Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

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Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 5,893 ratings · 471 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 almost 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...more

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published January 17th 2007 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published November 1st 2006)

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Dec 23, 2009 Logan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, science

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 away...more 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 away with my prerequisite requirement by taking an “Arts of Science” course tailor-made for those more interested in empathy than entropy and, while I did manage to get a crocodile on my report card, all I took away from that class was an abiding hatred for hippies. The long and the short of all this is that I didn’t know a quasar from a neutron or a brown dwarf from a red giant (though Red Dwarf was a magnificent television series).

As a devout lover of science fiction and hi-tech gadgetry of all sorts, this was a matter of not a little shame for me. To resolve this I decided that it was time for me to fill in some of the (immense) gaps in my education the best way I know how- via book. Yet how to avoid having my eyes glaze over the moment someone started explaining cell structures or complex wave fields? Fortunately, as it often does, my television provided a solution when Stephen Colbert took a visit to the American Museum of Natural Historys Hayden Planetarium and spoke with its Director, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson, while just as geeky as you would expect from an astrophysicist, is phenomenally skilled at taking incredibly complex scientific theories and translating them into a Common English that even Stephen Colbert is able to understand. My fate was sealed. This man was the ideal author to ease myself into the brave new world of stellar science.

Death by Black Hole is a collection of essays the Tyson penned for Natural History magazine over the course of several years. Each essay addresses a different topic, running the gamut from the birth of the universe, the history of astronomical discoveries, humankind’s fixation on the red hills of Mars and the life-bringing water that may lay frozen away, all the way to the Pluto Wars (it’s amazing just how contentious Pluto’s status as planet is). Of course there’s some overlap between the chapters and some facts get repeated but, rather than bugging me, I found it to be a good refresher of what had come before that helped solidify my basic understanding of the concepts at hand. Most interesting to me, policy junkie that I am, is the closing essay in which Tyson writes about the plague of scientific ignorance sweeping the country. After almost brutally doing away with that Bible-in-textbook-clothing anachronism that is “intelligent design,” he makes great points about America’s waning prestige in scientific research and the future costs, both economic and academic, that we will have to pay due to ceding our intellectual priority to advance knowledge. I’m not much interested in sustaining American supremacy in any field, but I can always get behind an argument for strengthening education.

What I most enjoyed was the excitement that Tyson has for his field. He doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae of atomic weights and the like, but thrills at the possibilities of quantum mechanics and takes an almost excessive amount of joy in ruminating over the possible ways that people can be killed in space from the atom-splitting nullification of crossing a black hole’s event horizon to the persistent fear of a species-leveling asteroid striking Earth. Tyson is a man possessed of a childlike sense of wonder at the mysteries of the universe that sees the current limits of our scientific understanding not as having reached the final frontiers of science but as hurdles to be vaulted over in our quest to know. His enthusiasm is quite contagious and I challenge any reader to emerge from this book without being excited about science.
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Feb 13, 2013 Jocelyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, essays, favourites, five-out-of-five, natural-sciences

I don't think I can properly explain how much I love this book, but I'll try.

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is a collection of essays Tyson wrote for Natural History, a magazine dedicated to -- you guessed it -- natural history (basically, science) between 1995-2005.

What I like about it:
- Tyson writes in a way that's easily accessible for anyone even without a science background. His analogies are easy to understand and they're fun. Like, "Oh, Neil deGrasse Tyson, you." Also, h...more

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Apr 22, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, society

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 me to dea...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-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 univer...more 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 universe in a simple and clearly defined way so that even if they know next to nothing about science and it’s jargon, Tyson makes it easily understandable.

While I was hoping for something a little more in depth in the style of Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos or Lee Smolin’s The Trouble With Physics, Death by Black Hole nevertheless provides quick and simple answers to many questions everyday readers without a science background have about physics, the universe, space, and most matters dealing with the cosmos. The book is a selection of his columns in Natural History that are organized in a somewhat textbook fashion. Tyson starts with the idea of science and nature in its basic form, how humanity views Earth, the solar system, the universe. Along with this discussion, Tyson also gives minor history lessons on the development of different ideas in physics and astronomy, what people came up with what big ideas and how the progression led to the development of the big theories of our current time with string theory and relativity. Going on from here, Death by Black Hole address the crucial steps that led to the formation of the universe and its development over the many billions and billions of years, again explaining how it is that scientists know what they do and what instruments were used, as well as the history of who invented and used said instruments.

