Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
by Neil Degrasse Tyson
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Read in February, 2007
DEATH BY BLACK HOLE AND OTHER COSMIC QUANDARIES BY NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: An astrophysicist for the American Museum of Natural History, director of the world famous Hayden Planetarium, and columnist for Natural History magazine, Neil DeGrasse Tyson brings to the non-scientific world the ideal book for those fascinated with space, the cosmos, black holes, and all the questions and wonders therein. Death by Black Hole is the perfect book for the reader who wants answers to questions about the unive...more
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Read in March, 2008
I've been trying for years to wrap my head around Astrophysics (without delving too far into the actual science of it), but I could never seem to get beyond the most basic understanding. Now, this book did not really provide any great revelations, BUT it did provide the best explanation that I've read so far about why it's so hard for the layperson to penetrate. Too many damn Levels of Abstraction...
"Were it not for science's ability to analyze light by breaking it up into its componen...more
"Were it not for science's ability to analyze light by breaking it up into its componen...more
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Read in October, 2007
I have one last section to go (Religion and Science), but my main points won't be affected by it.
Death By Black Hole provides, especially in the first couple of sections, a really good outline of various problems that astrophysicists are confronted with, and it definitely made me think of the scientific process in a new way. So that was pretty cool. But on the whole, my reaction was rather meh - kind of disappointing when the book really isn't bad.
My main complaint about the book isn't ...more
Death By Black Hole provides, especially in the first couple of sections, a really good outline of various problems that astrophysicists are confronted with, and it definitely made me think of the scientific process in a new way. So that was pretty cool. But on the whole, my reaction was rather meh - kind of disappointing when the book really isn't bad.
My main complaint about the book isn't ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
those interested in astronomy and science
Very enjoyable and full of fun facts like where the name Betelgeuse came from (the Arabic Yad Al Jauza meaning "hand of the great one"), how once the universe cooled down enough after the big bang molecules started forming all over the place and filling up the table of elements right and left, how if you fell into a black hole you could be pulled apart atom by atom and extruded from the other side, and on and on... It's also fun to read all about how Neil is truly an astronerd and has ...more
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Read in January, 2008
With an astrophysicist brother-in-law and ex-boyfriend, I had to pick this up.
Tyson's style is very readable, terminology-wise, but the concepts he describes aren't for the lazy; you need to be willing to stop and think about how the universe actually operates, instead of being spoon-fed information. He helps by spiking the text with humor and figurative language; the eponymous article calls the process of being squeezed into a long stream of atoms toward the center of a black hole as "...more
Tyson's style is very readable, terminology-wise, but the concepts he describes aren't for the lazy; you need to be willing to stop and think about how the universe actually operates, instead of being spoon-fed information. He helps by spiking the text with humor and figurative language; the eponymous article calls the process of being squeezed into a long stream of atoms toward the center of a black hole as "...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Lingering crush on a former history professor? Or just want to know more about the cosmos?
This book is really a collection of essays published over a number of years, which makes it an easy book to pick up now and then. This suited me well, as astrophisics isn't something I can really just power through. I thoroughly enjoyed the book's recurring characters, especially Pluto, who appeared every other chapter or so to get berated for its non-planetary status, and Perceval Lowell, a rich amateur star gazer who actually published a book about the water shortage on Mars... a fact that he...more
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I've always enjoyed deGrasse Tyson's television work, and have been wanting to read a book of his for a while. This is a collection of his essays (40 or so, averaging about 8 pages) from magazines. He touches on nearly all topics related to astrophysics and cosmology, ranging from the ancient history of Ptolemy to current research. Some of it is stuff that would be familiar from high school physics or college introductory astronomy (good refresher), but Tyson introduces a good deal of stuff I...more
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Read in March, 2008
I really enjoy the way Tyson can write about science. He's able to take very complex topics and glean out the fascinating parts. He rarely invokes higher mathematics, instead relying on his amazement with the complexity of nature to relate subject matter.
I actually listened to the audiobook version of this in the car. This made for some very difficult driving moments as I tried to capture the sheer magnitude of the subjects while navigating Houston traffic. The last few essays on his opi...more
I actually listened to the audiobook version of this in the car. This made for some very difficult driving moments as I tried to capture the sheer magnitude of the subjects while navigating Houston traffic. The last few essays on his opi...more
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Read in April, 2008
Not being an astrophysicist, this book, for me, was a terrific introduction into all that exists outside of our blue planet. DeGrasse has a way of presenting complex "quandrys" and theories, in a way that allows most people to get a grasp on; the way the universe works. To my dismay, this novel was not one that focused on Black Holes or one specific aspect of the astrophysics science, it is a collection of essays (some which have one awards) on topics from the formation of stars and pl...more
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Read in January, 2007
For those interested in a dabbling of astrophysics and getting a cursory understanding of the modern problems in cosmology then this book will provide some enjoyment. The author does a good job explaining many common cosmological misunderstanding such as the sun is white not yellow and how the event horizon of a black hole would extrude you into elementary particles. However,since it is a compendium of Dr. Tyson's work, the flow of the book often feels jumbled and detracts from some the inters...more
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Read in December, 2007
Listened to the audio download from www.audible.com.
