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Jan 09, 2011

Logan rated it:

Within my skull, where all of those vital pieces of data surrounding science are supposed to be stored, there is instead a vast beaker-shaped void of ignorance. In high school, while we were supposed to be studying the musculature of the formaldehyde-soaked amphibians pinned ignominiously to their coffinesque metal trays, I was far more interested in studying the effects of adding fire to small green buds. During my brief time wandering the hallways of the University world, I was able to do aw More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

Chris rated it:

I have often lamented the passing of my favorite popular scientist, Carl Sagan, by talking about how necessary he is right now. We are at a point in our history where scientific illiteracy is growing, where people are not only ignorant of how science works, but are proud of their ignorance. What we need is someone who can reach the majority of Americans who are not especially scientifically literate - the people whose automatic reaction to science is to think, "That's just too hard for m More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Alex rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2007

Maria rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2008

Cheri rated it:

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...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2009

Kathy rated it:

A great title for a book, that alone made me want to read it. Of course, this is the type of book I will almost always pick up from the library. It is a collection of essays on science for the magazine Natural History. It covers a wide range of topics, usually relating to physics, from particle physics to astrophysics. I love this stuff and I only wish I retained enough math to be able to read more technical discussions than these rather general essays.
The essays are informative and entert More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Colleen rated it:

This is a great introduction into the world of astrophysics for the lay person. It's funny and engaging in a way you couldn't imagine a book about astrophysics being (without reading this book). How did it all begin and where are we going are just some of the cosmic quandaries that are tackled. It even has a whole section on how many ways the planet and its life could end! Fun stuff for a nerd like me. Plus, it touches on many other science/culture conundrums that are great food for thought.
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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2010

Sean rated it:

I feel that the reason that people do not understand science in the US today is because we have a foolish tradition of thinking that the only way to "know" physics is through the terse formalism of mathematics. Math is a tool to do science, as much as a microscope or a superconducting supercollider. The disservice we do as scientists are when we are unable to communicate the concepts about our physical world to the population at large because we tangle ourselves up in mathematical form More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2009

S rated it:

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson. His humor and straightforwardness were some of the best things about the History Channel documentary, The Universe. And his lectures on YouTube are always extremely inventive, interesting, and entertaining. So when I saw this book on the shelf at my local bookstore, I had to buy it.

I wasn't disappointed.

Ever since I was a child, I've enjoyed learning about the universe. I'll never be an astrophysicist, but it always fascinates me to learn a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 14, 2010

Tim rated it:

I had the pleasure of hearing Dr Tyson speak at Playhouse Square with a group of friends recently. Due to the lecture, I decided to make my first Kindle purchase this book. I found it to be quite enjoyable. Apparently, each of the 42 chapters were actually essays written for a Natural History magazine between 1995 and 2005. He divided the topics up into - The nature of knowledge - The knowledge of nature - ways and means of nature - the meaning of life - when the universe turns bad - science More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Robin rated it:

This book has a lot of passages that make you stop reading and think..."holy shit." The author uses everyday metaphors and analogies to make very complicated things- like black holes- easily understandable. Theories about how life began on earth, the beginning and end of time, and the inevitable demise of planet earth are all covered in this book! The first few chapters are a little slow- but they are building a frame of reference to help those of us that aren't astrophysicists!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2010

Bakari rated it:

Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson‘s Death By Black Hole is definitely an engaging read, especially for these modern times. Though many pages and chapters about the particulars of matter, energy, space, and time—the physics of the universe—were very difficult for my scientifically illiterate mind to comprehend, I read nearly ever page for nuggets of understanding.

Tyson is a excellent writer because he knows his subject matter. Just think how different our Bible reading population More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 17, 2011

Dimitris rated it:

Oh, what a satisfying read this one was... It's a series of essays on many different astronomical subjects that strike the fancy and border science fiction. Astronomy borders science fiction anyway in many cases, so there's even more ground for such forays than "normal".

From what death by black hole would be like, as the title implies, to the zero-gravitational bowls of our cosmic neighbourhood, to an essay on light-pollution and another one on hollywood astonomy goofs, to th More...

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Dec 23, 2010

Bryce rated it:

Gah, I suffered from the worst malady a reader can have while making my way through the audio version of this - disenchantment. I've read too many other books on the subject, and while I praise deGrasse Tyson as both a teacher and a storyteller of the cosmos, I did not feel this collection of essays compared to the more robust information you get from the likes of Brian Greene, one of deGrasse Tyson's contemporaries. One of the author's instincts, I believe, is to over-inform on the unnecessary More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2009

Dan rated it:

I wanted to read this mainly because I wanted to do some research on black holes and how they work, but also because I don’t really know anything about the cosmos and how it all works so I thought it was high time I learned a little bit about it. As it turns out this book covered a whole range of stuff, and it was at a pretty low-level so it was easy to follow. I told everyone who asked about it that it was “astrophysics for dummies”, but everyone would still make comments like, “wow, you’re so More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Black Cynocephalus rated it:

I don't read too many nonfiction books (ones on science in particular). However, I used to watch a lot of documentaries on Discovery or the History channels on science-y type stuff. I did have a real passion for the Universe series, and I would watch that for hours on the weekend if it were on a marathon. Basically: anything about the cosmos. Stars, black holes, colliders - all that.

That was where this book fell short for me. Half the time I was bored, and the other half was merely m More...

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Jul 23, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

Blinded by science
Einstein, Io, comet tails
Information glut

I consider myself an intelligent person. I also find science fascinating. I'm just not sure what happen between me and Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries.....