It is then that Tyson finally turns to the subject matter of the title of the book in the section “When the Universe Turns Bad: All the Ways the Cosmos Wants to Kill Us.” Here he addresses the complex and still relatively unknown subjects of chaos theory, dark matter (which constitutes over 90% of all matter in the universe, while we still know next to nothing about it), and finally black holes. Tyson takes the reader on a hypothetical journey with what would happen if one were to be sucked into a black hole and how as they approached the event horizon, they would become stretched until the elasticity point of their skin was surpassed and the body would be torn into thousands then millions of little pieces.

With many questions now answered, in the next section Tyson discusses how science is viewed by the media, Hollywood, and people around the world in general. The final section addresses the concept of science and religion, again taking the reader on a historic journey through the development of first religion, then science, and the struggle that has ensued for centuries. It is the perfect end to a book on science, as Tyson lectures the importance of supporting fact and reality in a time when there are many who believe more in faith, even when all the evidence is to the contrary.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Oct 15, 2007 Maria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

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 actually...more

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Jan 30, 2008 Cheri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science

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 lot of...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 entertaining...more 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 entertaining. A lot has changed in the 17 years since I took my particle physics class at BYU, so I am always interested to learn more. Not only does he describe what is happening in science, he describes the edges very well. By edges I mean the places where scientists are not sure what is happening and are actively searching for answers. That is always the most interesting part of any science. The problem today is that to get to that edge, you have to take years of schooling to understand what they are looking for. Once the edge could be explored in your home lab or a field (if you were Benjamin Franklin) now you need millions of dollars and a space telescope.
The book is a bit repetitive, though that often happens with collections of essays because each one had to be self contained and couldn't refer to last month's issue. There has been a bit of editing to smooth out the sequencing and to make it an easier read.
While I enjoyed all the essays, I took exception to the last one, entitled, The Perimeter of Ignorance. Here is the author's basic premise,

Writing in centuries past, many scientists felt compelled to wax poetic about cosmic mysteries and God's handiwork. Perhaps one should not be surprised at this: most scientists back then, as well as many scientists today, identify themselves as spiritually devout.
But a careful reading of older texts, particularly those concerned with the universe itself, shows that the authors invoke divinity only when they reach the boundaries of their understanding. They appeal to a higher power only when staring at the ocean of their own ignorance. They call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. Where they feel certain about their explanations, however, God hardly gets a mention.

He goes on from this hypothesis to give some quotes from Newton and other scientists, who do indeed see an explanation for the unexplainable in the presence of God. He then links this tendency to the current vogue for intelligent design. That also follows, more or less. I have my own issues with intelligent design, at least how it is being explained and used in the public sphere, but I won't go into all that here. The problem I have is that the author considers an appeal to deity as an admission of failure and the mental equivalent of throwing up your hands and saying, "Heck if I know, only God could figure that out, I will just go find something easier to study, like Paris Hilton." He says, in talking about intelligent design and the dangers of it,

I don't want students who could make the next major breakthrough in renewable energy sources or space travel to have been taught that anything they don't understand, and that nobody yet understands, is divinely constructed and therefore beyond their intellectual capacity.

Since when is saying something is divinely designed the same as saying we are not capable of understanding it? As a devout person, but one who would have been a scientist, if not for a few chance decisions and a problem with basic arithmetic, I find everything divinely inspired, even those things we do understand. Too many people equate religion with ignorance, without considering the fact that the intelligent people who believe, must have a valid reason for doing so. And similarly, there are many ignorant people who have no religion. I cringe whenever a particularly proud, ignorant and Christian person is on the news saying something stupid because that just reinforces this ignorance=religion stereotype. I'm here to say intelligence=true religion. Believing in ignorance is just superstition whatever belief it may be. The more you understand your own beliefs, the more you want to learn. Our brains are designed to increase in knowledge, anything that does that helps all of us, no matter what the information may be.(less)

