Product Description
"One of today's best popularizers of science."—Kirkus Reviews

Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and childlike enthusiasm. Here Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining just what would happen to your body if you fell into one, while "Hollywood Nights" assails Hollywood's feeble efforts to get its night skies right. Tyson is the world's best-known astrophysicist, and he's at his best here, as a natural teacher who simplifies the complexities of astrophysics while sharing his infectious excitement for our universe.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 72 reviews)

Entertaining and informative

This book is a collection of magazine articles concerning astronomy and astrophysics, but the association with science should not put one off as the book is written in plane language, without any recourse to mathematics. While it is made from a collection of science articles, it has a coherent framework that makes it read as a consistent hole, as opposed to a collection of parts. Dr. Tyson writes with the same engaging style as he manifests in his numerous appearances on educational cable channels such as the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel. When reading this book I could easily imagine his witty narration. The book is humorous and very informative. The nature of the solar system, black holes, quasars and much more are presented in a very clear manner. While I was familiar with much of what was covered, I found new and fascinating tidbits in every chapter. For instance, owing to the fact that the earth bulges at the equator, Mount Everest is not the tallest mountain on earth, at least in terms of the distance of the summit from the center of the earth, as opposed to the distance above sea level (see P.52). Did you know that the Universe is a light shade of beige (see P.167) or that the electronic attraction of the electrons from a thimble full of lunar dust is greater than the gravitational attraction between the earth and the moon (see P.169). Chapter 32 describes many of the multitudes of ways in which life (at least that of complicated organisms, such as humans) could be destroyed by cosmic events. Chapter 33 describes the "Death by a Black Hole" and why a small black hole would shred you faster than a larger one. Chapter 34 debunks many misconceptions, such as "the North Star is the brightest star", or that the "Sun is yellow".

This is a fascinating and informative book, which I heartily recommend to anyone interested in the earth, our solar system and the surrounding universe. The treatment is light and focuses on the what, but not the why. I would recommend Brian Greene's "Fabric of the Cosmos" if you want a general treatment of the why.

January 02, 2009

Mind Expansion Through Star Trek Analogies

This is the book for the intellectually curious but Mathematically lazy. Neil deGrasse Tyson uses the time tested Star Trek analogies to make the complicated simple and open up the possibilities of cross discipline thought to increase humanities understanding of the wider universal constants. This book was and is a pleasure to read. Get it in Hard back because you will review it when you get to the next chapter. The book is exciting and makes you an evangelist spreading the word of our decreasing ignorance.
January 01, 2009

First letter bug in Kindle edition

In the print edition, most likely, the first letter of each chapter was done in an ornate lettering that was a picture, and not part of the font. The effect of this in the Kindle edition is that the first letter of each chapter is missing. Other than that, a good read.
December 26, 2008

Between the cliff and the black hole, I chose the black hole!

Pros: well written, interesting and very fun. Besides pure science, it has amusing anecdotes too.
Cons: somewhat basic for someone with little scientific background.

If it had more equations that would be fine.
December 25, 2008

Shelfari Review

I "read" the Audio-book version. the reading was brilliant.

This book goes down as a favorite because in spite of it's silly title it is a wonderful, succinct review of astrophysics. That sounds boring, I suppose. But it isn't: black holes. quasars, the speed of light, the big bang, the origins of all the matter in the universe, basically everything interesting about the field is covered here in an entertaining manner. As a matter of fact it was so good I am considering playing it again.
December 06, 2008

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