Neil deGrasse Tyson Participates In Epic Reddit AMA

If you aren’t familiar with AMAs on reddit, they are “Ask Me Anything” threads that run like an online Q&A session. Reddit users post questions on the thread and the subject of the AmA answers whichever question they feel like answering. AMAs usually take the form of “I am ______, AMA,” and can feature celebrities or random people with interesting stories – for instance “I am a bi-polar ex-heroin addict, AMA.”

Tyson’s AMA did well, to say the least. It is by far the top scoring (based on upvotes) post on reddit this week, and is already the 98th most popular post of all time. When you think about the magnitude of links submitted to reddit daily, this is no small feat.

Neil deGrasse TysonJust began an AMA session on Reddit. For those who have no clue what that phrase means, continue on with your day.

And for good reason. Dr. Tyson said some pretty amazing things during the AMA. The top comment comes from the question “What never fails to blow your mind in physics?” Tyson answered as follows:

2) That Quarks come only in pairs: If you try to separate two of them, the energy you sink into the system to accomplish this feat is exactly the energy to spontaneously create two more quarks – one to partner with each of those you pulled apart.

That our bodies atoms are traceable to supernova stars that scattered their chemical enrichment across the cosmos, spawning the birth of star systems that contain planets, at least one of them containing life.

Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. The beat the curiosity out of the kids. They out-number kids. They vote. They wield resources. That’s why my public focus is primarily adults.

The AMA was so popular, that it’s already prompted redditors to post with frequency on the topic of the already-legendary AMA. He’s spawning his own new memes, and people are posting their favorite answers from the session with gusto. If you want to see what I’m talking about, look at the lead image from this article and check out this search on reddit.

It’s also possible that the overwhelming flood of comments took down reddit for a short period of time. Soshable points out that early this morning, reddit was down for “emergency maintenance.”