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May 11, 2013 Jesus C. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Scientists have noticed a trend occurring roughly every 25 million years. That trend is that an extinction occurs. By studying what could have possibly brought down dinosaurs and noticing trends, we can develop and find ways of preventing these things such as meteors striking Earth. In fact, during the Cold War they got a head start on that. Since U.S and Russian tensions were high, the U.S developed the “Star Wars” program. Basically what this is is that if a missile is sent out, the U.S would...more

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Jan 16, 2013 A rated it 4 of 5 stars

A general and very interesting look at how our fascinating universe works. My only frame of reference for this type of work is Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" and "The Grand Design", which attempt to delve fairly deeply into the subject it discusses while still staying outside of the mathematics behind it all. Neil deGrasse Tyson may seem less substantial, but it is largely because he prefers to stick to what has been and what is with regard to the universe. With regard to black hole...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Colleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

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.

It...more

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Jan 05, 2010 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 formalism.

Neil...more

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Aug 08, 2009 asteroidbuckle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science

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 about all that's out there (a...more 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 about all that's out there (and all that may be out there that we have yet to discover). Of course, the language of the cosmos is complicated: nebulae, pulsars, quasars, supernovas, black holes, event horizons, dark matter, antimatter, etc., etc.

That's where Dr. Tyson comes in. He has an uncanny ability to take something that is unfailingly complex to the 'average' person such as myself and explain it in a way that I can understand. And he does so with unsurpassed humor, wit, and even the slightest bit of self-deprecation.

In the end, he says, the universe is out to kill us. In many, many ways. And even though there is a lot we still don't understand about the universe and how it began and where it's going, that doesn't mean we stop looking. There is always more to learn, there is always more to discover, and if the essays in his book are any indication, it is all utterly fascinating.

The last part of the book deals with science and religion. Dr. Tyson claims that being a scientist doesn't necessarily preclude belief in God. However, he staunchly claims that God has no business in scientific discovery, that simply crediting God with creating all the things that science can't currently explain opens the door to the cessation of scientific discovery. He quotes Galileo, who said, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

If the science vs. God debate makes you uncomfortable, have no fear--it's a very small part of the book, tucked in at the very end after all the terrific science essays.

I highly recommend this book, even if you're only slightly interested in the universe. (less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Paul Pickell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a great down-to-Earth book for the lay astrophysicist. Personally, I felt that Tyson accomplished exactly what he set out to do in this prose: provide an accessible understanding of the cosmos at large. In general, the book is a very easy read. Some parts required a deeper understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum or black hole physics, but Tyson is a very accomplished explainer-of-things otherwise, particularly for his field of expertise: star creation and galaxy evolution. Many top...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Tim Gannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

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 and...more

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Jun 06, 2007 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

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!

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Apr 20, 2013 Stefanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh man, Neil deGrasse Tyson, hero of the modern science era. Thou art holy and hailed amongst the interwebs as one of the foremost minds on rational, scientific thinking. And I, being the spawn of the internet that I am, love you as well.

NdGT has an ability to communicate about astrophysical phenomenon in a way that is incredibly rare in science- with humour and panache. His analogies are clear and thought-provoking in their simplicity, his explanation of the mysteries of science captivating, an...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Bakari rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-books-read, science

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 would be if T...more 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 would be if Tyson had wrote the Book of Genesis. His “in the beginning“ would have probably talked about the discoveries and meaning of supernovas, as the “primary source for the origin and relative mix of heavy elements in the universe.” He would have verses about Newton’s laws of motion and early twentieth century theories about quantum mechanics. His creation story would not be described in a mere seven days; his story would talk about billions of years—more time than most of us can imagine. But of course, the Bible was written in an era which lacked the scientific discoveries that Tyson writes about.

