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Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
by Neil Degrasse Tyson

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22543.Death_by_Black_Hole_And_Other_Cosmic_Quandaries?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1167351357m/22543.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22543.Death_by_Black_Hole_And_Other_Cosmic_Quandaries?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12855.Neil_Degrasse_Tyson">Neil Degrasse Tyson</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16981326?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars 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 component colors, we would know next to nothing about the universe. Astrophysics educators thus face a pedagogical challenge of the highest rank. We deduce nearly all our scientific information about the structure, formation, and evolution of objects in the universe by studying spectra, but the analysis of a spectrum is removed by several levels of abstraction from the thing being studied. In some cases, analogies and metaphors can help link complex, somewhat abstract ideas to simpler, more tangible ones. The biologist might describe the shape of the DNA molecule as two coils connected to each other the way rungs on a ladder connect the ladder's sides. I can picture a coil. I can picture two coils. I can picture rungs on a ladder. I can therefore picture the molecule's shape. Each part of the description sits only one level of abstraction removed from the molecule itself. And they come together nicely to make a vivid image in the mind. However easy or hard the science is, one can now at least talk about this molecule.
 
 BUT to explain to an audience how we know the speed of a receding star requires five nested levels of abstraction: 
 
 Level 0: Star
 Level 1: Picture of a star
 Level 2: Light from the picture of a star
 Level 3: Spectrum from the light from the picture of a star
 Level 4: Patterns of lines in the spectrum from the light from the picture of a star
 Level 5: Shifts in the patterns of lines in the spectrum from the light from the picture of a star.
 
 Going from Level 0 to Level 1 is a trivial step we all take every time we get pictures back from the photo processor. But by the time a scientist's explanation reaches Level 5, the audience is either befuddled or fast asleep. The public hardly ever hears about the role of spectra in cosmic discovery because the concept is just too far removed from the objects themselves to be explained efficiently." 
 
 Guess I'll just stick to sci-fi and poetry for my analysis of the stars....
 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/762989?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Pete's review
rating:

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 component colors, we would know next to nothing about the universe. Astrophysics educators thus face a pedagogical challenge of the highest rank. We deduce nearly all our scientific information about the structure, formation, and evolution of objects in the universe by studying spectra, but the analysis of a spectrum is removed by several levels of abstraction from the thing being studied. In some cases, analogies and metaphors can help link complex, somewhat abstract ideas to simpler, more tangible one...more 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 component colors, we would know next to nothing about the universe. Astrophysics educators thus face a pedagogical challenge of the highest rank. We deduce nearly all our scientific information about the structure, formation, and evolution of objects in the universe by studying spectra, but the analysis of a spectrum is removed by several levels of abstraction from the thing being studied. In some cases, analogies and metaphors can help link complex, somewhat abstract ideas to simpler, more tangible ones. The biologist might describe the shape of the DNA molecule as two coils connected to each other the way rungs on a ladder connect the ladder's sides. I can picture a coil. I can picture two coils. I can picture rungs on a ladder. I can therefore picture the molecule's shape. Each part of the description sits only one level of abstraction removed from the molecule itself. And they come together nicely to make a vivid image in the mind. However easy or hard the science is, one can now at least talk about this molecule.

BUT to explain to an audience how we know the speed of a receding star requires five nested levels of abstraction:

Level 0: Star
Level 1: Picture of a star
Level 2: Light from the picture of a star
Level 3: Spectrum from the light from the picture of a star
Level 4: Patterns of lines in the spectrum from the light from the picture of a star
Level 5: Shifts in the patterns of lines in the spectrum from the light from the picture of a star.

Going from Level 0 to Level 1 is a trivial step we all take every time we get pictures back from the photo processor. But by the time a scientist's explanation reaches Level 5, the audience is either befuddled or fast asleep. The public hardly ever hears about the role of spectra in cosmic discovery because the concept is just too far removed from the objects themselves to be explained efficiently."

Guess I'll just stick to sci-fi and poetry for my analysis of the stars....

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message 1: by Tim

03/10/2008 05:32PM

Sounds like it's time for Green Eggs and Ham, Sam-I-Am.