniaturized rare earth magnets

can be. >> richardson: so i'm going to take it apart layer by layer and we're going to get to the point where we can actually see the magnets, the rare earth magnets, that are inside there. >> stahl: oh, let me see this. >> richardson: there's three little magnets in there. >> stahl: oh, one, two, three. >> richardson: right. if you put the paperclip on, you can see how it sticks. >> stahl: and this little tiny thing is the speaker. >> richardson: right. this is how devices have gotten small, very powerful, because the magnets are so powerful, you don't have to use much of it. >> stahl: the u.s. developed this technology, but china bought most of it right out from under us. for instance, in 1995, china bought the biggest american rare earth magnet company magnequench, which was based in indiana. >> richardson: when they bought the factory, they now had the patents. they now had the equipment. and they actually had some of the magnequench employees in the united states go to china and teach the people how to make the products. >> stahl: did we not understand

the strategic importance of keeping that industry here? >> richardson: we didn't get it. and unfortunately, the technology was transferred to china before that technology was appreciated. and now, we're seeing so many, for instance, defense systems that are dependent on it. >> stahl: does that make us dependent on china for our defense systems? >> richardson: oh, we are very dependent on china. >> stahl: we are dependent on china for our weaponry. >> richardson: right. >> stahl: a prime example of that is the new f-35 fighter jet, the most technologically advanced weapons system in history. each one contains nearly half a ton of rare earths. former white house official dan mcgroarty says that's just for starters. >> mcgroarty: the guidance systems on weapons systems and tomahawk cruise missile, any of the smart bombs have rare earths in them. lasers. i'd be hard-pressed to name anything that we would consider

worth building today and going forward that would not have a rare earth compound in it. >> stahl: because of this, because of the monopoly on rare earths, does china threaten our national security? >> mcgroarty: unchecked, yes. >> stahl: what finally woke up the u.s. government was an incident at sea in 2010. a chinese fishing trawler rammed a japanese coast guard ship in a territorial dispute. the japanese seized the boat's captain, and two weeks later china stopped shipping rare earths to japan. >> mcgroarty: the chinese cut them off. and for 30 to 40 days, the rare earths did not flow to japan. so it was a real shot across the bow for the japanese that this is something that you have to be worried with. >> stahl: it was a wake-up call. finally, 20 years after deng xiaoping's speech, rare earths were on the u.s. radar screen.

>> barack obama: this case involves something called rare earth materials. >> stahl: president obama announced a formal complaint to the world trade organization against china for creating shortages for foreign buyers and last august, the w.t.o. ruled against beijing. no one in the obama administration would talk to us on camera about rare earths and our dependence on china, including the department of energy, the pentagon, or the u.s. trade representative. even the private sector didn't want to discuss the problem. we tried to get interviews with heads of companies that use the magnets and other products coming out of china, and they would not talk to us. is there fear in high-tech companies that if they say something negative, maybe china won't sell them what they need? >> mcgroarty: i think that there is grave concern in these companies, but perhaps not a willingness to talk about that on a street corner.

so what is the u.s. doing to restore the industry here? out in california, molycorp was allowed to reopen after it developed new technology that protects the environment. but even when it's at full capacity, the mine will only produce a fraction of the world's supply of rare earths. the pentagon has begun stockpiling rare earths, and industry is researching new technologies that would replace them. do you get any help from the u.s. government? they want to have a rare earth industry here. >> karayannopoulos: encouragement, yeah. >> stahl: encouragement, that's it? >> karayannopoulos: yeah. >> stahl: the government is not offering incentives like tax breaks or subsidies that would lure businesses into the market. what needs to change to bring more of the industry back to the united states? >> karayannopoulos: first of all, we need to take a long-term view. it took 20 years to lose the dominant position, at least 20 years.

and it's probably going to take us ten, 15 years, if we execute, for some of these supply chains to start coming back. >> stahl: but trouble is once again looming for the u.s. rare earth industry. since restarting operations two years ago, molycorp's mountain pass mine has yet to turn a profit, and is so deeply in debt that just last week, its own auditor warned it may not be able to stay in business. woman: it's been a journey to get where i am. and i didn't get here alone. there were people who listened along the way. people who gave me options. kept me on track. and through it all my retirement never got left behind. so today, i'm prepared for anything we may want tomorrow to be. every someday needs a plan. let's talk about your old 401(k) today.

