Tonight, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts a roundtable debate on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, its discontents, and how likely the theory is to stand the test of time.

You're all familiar with the recent drama in this department—data from the OPERA experiment in Italy that purported to find neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light. That has since turned out to be the result of a faulty GPS system, but it's not the only challenge to Einstein, and some of those questions can't be discounted nearly as easily.

The debate—which features scientists from UCLA, CERN, Boston University, the MITRE Center, the University of Bologna, and Louisiana State University—starts at 7:30 pm Eastern. You can watch the whole thing in the live stream embedded above.

You can also participate in the debate by tweeting questions to deGrasse Tyson and the panel. You can do that by tagging your question with the hashtag #AsimovDebate.

This is a seriously incredible story. If you did not already kind of love Carl Sagan, and think of him as a sort of benevolent hippie grandpa, you totally will now.

And the message here is seriously spot-on: The best way to honor the people who helped you realize your dreams is to help somebody else realize theirs.

Astrophysicist and TV presenter Neil deGrasse Tyson is to host a new series of Cosmos, originally presented by Carl Sagan. The above photo, posted to Reddit by Bobojoe, is said to be of a young Tyson, before he was a famous. Don't be distracted by the sideburns, awesome as they may be; check out that fabulous t-shirt. [via Reddit]]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/08/10/neil-degrasse-tyson-to-host-new-series-of-cosmos.html/feed 40