Cosmologist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, as a regular on popular talk shows loves chronicling the mysteries of the cosmos.

He told delegates at the World Government Summit that any government wanting to lead in this world, had to embrace science and technology as the engines of the 21^st century world economy.

“We have to create a culture of discovery, those are the most fertile times,” he said.

“The US valued exploration discovering every element in 20^th century, but three new elements were discovered just weeks ago, one by the Japanese. It doesn’t matter what country you come from or religion you practice, science transcends it,” he added.

Science instilled pride in countries, according to Tyson, with scientists honoured on bank noted around the world, and makes for good marketing, citing Germany’s mathetician Gauss as an example.

“Germany is very high on the list in engineering excellence, it’s a selling point. Where did it come from? Gauss on a bank note is a statement from the government calculating things is important. Nations want to share the spirit of discovery with its citizens,” he explained.

In the Arab world he pointed out stars tell the story of achievements.

“Two-third of all stars have Arabic names,” Tyson said.