photos are great for capturing your world. and now they can transform it. with the new angie's list app, you can get projects done in a snap. take a photo of your project or just tell us what you need done and angie's list will find a top rated provider to do the job. the angie's list app is the simple, new way to get work done on your schedule. the app makes it easy, the power of angie's list makes it work. call, click or download the app for free today.

we're looking for above-normal snowfall. a major storm system. widespread travel problems going to be a concern, all throughout the day. the promise of the cloud is that every individual and organization has unlimited access to information, at any time, no matter where they are. weather affects us all. the microsoft cloud gives our team the power to instantly deliver critical information to people whenever they need it. here at accuweather we get up to 10 billion data requests every day, from over 200 countries and in 100 different languages. the microsoft cloud allows us to scale up so we can handle that volume. i remember a woman and she said the accuweather app woke me up in the night with a severe weather alert, and i got my family to safety and you literally saved me from a tornado. and to us that feels really good.

>> rose: 45 years ago,

astronauts landed on the moon and space travel captured the country's imagination. but nasa isn't launching astronauts anymore, and america's fascination with space has come down to earth. neil degrasse tyson is on a one- man mission to change that. he wants to get people so interested in the universe that they look up every time they go out. tyson is re-igniting a fascination for the great beyond. he's succeeded carl sagan as the country's most captivating scientific communicator. here's something you haven't seen before-- an astrophysicist, on stage, in a sold-out auditorium. ( cheers and applause ) his following has grown as he has mastered many mediums, including television, twitter, and radio. >> neil degrasse tyson: the good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: we caught up with him

in seattle, where he said, "a cosmic perspective could improve life on earth." >> tyson: we, in astrophysics, we think of the universe all the time. so, to us, earth is just another planet. from a distance, it's a speck. and i'm convinced that if everyone had a cosmic perspective, you wouldn't have legions of armies waging war on other people because someone would say, "stop, look at the universe." >> rose: so, you've become a superstar of the universe. >> tyson: ( laughs ) the status that you refer to is... i... i'm shocked by it every day, just every day. every day i wake up, and i look at my twitter feed and... >> rose: two million, by the way. >> tyson: two and a half million. i'm thinking, "i need to remind these people, 'hey look, i'm an astrophysicist. did i tell you that?'" ( laughter ) "you can... there's still time to back out." but for me, as an educator and as a scientist, what it tells me is there really is an under-

served curiosity in adults. >> rose: to spark that curiosity, he told us this is the most mind-altering picture ever taken, shot 46 years ago from apollo 8 while orbiting the moon. >> tyson: this was the first time any of us had seen earth the way nature had intended, with oceans and land and clouds. so many of us had only ever seen earth on a school room globe. and so this is the birth of a cosmic perspective. >> rose: and that idea should change our world. >> tyson: back then, that idea did change our world. earth day was founded. leaded gas was banned. d.d.t. was banned. all of a sudden, people were thinking about earth as... as a world, that we're all in it together. we're thinking, "we're exploring the moon and we discovered the

earth for the first time." >> rose: he's the head of the hayden planetarium in new york and lives in the city with his wife and two children. tyson received his doctorate from columbia. he says there are so few astrophysicists that they are literally one in a million. please tell me, what is an astrophysicist? >> tyson: in astrophysics, we care about how matter, motion, and energy manifest in objects and phenomenon in the universe. stars are born, they live out their lives, they die. some of the ones that die explode. our sun will not be one of those, but it will die. and it'll take earth with us. so we b... make sure we have other destinations in mind when that happens. and i've got it on my... on my calendar. ( laughter ) >> rose: i was going to say, when is this going to happen? i want to make... i want to make plans. >> tyson: in about five billion years, and so, we probably have other issues to concern ourselves with for our survival between now and then. >> rose: you said, "i am, we are stardust." >> tyson: yes. >> rose: what does that mean?

>> tyson: for me, the most astonishing fact is that the molecules that comprise our body are traceable... are traceable to the crucibles of the centers of stars, that manufactured these elements from lighter versions of themselves, and then exploded, scattering this enrichment across the galaxy into gas clouds that would later collapse to form next-generation star systems. one of those star systems was ours. these atoms and molecules are in us because, in fact, the universe is in us. and we are not only figuratively, but literally, stardust. >> rose: tyson became most widely known hosting the television series "cosmos." >> tyson: when we try to look even farther into the universe we come to what appears to be the end of space, but actually it's the beginning of time.