But, but...this is what makes Death By Black Hole, and other books similar to it, so important. Reading a book like this provides us more knowledge about the universe and who we are as homo sapiens than Biblical writers could ever imagine. We simply need the education, patience, and study to learn what has been discovered. Though we are not, as Tyson writes in his essay, “Fear of Numbers,” “wired for logical thinking,” the brain, as he goes on to say, is “a marvelously flexible organ.” And in my view it’s time that more and more of us start using our brain to its greatest potential. Believing and praying to gods and reading horoscopes are no longer sufficient for our survival as a species. We can do much, much better than that.
Perhaps a few months from now, I’ll read another of Tyson‘s books, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, and view the PBS companion special as I do. It will be much like viewing the Carl Sagan’s Cosmos back in my college days. (less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: auckland-library, non-fiction, astrophysics

My main dissatisfaction with this book is that it's a series of collected magazine columns. This does seem a bit like criticising an apple because it's not a banana, however I think Tyson would have be been better advised to hire an editor to whip this into an actual book, rather than just reprint the original short essays. For example, in chapter 25 Tyson critiques the concept of the "Goldilocks Zone", discussing the myriad ways life could flourish in environments entirely dissimilar to our own...more My main dissatisfaction with this book is that it's a series of collected magazine columns. This does seem a bit like criticising an apple because it's not a banana, however I think Tyson would have be been better advised to hire an editor to whip this into an actual book, rather than just reprint the original short essays. For example, in chapter 25 Tyson critiques the concept of the "Goldilocks Zone", discussing the myriad ways life could flourish in environments entirely dissimilar to our own e.g. in seas of liquid ammonia or methane. But then in the following chapter Tyson contends that life will only originate on a planet with a temperature that allows liquid water i.e. in the Goldilocks Zone. Originally these essays would have been published months or years apart, but juxtaposed like this it is a frustrating read, to say the least.

The other problem with short essays is that things just start to get interesting and it's over. In chapter 21 Tyson briefly mentions technetium; an element with a half-life of only 2 million years, but which is nevertheless found in red giant stars.

"In other words, the star cannot have been born with the stuff, for if it were there would be none left by now. There is also no known mechanism to create technetium in a star's core and have it dredge itself up to the surface where it is observed, which has led to exotic theories that have yet to achieve consensus in the astrophysics community"

But you know, those diverse and exotic theories are exactly what I'd like to hear about! That was the most interesting part of the book for me, and it just gets left lying gasping on the floor.

Also, sadly, the book is aimed at someone who has done little or no prior science reading; a far broader generalist audience that I hoped for. I 100% agree with Maria's review, when she says this would be a good high-school-level book. If you don't generally read pop-science, but would like to learn more about how our universe works, I definitely recommend this book. Tyson is a great writer: engaging and able to explain complex ideas simply, with a dash of humour.

For me it's a 2.5, rounded up.(less)

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Sep 08, 2012 Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science

Don't be fooled by the title! If your'e really interested in cosmic catastrophes I'd highly recommend Phil Plait's Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End.... If you've never watched PBS's Nova or had the chance to hear Tyson speak, you don't know what you're missing. Tyson is easily this generation's Carl Sagan and is far and away the best science enthusiast and communicator out there. His interviews exude a childlike wonder and excitement with basic physical principles tha...more Don't be fooled by the title! If your'e really interested in cosmic catastrophes I'd highly recommend Phil Plait's Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End.... If you've never watched PBS's Nova or had the chance to hear Tyson speak, you don't know what you're missing. Tyson is easily this generation's Carl Sagan and is far and away the best science enthusiast and communicator out there. His interviews exude a childlike wonder and excitement with basic physical principles that can make even the most burnt-out science major rediscover why they chose to become a scientist.

Evidence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...

Quirky, straightforward and witty, Death by Black Hole is probably the book I'd most recommend to any one of my friends who needed a basic introduction to the world of science. The book is a collection of essays written for the monthly magazine Natural History, collected and organized into several broader thematic sections and edited for continuity. Everything from the philosophy of science to the relationship between science and culture and religion is covered. If that doesn't sound appetizing or particularly fun reading, be heartened! There's plenty of science and the book is filled with essays on cosmic expansion, dark matter, the color and sound of the universe, the way it will all end, and yes, black holes too. Each chapter felt like a mini-lesson on important physical principles cast in an interesting narrative that requires no more investment of time than a few minutes here and there. You can also float around without any ill effects whatsoever. I think reading cover to cover made me realize the episodic and essay-like structure of the original pieces though, as there tends to be a lot of overlap. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though. I know my own memory is inherently faulty and rather than have to hunt backwards for a page number for some previously referenced principle or constant, Tyson neatly and quickly reminds you before moving on.

