Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was in North Carolina this past week to give a few lectures at the North Carolina Science Festival. He’s a very well spoken astrophysicist who is known for his promotion of science and engineering. Tyson shared that he knew that he wanted to be an astrophysicist at the age of 9 when he first saw the stars at the Hayden Planetarium in New York where he is now the director. When a little girl from the audience asked him what the best part about being an astrophysicist was, his replied, “Everyday I wake up I know there’s something about the universe that I don’t know yet.” During one of his lectures he also said, “The problem is most education tells you what to think rather than how to think it. Science is a method of inquiry. It’s the capacity to judge. That’s the scientifically literate mind.”

I’ve always found Dr. Tyson’s speeches inspirational for my personal engineering ventures. Some of my projects, including this blog and the electric RX-8, may seem like pipe dreams to some people, but I am not ashamed of that. Much of the work will be things that I will be doing for the first time. That means that I’m not guaranteed a 100% chance of success, but that’s point. Not following an already set path means there’s a sense of exploring and adventure. We live very safe lives in this modern age. Our survival and day to day living is pretty much guaranteed. That means our last frontier is here in science and engineering. I started this project not knowing how I was going to do it, just that I could and should. I hope listening to one of Dr. Tyson’s speeches will spark that sense of adventure in you as well.

This high resolution video of the space shuttle launch was just posted recently. This is what can happen when people are not afraid to dream and to create.