and so in my quest to find new, axisable ways of talking about the science, which i'm very passionate about, i was looking for new ways of breaking the communication barrier, actually bridging the technical knowledge gap and leveling the playing field so we can have an inflammed conversation about my science, what is dark matter, what is dark energy, how does it accident why are we here? and so, i tried a few things. i tried using cookery and food to explain the expansion of the universe. i tried the great cousin cookery show in the tent, trying to use pancakes to explain the universe. i've worked with artists and designers to create objects, artwork, that tried to encapsulate in a more tangible way cosmology, work with architects, building a pinball machine that represented -- well-won't tell you what i represented. the point is that in those efforts i was trying to find new ways of communicating -- talking about my science in a way that would not only reach people's minds and speak to people's hearts to bring back passion in science. science is a human endeavor, and involves passion

how do we chart a course between the bush axises and the lack of imagination, vision, courage, and initiative that i think is typified the obama administration? that's what my book is about. now, something amazing happened in america in the last 25 years. what happened is our crime rate, our murder rates which were so staggeringly high in the 1970s and 1980s went down. they went down because american police departments adopted what was known as broken windows policing. they observed that if a single window was broken in a neighborhood, it's a sign that nobody's in charge, and so it's an invitation to break all the rest of the windows and to create disorder. disorder, criminality, they're not just causal, they're environmental. the argument i would make to you tonight is that something like that is happening in the world, too. there were no consequences for assad in syria. there were no consequences, really, for putin in georgia or in ukraine, and the rogues of the world sense that we now live in a place, where no one's in charge, where the united states is afraid to intervene in all circumsta