Far and away the best chapters are in the first section which has a thorough discussion of what we know, how do we know it, how we perceive the universe, and the possible limits of what we can know. Philosophical topics to be sure, but presented in Tyson's witty, down-to-earth style, they're eminently accessible and entertaining as well as seriously thought-provoking. He has a great beginning discussion on how contemporary society has lost its ability to grasp (and thus interest in) current scientific findings due to the highly technical nature and specialization required to run the experiments. To restore the wonder of experimentation and discovery he then proceeds to brilliantly catalogue the various ways one could use a stick to discover amazing facts about our planet and solar system.

If you've never given a popsci book a chance because they all looked either too technical or too dull, this is the place to start. You couldn't ask for a better guide to the universe than Tyson.(less)

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Aug 08, 2012 Matt Niehoff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, science, space

Having made several appearances on the Daily Show and being featured in almost every documentary on space I have ever seen, Neil deGrasse Tyson may be the only currently living astrophysicist you will ever recognize. Unlike Troy McClure's repeated appearance in almost every documentary to come from Springfield, this exposure is a good thing. Tyson tackles the subject matter with the glee of a five year old who just got his first telescope, and backs it up with the brain of an astrophysicist who...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Dimitris Hall rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of astronomy and/or pop science and non-fiction

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 the foundations of sci...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Bryce Holt rated it 3 of 5 stars

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

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Jan 20, 2013 Earl Carlson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of those gifted few scientists (Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, etc) that is able to communicate high level theories and ideas with those of us that are not familiar. Many times while listening to this book, I was left speechless with thoughts of not only how big, old and amazing this universe is, but also how much we take it for granted. The chapters are each short enough to get through the key ideas and rehash the concepts you don't understand in a short amount of time.

The mai...more

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Oct 29, 2012 William rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps best known as one of the hosts of PBS’s NOVA Science Now and for his lively, humorous and insightful interviews on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, Neil deGrasse Tyson has been with the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium since 1994, after completing his post-doctoral research at Princeton University, and the Hayden Planetarium’s Director and founder of its Department of Astrophysics since 1996. Ever sharp, humorous, but always...more Perhaps best known as one of the hosts of PBS’s NOVA Science Now and for his lively, humorous and insightful interviews on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, Neil deGrasse Tyson has been with the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium since 1994, after completing his post-doctoral research at Princeton University, and the Hayden Planetarium’s Director and founder of its Department of Astrophysics since 1996. Ever sharp, humorous, but always at the leading edge and quick to assess, apply, and expound on the latest scientific theory, deGrasse Tyson caused a bit of a firestorm back in 2006 when he had Pluto reclassified in the Hayden Planetarium’s planetary walkway and maps as a “dwarf planet”; a decision that was later backed by the members of the International Astronomical Union in light of findings and discoveries made of objects orbiting the Sun far beyond Pluto’s range and within the beginnings of the Oort Cloud.

Death By Black Hole is a lively and wonderfully blended tapestry of a number of columns written by deGrasse Tyson for the Museum’s Natural History magazine that have been slightly updated and with minor revisions woven together to present a highly readable, insightful and enjoyable book. Not only does the author manage to clearly and concisely explain many of the phenomena in the universe, he also manages to draw in the history of how these phenomena were discovered over the years. Perhaps more than any other writings in popular science I’ve come across, de Grasse Tyson manages to really illustrate and explain what it would truly be like to be completely consumed, even down to the atomic level, by a black hole.