>> rose: fans line up down the block to watch him record his radio show, "star talk". >> tyson: the sun keeps all the planets on their appointed orbits, yet somehow manages to ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the world to do. galileo. ( laughter ) "star talk" radio. thank you. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: next month, "star talk" radio will also become a weekly cable television show. he is not in movies yet, but he becomes a movie critic when he spots a scene that's supposed to be scientifically accurate but isn't. you saw the movie "titanic." >> tyson: yes. >> rose: and there was a scene in which they're looking up at the stars, and you see it. >> tyson: it wasn't just a scene. the ship is sinking at a longitude/latitude/time/date we know.

and there's... only one sky should have been over that... that sinking ship. >> rose: and it wasn't. >> tyson: it was the wrong sky. but it was not only the wrong sky; they, like, made it up. and the left half of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right. so it's not only the wrong sky it was a lazy sky. >> rose: it's a movie. >> tyson: you really want to take me there. you want... say it again. let me hear it. >> rose: it's a movie! >> tyson: okay. they found the "titanic." they photographed the "titanic." they knew what the state rooms looked like and the china patterns and the... >> rose: so they set the standard. >> tyson: they required of me that i analyze it at that level. >> rose: instead of the fake sky, tyson said the real sky would have looked like this. so, in a later release, director james cameron changed the sky to tyson's specifications. and as for what's falling from the sky, he showed me a piece of an asteroid that he keeps in his office. and where is this rock from? >> tyson: and this is a rock from space. >> rose: oh, my. ooh. heavy. >> tyson: yeah, yeah.

you can feel just the weight of this thing. and this was part of a much larger asteroid that collided with earth about 50,000 years ago. and so now, imagine this about a million times larger going 40,000 miles an hour colliding with earth. and you get a sense of the energy of what is out there and that earth is in a shooting gallery and the... >> rose: and this is why we have to worry about asteroids? >> tyson: i should think so. ( laughter ) >> rose: tyson first became interested in the stars staring up at them from the roof of his apartment building. now, his playground is the hayden planetarium. >> tyson: the milky way's actually visible behind me here. >> rose: this is the planetarium that changed his life when he was just nine years old. you'd seen the sky from your rooftop... >> tyson: oh, from my roof in the bronx. and i saw all dozen stars that are visible. ( laughter ) on a good night, maybe 14 stars. and i come in here, and they dim the light, and i said, "wow!" and it was the universe. >> rose: when you walked out of

this planetarium, i mean, were you a different person because you were overwhelmed by the experience? >> tyson: you put your finger on it. i'd spent my entire life never knowing that such a sky existed. and then to be struck by it, to be star-struck by it. and after that day, i said, "i want to learn more about it." >> tyson: children keep changing their minds about what they want to be, but tyson stuck with the stars. >> tyson: and if you asked me, as a kid at age 11, that annoying question that adults always ask kids... what is it...? >> rose: "what do you want to do when you grow up?" >> tyson: i would say, "astrophysicist," and that pretty much shut everybody up in the room. ( laughter ) the universe is so amazing and so limitless, and who wouldn't want to study the universe? >> rose: what was so amazing? >> tyson: the endless frontier of it all. the vastness of it. the mystery of it. >> rose: but tyson had to fight societal stereotypes to reach his goal. because he is black, he said

teachers pushed him toward athletics, not astrophysics, which he called "the path of most resistance." >> tyson: when i needed to overcome the low expectations of others or the... the bias that would be expressed in one circumstance or another, i'd keep on keepin' on. and i climb over the obstacle, go around it, dig under it, fly over it. that's what kept me going. otherwise, i would have never been an astrophysicist. >> rose: at age 56, tyson is still star-struck by both the sky and the planetarium that brought it to life. >> tyson: so imprinted was i by that sky that, to this day, i go to mountain tops where the finest observatories in the world are located and i say to myself, "that reminds me of the hayden planetarium." ( laughter ) >> rose: and when you walk outside, wherever you are, do you look up every time you walk outdoors? >> tyson: any time i exit a building, i look up, even if

