Thomas Zurbuchen is punctual to the minute
when we meet him on this Sunday morning.
And while he's out jogging we discover even more Swiss virtues
such as ambition and determination.
They may be clichés, but they've been decisive for his career,
which all started in Switzerland.
My career was like a rocket shooting into space.
The first thrust, from the ground into the air, into weightlessness,
was my education in Switzerland. That was the most important thing.
At NASA, we get to know Zurbuchen the researcher.
He seems to be driven by a fascination for the material,
by boundless curiosity and by dreams.
Dreams are incredibly important to scientists.
A new observation such as this one starts with a dream.
What would it be like if outside I had a massive telescope
that an astronaut could assemble or tinker with
and I could see these new constellations for the first time?
What would that be like? And then we construct that.
Making dreams a reality,
always learning more about Earth and space.
Zurbuchen recently reported on the discovery of seven new planets,
40 light years from Earth.
And under his direction NASA will soon fly to the sun
to learn more about its surface and solar storms.
Zurbuchen says he has to repeatedly explain this
world of science,
especially to justify the annual budget of six million dollars.
The fact that people don't understand science
is our problem.
We have to be able to explain and want to explain
in a whole range of different ways
why science can change our lives and why it's important.
I see it as a challenge that really motivates us
to do more and to improve.
Improving at work and at jogging:
This is the ambition of the scientist from
the small country of Switzerland
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