Never one to shy away from standing soundly on the ground of verified and observable scientific fact and reasoning, deGrasse Tyson does not mince words when it comes to stating on where, rather why public schools in the United States should not discuss or teach “Intelligent Design”, and where scientists, even himself, have been incorrect fall short in fully understanding and applying scientific theory. One of my favorite sections of this book deals with deGrasse Tyson’s own catalog of egregious astronomical and scientific errors in major Hollywood pictures, ranging from the obvious, Walt Disney’s 1979 release “The Black Hole”, to the more popular and iconic; James Cameron’s Academy Award winning drama “Titanic”. For those curious on the nature and current scientific thinking on the make-up of our universe, any reader would be hard pressed to find a more accessible and entertaining book on the subject.
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May 08, 2012 Nicky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is a book about the universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and intellectual badass. In this series of essays, Tyson combines his passion for astrophysics with an easy-to-read style that enables virtually anyone reading to understand the key concepts presented without burdening the non-astrophysics major with too much technical information. THIS book was what I was looking for one dark night when I took a wrong turn and...more Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is a book about the universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and intellectual badass. In this series of essays, Tyson combines his passion for astrophysics with an easy-to-read style that enables virtually anyone reading to understand the key concepts presented without burdening the non-astrophysics major with too much technical information. THIS book was what I was looking for one dark night when I took a wrong turn and ended up with particle physics in Greene’s The Elegant Universe. Death by Black Hole is about the MACRO universe: planets and dying stars and radiation and well… scary but mindblowing space stuff.

The great thing about this book is it combines everything you’ve ever wanted to know about SPACE with answers. It’s organized mostly on topic, and each topic typically covers a brief history of knowledge in the field, HOW scientists have come to know this knowledge and the tools they used, and what it tells us about the universe as a whole. Topics range from how scientists calculate the size of bodies in space, how we know when planets are orbiting a star by its “wobble,” black holes, radiation, elements found on earth and elsewhere, the possibility of life elsewhere, what asteroids and comets are made of, dark matter, star fusion…. the list goes on and on. Not once did the material extend beyond the layman’s readability and thus provides a great starting point for anyone interested in the cosmos to pinpoint topics they are most interested in for further reading.

I loved this book because I finished it smarter than when I started. I love how the information is presented so eloquently and accessibly that I will remember enough of what I read to relay to someone else. And I loved this book for the journey I got to go on, into space, into that void of ignorance I had on many of the topics covered, and I got to experience a small but satisfying portion of the sheer wonder that comes when you consider just how small we are in comparison to everything else. I’d recommend this title to anyone, and I know I will be picking up more of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s books in the near future.(less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Harold rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not quite as far-reaching or entertaining as Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" (which I read earlier this year and loved), but I suppose that's not really a fair comparison. "Death by Black Hole" focuses almost exclusively on the field of astrophysics and offers an engaging, accessible, and informative introduction to the subject. I've seen Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewed on TV a number of times and he always seems like the greatest science teacher I never had; intelligent, pa...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

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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Jul 11, 2012 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is not, unfortunately, as interesting as the title makes it sound. I was expecting a more quirky, off-the beaten path examination of the realm of astrophysics. However, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is more of an introduction to the universe and the forces that shape it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most engaging, common-man-friendly scientists around. He does a good job presenting the material, which ranges from elementa...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Josh rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: educational, non-fiction

For me this book was merely okay. I've read quite a bit of these types of books, physics for the layperson, and this book was probably my least favorite.

I don't like the overall tone of the book. Tyson makes a point to belittle the human race as much as possible and he comes across as pessimistic. By no means do I think humans are the pinnacle of perfection, but I think we're doing pretty well.

The content of the book was all over the place and only briefly touched on black holes and other cosmic...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science

I think this book is a solid 3 star. The writing made it very approachable and at times humorous. There were basic physics principles that he managed to explain in a way that made them make sense for the first time for me. But...

Almost everything he talked about was stuff that I learned in elementary school. And his self-righteous "my profession is the noblest is the world" attitude got to be too much to handle by the middle of the book. And other reviewers have made the very good point that the...more

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About Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.

Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our...more Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.

Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile.

In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.

In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the Moon, Mars, and Beyond commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget.

In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. He is a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson's eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA 4-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson serves as on-camera host. The program premiered on September 28 and 29, 2004. And beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appears as the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA's spinoff program NOVA ScienceNow, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.

Tyson's latest two books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto's planetary status.

Tyson is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid 13123 Tyson. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive by People Magazine in 2000.

Tyson is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium. Tyson lives in New York City with his wife and two children.(less)

More about Neil deGrasse Tyson...

Books by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist

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“Not only do we live among the stars, the stars live within us.” — 48 people liked it

“So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?” — 46 people liked it

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