i can tell you that kids... kids' will look up when they come out and adults just stop. we've stopped catching snowflakes in our mouth, we stopped jumping into puddles and i... i don't want to ever lose that. in life and in the universe, it's always best to keep looking up. >> rose: uplifting and upbeat, he is as ebullient backstage as he is on it. >> tyson: everyone should... their minds should be blown at least once a day. >> we are moments away from opening the house. this is a half-hour call to the top of the show. >> tyson: i am ready. the ceiling has spoken. >> rose: he relates easily to everybody. watch how he connected to this questioner. >> i saw you a couple of years ago in houston. >> tyson: houston, the first word ever spoken from the surface of the moon. ( laughter ) "houston. tranquility base here. the eagle has landed." >> rose: but tyson upset a lot of people when he argued in part

that pluto was too small and insignificant to qualify as a planet, despite what we'd learned in school. >> tyson: i didn't kill pluto, but i was an accessory. >> rose: yeah, you were complicit. >> tyson: i drove the getaway car, perhaps. that's all i'll admit to. >> rose: he got hate mail from elementary school students including this letter he read during his performance in seattle. >> tyson: "why can't pluto be a planet? some people like pluto, and if it doesn't exist, then they don't have a favorite planet." ( laughter ) right? "please write back, but not in cursive because i can't read cursive." ( laughter ) >> rose: his big finish is often this picture of earth, taken from the cassini spacecraft showing earth as a tiny dot under saturn's rings. >> tyson: carl sagan would ultimately write a book called "the pale blue dot" where he waxed poetic about its meaning and significance. i want to end with a recitation from the book of carl.

( laughter ) "if you look at earth from space, you see a dot, that's here. that's home. that's us. it underscores the responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another, and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." thank you all. ( cheers and applause ) r a fight when you've got somebody that's got your back. having chantix as a partner made it more successful. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix helped reduce my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these

stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix or history of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems or develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. chantix absolutely helped me quit smoking. ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. for most people, earning cash back ends here, at the purchase. but the citi double cash card doesn't end there. it lets you earn cash back when you buy and again as you pay. that's cash back twice. it's cash back with a side of cash back. the citi double cash card. the only card that lets you earn cash back twice on every purchase. with 1% when you buy and 1% as you pay. with two ways to earn,

it makes a lot of other cards seem one-sided.

>> stahl: now an update on a story we called "the storm after the storm." we reported on allegations of wide scale fraud in the federal flood insurance program. after superstorm sandy thousands of reports written for insurance companies by on-scene engineers were altered to make it appear the structural damage to homes wasn't as severe as originally reported. engineer andrew braum told our sharyn alfonsi, it happened to the damage reports he wrote.

>> alfonsi: how many of those reports were doctored? >> andrew braum: at least 175 of them, or approximately 96% is the number that i calculated. >> alfonsi: 175 of your reports were doctored? >> braum: correct, they were altered. >> alfonsi: and the ones that weren't changed? >> braum: the one's that weren't changed, interestingly, were ones where i recommended that no repairs are required. >> stahl: following our story, fema, the federal emergency management agency, agreed to reopen every flood insurance claim filed by sandy's victims. one fema flood insurance manager resigned. another retired, and more heads may roll soon. i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." and tomorrow, be sure to watch "cbs this morning."

♪ ♪ ♪ (under loud music) this is the place. ♪ ♪ ♪ their beard salve is made from ♪ ♪ ♪ sustainable tea tree oil and kale... you, my friend, recognize when a trend has reached critical mass. yes, when others focus on one thing you see what's coming next. you see opportunity. that's what a type e does. and so it begins. with e*trade's investing insights center, you can spot trends before they become trendy. e*trade. opportunity is everywhere.

captioning funded by cbs and ford captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

(sirens wailing in distance) (explosions in distance) (alarm beeping) (alarm stops) (gunfire in distance) (indistinct shouting) (gunfire continues) man: you're off to a good start. (gunfire continues over tv) jason, why don't you turn that off now? come on, come get some breakfast. jason: all right, let me... that's enough carnage for 7:00 a.m. all right, let me save it. hold on. uh, oh, i'll save it for you. jason: well... dad... come on. (laughs) come on, let's go. hey, don't act like you got some big problem with my game. you play it, too. okay. aah! oh, come on!