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a science-y book. Maybe I over estimated my intelligence. Both are quite possible. The whole time I was listening to this, it was like listening to Charlie Browns teacher. whaa wha wha More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2009

lisa rated it:

I picked up this book because I've watched a fair few shows featuring Tyson, and am subscribed to his PBS podcast.

I did enjoy it, but I think I would probably have liked it more if I hadn't read it straight through. Since it's a collection of essays originally published in Natural Science magazine, and lightly edited for this collection, it makes sense that occasionally topics between essays overlap.

However, I often felt like Tyson was a bit repetitive. I think this has t More...

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Jan 25, 2010

David rated it:

As a scientist, at first I was rather bored by this book. I was not learning anything new, and not gaining new insights into astronomy.

But, as I read further, it just hit me--this book is tremendously entertaining! If you are a layman, and looking for a unique viewpoint, you could do a lot worse than this book. And, believe it or not, you will be entertained!

In addition, Tyson puts several aspects of astronomy and astrophysics into a unique perspective. He describes all t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 03, 2009

John rated it:

Despite the title, this is not a book of cosmic quandaries or fantastic ways to die. Dangerous cosmic things make up one slim section. The title is a trick, meant to sucker you into reading about physics, and Tyson’s book is one of the best on that subject I’ve ever read. A good friend said he was the next in the Carl Sagan line; how Sagan made physics a bit more approachable, then Hawking expanded what was known and articulated it better, and now Tyson comes even closer to explaining in plain l More...

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Jun 11, 2011

David rated it:

This is a quite basic introductory series of essays on the cosmos, some of the history of its discovery, and some of the theories explaining how it all works. I have enjoyed the author's appearances on shows like Nova Science Now and think he is a wonderful popularizer of physics and space science for the general public. I highly recommend this book for anyone newly interested in science and space in particular. If you already have some basic knowledge of these subjects, this book can be a bi More...

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May 14, 2011

Annmarie rated it:

I love the way Neil deGrasse Tyson writes! I have a fairly strong science background, but its environmental science/basic biology not physics/astronomy/chemistry. He is really good at taking topics that are interesting, but generally written in a way that is difficult to understand, in exploring them in a humorous way. I read The Pluto Files a while ago and really enjoyed it, so when the audio of Death by Black Hole was on sale from Audible I grabbed it. I still liked it, but sometimes my mi More...

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Jun 25, 2009

Tim rated it:

It's hard to be a science geek and not be fascinated by black holes, sinkholes of time and space and possibly even gateways to other worlds. I have seen Tyson interviewed on many documentaries, and was happy to see that he writes in the same engaging manner in which he speaks. This books collects a number of short essays he has written on various topics of science over the past couple of years and they make for compelling and quick reading. He sticks to space science for the most part, but cover More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Laura rated it:

This book, firstly, is HILARIOUS. Secondly, I have learned more about the history of science and how astrophysics, physics, quantam mechanics, chemistry, biology, geology work and interrelate--more in this book than I did my entire science career in high school and freshman year of college. This book is brilliant and easy to understand for everyone that has a basic knowledge of the sciences. I highly recommend it.

Also, I listened to it on audible and the narrator is BRILLIANT. If yo More...

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Jun 23, 2011

Kevin rated it:

I suspect the title is a trick to attract fans of History Channel's 'The Universe' and the likes, but really what you're getting is a book about physics. It's a collection of Neil deGrasse Tyson's essays on various areas of study from particle physics to astrophysics and sometimes they definitely feel like pieced together essays rather than a coherent whole. This is a great book though, while it's more in depth than Michio Kaku's books, which always feel dumber down beyond belief, Tyson is able More...

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Jul 06, 2009

Mrs_M rated it:

This title is a bit deceiving. This book actually talks about other characteristics of the universe, including some of what is right on our home planet, like water and its abundance throughout everywhere. He brings up the evolution and extinction of beasts on our own world and he also takes us into the energy powered black holes. This is one of the best books for laymen I have read.

There are many authors out there for people like me who don't want to wade through the proof of mathem More...

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Nov 13, 2009

Phil_truax rated it:

Neil deGrasse Tyson spins a masterful book of facts that makes you laugh and ponder through the whole book. While mostly a collection of previous writings updated for the book, they seem fresh and catch you often realizing your own preconceived facts that you haven't properly researched. I learned something new with almost every turn of the page and it was a pleasure to read throughout the whole book, feeling more like a conversation with a fantastic teacher or mentor who leads you along with an More...

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Oct 22, 2011

Marcy rated it:

Although I usually don't listen to much non-fiction, I had seen this author, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, on many shows and appreciated his ability to explain sometimes complicated astrophysics to the scientifically challenged, like me. Each of this book's chapters has appeared as an essay in Natural History magazine and this work is presented as a "best of" compilation. While some were fascinating and others not so, I enjoyed enough of the book to heartily recommend it as More...

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Dec 13, 2011

Sky rated it:

Tyson is the new Sagan.

Using the solid foundations of science history to explain our roots in understanding the amazing universe that surrounds us, Tyson builds to current knowledge, theory and hypothesis with the energy and excitement that positively takes you back to a state of childhood wonder. Never too technical, it's a science fan's recommendation to give a firm push to the limits of the layman's understanding of science's current state in astrophysics. What does a black hole do More...

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Sep 24, 2011

Mike rated it:

I really didn't like this book. I think my main problem is with the structure of the book, which just seemed to be a loose collection of loosely organized essays. The essays are not continuous and switch abruptly from one topic to another. I felt like the author just copied and pasted random past essays to create this book. As a result, I had a difficult time maintaining my interest in this book. It took me almost a month to force myself to finish, and that's only because when I got to less More...

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