neil degrasse tyson, the astrophysicist, spends a lot of time looking and thinking about space.netarium here in new york. >> thanks, thanks. >> when you wrote this article in foreign affairs that i was struck by -- >> cover article. >> the cover essay. and they talked about -- and you talked in this article in "foreign affairs" about the fact that we were withdrawing from the -- from space. limiting our ambitions at the very moment that china was amping up its program. you worry a lot about the fact that people are getting very cost conscious and very -- really cutting back. you tell the story about the hubble space telescope. explain why it's important and what happened. >> well, in that particular case, the hubble space telescope, as you may remember, when it was launched, the mirror had the wrong curvature. images were fuzzy. would be a while before we would get that repaired with corrective optics. what do you do? up in space -- you have to mount a mission and design a mission to correct -- that problem was not aepd before hubble was launched. you have to be clever about wha

neil degrasse tyson brings his unique perspective and personality to help us understand the beauty andthe importance of space science and exploration. a director of the hayden planetarium, born and raised in new york city, doctor tyson attended the school of science and earned his ba in physics from harvard, and then his phd in astrophysics from colombia. that is right. he has been an adviser to nasa and three presidents on matters related to space exploration. and he has been awarded steen honorary doctorates. he even has an asteroid named after him. widely known as a friend me of pluto, he joins us tonight to discuss his latest book, space chronicles, facing the ultimate frontier. please join me now in giving a warm welcome to doctor neil degrasse tyson. [applause] [cheers] [applause] >> thank you. thank you for the warm introduction. just so you know, this is the only public talk anywhere that i'm giving on this book. this is the only talk i'm giving. you're not missing it somewhere else. [applause] i see you are ready up here. here we go. i will tell you how it all began. there was

. >> neil degrasse tyson, a pleasure. >> thanks for having me. >> we will be back. >>> the entire exportsand gas amount to less than those of finland. one small european country. that's a staggering statistic. ♪ ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. >>> frank lloyd wright was once on a witness stand, the judge asked him to describe who he was. he said, "i am the world's greatest living architect." the judge was surprised, he said, "your honor, i am under oath." if bernard lewis were in a similar situation he could say he is the world's greatest historian of the middle east. he was at princeton for many decades and joins me now. >> thank you very much. >> "notes on a century: reflections of a middle east historian," so naturally the first thing anyone would want to know from you, berna

neil degrass tyson. [applause] >> thank you. what a warm introduction.n is the only public talk anywhere that i'm giving on the weak. so you are here here and now for it. just so you know, just saying. [applause] not missing missing it somewhere else. [applause] get ready up here. here we go. i'll tell you how it began. it was a big bang -- [laughter] no just -- i was there in 1990's, i was approached by colombia university press to write a chapter in in an ensign low peed ya they were preparing to celebrate the end of the 20th century. it was called "the colombia history of the 20th century." [inaudible] this was it. okay. that was a significant about it is the person originally scheduled to write that was approached in 1996, the person originally scheduled to write that was carol saggen. he had been asked to contribute a chapter on cozzic discovery to the volume. he had taken ill, in 1995, he died in 1996. my name was put up as one who would then write in his stand. and i was honored to be asked, although the size of the project was bigger than what i