Narrated by: Dion Graham
I really don’t have much to comment about on this one. I did like it but not much stood out that I wrote down that I would want to discuss.
The thing I most enjoyed about the book was not the content but rather the narration by Dion Graham. It was very conversational and read with the intonation the author intended. The audio book must have been a clo...more
Narrated by: Dion Graham
I really don’t have much to comment about on this one. I did like it but not much stood out that I wrote down that I would want to discuss.
The thing I most enjoyed about the book was not the content but rather the narration by Dion Graham. It was very conversational and read with the intonation the author intended. The audio book must have been a clo...more
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Read in November, 2007
Tyson may be this generation's Carl Sagan, at least so far as astronomy writing for the general public is concerned. For a guy like me who loves the subject of science but doesn't have the science education necessary to get through all the heavy peer reviewed stuff in most science journals I appreciate writers like Tyson who can tell the tale of science in a manner that leaves me in awe and wonder at what a fantastically peculiar universe we inhabit. This is a book that easy to devour and come a...more
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Clearly written for the general reader, this collection of essays by a noted astrophyicist covers some familiar scientific ground, and some that's not so familiar. The best ones are about surprising aspects of our universe, like the path of the earth through space, or why what goes up doesn't always come down, things that we never think about, and are surprised about, but then wonder why we are surprised. And then there are the really weird things like black holes that are so strange its hard to...more
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Read in January, 2004
This book is a collection of previously published essays about the universe in Natural History Magazine. Mr. DeGrasse Tyson has a sort of dry and witty humor that if one is not paying attention is easy to miss. Don’t miss it! Mr. Tyson seems to be an incredibly smart man, a man on a mission to educate people just how short-sighted and egocentrical we can be, and just what it is we are dealing with when we are talking about things such as the universe. I love this book and would highly reco...more
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Read in July, 2008
I was smitten with Neil deGrasse Tyson from the first column in the Natural History magazine, supported a little later by his shows on PBS. Although I doubt I'll ever get anywhere with astrophysics, being of a decidedly unscientific mind, I thoroughly enjoy the "cosmic quandaries" that Tyson discusses in such a succinct and reasonable way. He has a down-to-earth charm as he discusses out-of-this-world topics:
"… if the Sun were pure yellow, then the snow would look yellow – w...more
"… if the Sun were pure yellow, then the snow would look yellow – w...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
all readers
This book gently initiates readers into the mysteries of modern astrophysics. I learned many interesting things about our solar system, galaxy, universe, and maybe beyond. It's an extremely well-written book by a top-flight astrophysicist. My only complaint: since the chapters originated as independent essays, later chapters often repeat material from earlier ones. Usually, however, readers need only sift through a repetitive line or two to get back into new material.
I listened to the audio ...more
I listened to the audio ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
People with an interest in science
I really like and appreciate Neil De Grasse Tyson. I think he has picked up the baton from Carl Sagan of attempting to make science, and specifically astrophysics, accessible to everyone. And while I did enjoy this book and learn a goodly amount from it I do have to complain about the amount of info that is repeated through out the book. It's a collection of essays and there is a lot of overlap. Though, if the worst complaint about an otherwise entertaining and informative book is that relevant ...more
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson was a hilarious and entertaining interview on the Daily Show one night; and this was the book he had recently written. It's a compilation of essays he'd published on various cosmological and astro-physics topics; including the title essay which tries to explain just exactly the process one would go through when dying via black hole. The man writes extremely well, and manages to take what can be some fairly dense material and make it seem rather accessible and engaging. Tot...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone with an interest in astronomy
I am always comforted when reminded of my own insignificance and of the fact that there are human beings who are brilliant. This is a great book for that. It's about astrophysics and the universe. Generally it's "dumbed down" for the common reader, but there were a couple chapters that were still a little over my head. I would say that it might be a difficult book for someone with no previous instruction in physics. Anyone (who isn't an astrophysicist) would learn something from this b...more
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Read in January, 2008
Neil Degrasse Tyson is one of those science guys that you wished you had as a teacher, he's excited and impassioned by his subject and it shows on every page. Mostly known as the host of PBS's Nova Science Now, he never talks over your head, but at the same time, Tyson always assumes that you're intelligent and can grasp the concepts he's discussing. It's a fine balance that many science writers fail to master. Anyone who is interested in Astronomy should give this book a try. It covers a lo...more
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