[Note: This item comes from friend Mike Cheponis. DLH]
From: Michael Cheponis <mac@Culver.Net>
Date: January 2, 2010 4:49:59 AM PST
Subject: What Were the Science Breakthroughs of 2009?
<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/july-dec09/yearinscience_12-31.html>
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History
…
“Add to these stories the widespread paranoia across America that the world will end in 2012 because an extinct Mayan civilization from half a millennium ago said so, and that we still need court cases to decide whether or not evolution by natural selection should be taught in our public schools, and I’m left fearing the future of America’s leadership on the world stage of science and technology.
This leadership, as any historian will tell you, drives the economic strength and security of nations. The fall is not from a cliff. More like a slow, downward slide — almost imperceptible from day to day. But as the years pass America will have descended from leaders to players to merely followers as we fade to insignificance, at best hitching a ride on the innovations of others.”