We’re starting a new weekly feature here on Geekosystem where we help you follow the best people on Twitter. It’s #FollowFriday! A lot of people slap a bunch of names together in a tweet with #FF, but we’re going to focus on one person each week and tell you why you should follow them. First up: Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson)
Who He Is: I feel like I don’t need to tell you who Neil deGrasse Tyson is, but in weeks to come we’ll be recommending people you may not be familiar with, so I’m just setting precedent with the format of this thing.
If you DON’T know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is… really? Here’s his Twitter bio:
Astrophysicist, Am. Museum of Natural History. Author: Space Chronicles, Pluto Files, Inexplicable Universe [Video], Host: StarTalk Radio http://StarTalkRadio.net
New York City · haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/
Pretty much any time someone’s on television talking about space it’s either Neil deGrasse Tyson or someone they got because they couldn’t get Neil deGrasse Tyson. He’s on The Daily Show pretty regularly, and pops up in Geekosystem stories with impressive frequency.
Why You Should Follow: Tyson’s tweets are educational, entertaining, and sometimes lead to discussions of the process of ultra pasteurization and its impact on apocalypse prediction. If you love space, have a passion for science, and are interested in the role they play in society, Tyson is a guy you want to keep an eye on.
His ratio of self-promotion to interesting and entertaining tweets is impressive. He occasionally tweets about a book he’s written, or that the new episode of his podcast Star Talk Radio is out, but for the most part his tweets aren’t about trying to sell you something.
Recent Great Tweets:
Drinking coffee changes your metabolism in a way that creates performance-enhancing effects on your body.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) August 7, 2013
This was from a series of tweets outlining different “performance-enhancing” techniques conveniently timed around the A-rod scandal. (Our friends at SportsGrid tell us A-rod is a baseball man.)
Extreme Political or Religious conflicts resolve by War. Extreme Scientific conflicts resolve by a search for better data.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 31, 2013
Many of Tyson’s tweets are in the theme of pointing out the differences between science and religion in a way that skillfully tends not to offend either side, while still making it clear which side he believes in.
It’s not that I like it because I’m good at it. I’m good at it because I like it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 18, 2013
This seems out of context, but looking at his Twitter feed there doesn’t appear to be any context to put it in. Regardless of what he’s talking here, I think this applies to how geeks tend to excel at things they’re interested in more than things we don’t like.
Just an FYI: In a mirror, you can only kiss yourself on the lips.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 12, 2013
That’s just adorable. Now I can’t get the image of Tyson kissing himself in the mirror out of my head, and I’m pretty okay with that.
Also:
Just saying. Dude’s a meme.
So there you have it. It’s Friday. Follow @neiltyson.
(via Twitter)
- I wrote about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s milk once. That’s how interesting he is. His milk in interesting.
- Tyson also used Twitter to teach everyone about Santa
- And he got The Daily Show to fix its opening credits
