Neil deGrasse Tyson asks for help on Facebook:
I hardly ever ask questions on this wall, but I feel compelled: Tuesday I’ll be at the White House. If you had one sentence for the President, what would it be?
My response was:
Mr. President, let’s amp up U.S. science education by devoting ourselves as a nation to an Apollo-type program in medicine: Launch “ABCD by 2023” to discover even more effective treatments – or cures! – for Alzheimer’s, Birth defects, Cancer, and Diabetes.
Such a visionary national project would appeal, for obvious reasons, to seniors, parents, children, and anybody who has ever lost a loved one, or feared losing a loved one, to any of these killers of body and mind.
Not only would it save millions of our loved ones …
It would give education a shot in the arm. It would provide huge numbers of jobs. It would get America investing in itself again through advanced research. It would underscore the value of attracting and retaining bright young minds from all over the planet. And it would provide the major spin-off of a fantastic body of new knowledge.
So yes, Neil, tell him THIS.